I'm the PP looking for a Latin American candidate. We are with APIA.

Which agency are you with? Was thinking of looking at CC too.

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I'm looking for a late December start (after Christmas) and having a hard time finding Latin American candidates. Maybe I'm too early?

I'm the OP and was observing the same thing! I put for a January start and was like "is this really all there is?" there were very very few from Europe, though to be expected given the academic year for Europeans/northern hemisphere.

I was thinking December might be ideal, however I don't really want to lug a new AP with us along on a winter vacay (and we usually stay with family, tight quarters) when we've just met her...

NP here. I'm looking for a late December start (after Christmas) and having a hard time finding Latin American candidates. Maybe I'm too early?

OP here - thanks so much everyone for your responses!

Indeed, we live right near the metro, we only have one car - my spouse metros to work and we Uber whenever we need more than one car. Everything is so much easier with ride sharing...

Anonymous wrote:I moved from Jan to October start. Love October. School routine down. Jan was horrible with the snow cold and snow days esp for South American APs. Just dreary.

PP whose AP doesn’t drive, what does she do at night? A car is essential for my APs social life. I don’t want her hanging around us all night and weekend!

AP usually retreats to her room after dinner and mostly goes out on weekend and uses the bus or Uber or other AP friends pick her up. She gets free metro/bus card from us for her use. We are walking distance from stuffs. But the non driving issue is on her as she stipulated she has been driving for 4 years and owned a car, the way she drove during the two test drives we think she will need a lot of driving for us to be conformtable with her driving our car/kids. But she is good with the kids so we wont rematch because of that although we wanted a driver.

I moved from Jan to October start. Love October. School routine down. Jan was horrible with the snow cold and snow days esp for South American APs. Just dreary.

PP whose AP doesn’t drive, what does she do at night? A car is essential for my APs social life. I don’t want her hanging around us all night and weekend!

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure the non driving thing is realistic unless you live in manhattan or a real part of nyc or major city.
Dc maybe you could pull it off; but other than that 99% of areas in dc area require a car to have a normal life. At least access to one now and again.

I am 08:22, you will be surprised by how many APs in DC don't drive. After the fiasco test drive with my AP I started asking her which one of her APs friends don't drive and I was surprised by how many they were. It is almost 50/50 and we live 15 minute walk to metro. So it is totally doable. My AP will not drive (and she seems ok with it) but that is not what I wanted, it is a bit of an hassle but she is good with kids and driving will just give her more play options with the kids. My kids are younger.

I am not sure the non driving thing is realistic unless you live in manhattan or a real part of nyc or major city.
Dc maybe you could pull it off; but other than that 99% of areas in dc area require a car to have a normal life. At least access to one now and again.

We have always had our au pairs start in September and I hate it. It’s the most hectic time of the year, with everyone getting new routines, and I hate onboarding a new au pair at the same time, but we got stuck with it. I have tried to find someone to stay 18 months so we can switch around March but our lcc warns that we will have a much harder time finding a match for “mid year “

It's not too late for a September arrival.
Back to when I was an Au Pair I contacted the agency in Paris early August and had a match and everything sorted out in about 3 weeks (APIA).
I left for America 5 weeks after starting the process.
And I was a good candidate (good English, liked sports, driver's license etc).
I would give it a try, OP. Or like someone suggested to get a second year AP
But September will always be your biggest pool anyway. I'd give it a shot Good luck !

OP - it helps that you dont need a driver, but agree its too late for a good selection for September arrivals. If you are in a desireable location or otherwise have a good profile, you might want to try to snag a second year au pair on the shorter time line. Otherwise, January is a good bet for Latin au pairs.

Anonymous wrote:September will be tight to make; and probably you will be seeing a pool of candidates not chosen by other families.
You still can find a great ap; but we matched In April for mid August arrival.
If you need a driver screen hard from SA; at least 4 years of driving for you to have hope of them driving here. Still will need lessons.
Good luck

+1 on the driving. I thought I screened hard for driving with my Brazilian AP who had 3+ of driving and supposedly had her own car. The test drive was so awful that we tabled driving for now. We don't need her to drive but it would have been nice!

September will be tight to make; and probably you will be seeing a pool of candidates not chosen by other families.
You still can find a great ap; but we matched In April for mid August arrival.
If you need a driver screen hard from SA; at least 4 years of driving for you to have hope of them driving here. Still will need lessons.
Good luck

Totally new to the AP game, haven't finished my family profile, but seeing a great benefit possibly.

When's a good time to start? When is there the most availability for APs to start? We are looking for mainly Spanish speaking. Have a nanny now. Concerned I'm too late to start Sept, which is possibly when many are free? Or is it rolling through the year? Is January a better time, given South American academic schedules? NB AP will not have to drive. I'm worried if we start on a weird month, then that may becoming our annual turnover month, therefore hard to fill? Or am I overthinking this....