What to do if au pair can’t go home?

[Anonymous]

Our au pair is a from a country that has very limited flights back (delays of weeks to months, currently) and might not be allowing people from the US in at all. Assuming this is still the case once her time here is over in November, what can we legally do? Can she still stay with us, with or without watching the children? Do we push her off to the agency? Extending is not an option for us but we also don’t want to kick her out of the house with nowhere to go.

[Anonymous]

Do the extension until December

[Anonymous]

OP here, I said in my original post that extending is not an option for us.

[Anonymous]

Reach out to the embassy from her home country and ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I said in my original post that extending is not an option for us.

Why not?

[Anonymous]

What country?

There are generally repatriation flights available through the embassy. Generally the agency makes you pay up front and reimburses you. I would talk to the agency now. These flights are generally have a wait list. If the agency is unhelpful then contact the embassy.

[Anonymous]

Countries will always let their citizens come home. If she has to stay another month then let her. This is a pandemic. It's an emergency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I said in my original post that extending is not an option for us.

Why not?

Not that this is at all relevant to my question -- but because it costs money and we can't afford to pay more agency fees right now because our work hours have been cut back.

[Anonymous]

What does the agency say? They might be able to extend her with another family. They also should allow her to stay with you without paying agency fee.

If you tell us what country she is from people might help you here with options. There are third countries now that she might be able to fly through.

[Anonymous]

PP, also how long has she been here? If she still has a year or a “six month extension for year two” left, there are tons of families that would love to have her! Let her extend with another family if she wants to.

[Anonymous]

Do a google flight search for flights and then call the company/your rep and keep hasselling them. There are limited flights back to Colombia/China/Argentina even though some of the companies don't want to pay the fee. They are actually trying to charge the difference about the normal flight costs to the aupairs themselves. If you can't house her/extend with her for longer, she needs to head to her LCC's house and the company needs to figure out how to help her extend or return home.
The pandemic has impacted the aupair agencies financially and unless you force it to be their problem to get her home or help you out, they will assume you are fine with figuring it out and funding it yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, also how long has she been here? If she still has a year or a “six month extension for year two” left, there are tons of families that would love to have her! Let her extend with another family if she wants to.

She's finishing her second full year in November. She says she doesn't want to move to another family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, also how long has she been here? If she still has a year or a “six month extension for year two” left, there are tons of families that would love to have her! Let her extend with another family if she wants to.

She's finishing her second full year in November. She says she doesn't want to move to another family.

Which is reasonable. The agency may ask you to host her, no work, no pay, and no agency fee, if the LCC can’t put her up and she can’t fly back home.

[Anonymous]

We have a 2nd year AP from South Africa. She's on a 6 month extension now, due to go back in January. The only flights are the repatriation flights which are very expensive. She can't pay for it, and I certainly don't want her to have to stay any longer as she really wants to go home after 2.5 years. I guess this means we will just have to fork over the $$. Right? What can we expect the agency to do, if anything, to help?

To be clear, we'd love for her to stay. Just not sure it's what she would want at this point, and we want to support her decision. She is also super bummed she can't do her travel month. I feel horribly that her AP experience has ended in this way, as she's been a real gift to our family.

[Anonymous]

The agency is responsible for her flight home. Most likely her country will allow citizens to return home (I haven't heard of one that wouldn't). They just won't let US citizens in. She will just have to quarantine when she gets home according to their rules.

Her flight may get moved a time or two, but I'd bet that she'd be able to get home within a week of her end date.

I really don't think you need to worry too much about this.