Just announced that travel restrictions being lifted for vaccinated citizens of EU and UK.
Hopefully good news for au pair program.

Anonymous wrote:Anybody here know if an au pair could come via a non-Schengen area country? If yes, which one(s)?

I have seen rumors that going through Curacao from the Netherlands might be an option. If that's true there might also be options for French aps going through French territorries in the Caribbean. But again, only from what I have read. No personal experience.

Anybody here know if an au pair could come via a non-Schengen area country? If yes, which one(s)?

I saw earlier discussions on this forum about Brazilian au pairs figuring out a route via Chile. There were valid concerns on that thread about the au pairs bringing in Covid into US (since Brazil was high infection rate at the time), but the situation with Europe is quite different. EU recently surpassed US in vaccination rates and continued restrictions seem ridiculous/not based on science anymore...

Columbia and Mexico are not subject to the travel ban and still giving out J-1 visas (according to our CC contact), both of which have higher covid case rates and waaaay lower vaccination rates than most of the EU. Patently absurd that unvaccinated travelers from Columbia can come, yet vaccinated Europeans cannot.

Anybody here know if an au pair could come via a non-Schengen area country? If yes, which one(s)?

I saw earlier discussions on this forum about Brazilian au pairs figuring out a route via Chile. There were valid concerns on that thread about the au pairs bringing in Covid into US (since Brazil was high infection rate at the time), but the situation with Europe is quite different. EU recently surpassed US in vaccination rates and continued restrictions seem ridiculous/not based on science anymore...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The government just formed working groups with the EU and others to come up with a plan to ease travel restrictions. They note they "will not move quickly to lift orders" though there is increasing international pressure to open borders for those who are vaccinated, so my guess is there is a fair chance au pairs can come late summer (if they are vaccinated).

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-forming-working-groups-how-lift-key-travel-restrictions-2021-06-08/

That helps with travel but not with getting a visa. Our swedish au pair hasn’t been able to get one yet and the embassy canceled everything through august with no return date. I am considering unmatching to look for an in country au pair but really like her… would you take the risk and just unmatch? I suppose we could rematch later if things opened up…

Yeah, we're matched with an au pair from Austria in a similar situation - she had a visa appt, though our admittedly marginal NIE application was denied. We are going to wait until she can come, though in our situation we don't critically need childcare as both our kids are in elementary school, but we enjoy hosting. The in country pool has looked like a giant minefield to me, and imho a bad match is worse than not having an au pair at all.

Agree with your assessment of in country - I think most are host family shopping but a few are wrapping year 1 and looking for something new. Our current AP was in that boat and we loved having a second year au pair. I think the travel restrictions will likely lift this summer but I’m worried about the visa backlog. Have any of you found embassies that are offering appointments for out of district applicants? The swedish embassy suggests looking at other embassies but I can’t find any in Europe that say they will support it. (We do need childcare and also like hosting… want this to work!)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The government just formed working groups with the EU and others to come up with a plan to ease travel restrictions. They note they "will not move quickly to lift orders" though there is increasing international pressure to open borders for those who are vaccinated, so my guess is there is a fair chance au pairs can come late summer (if they are vaccinated).

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-forming-working-groups-how-lift-key-travel-restrictions-2021-06-08/

That helps with travel but not with getting a visa. Our swedish au pair hasn’t been able to get one yet and the embassy canceled everything through august with no return date. I am considering unmatching to look for an in country au pair but really like her… would you take the risk and just unmatch? I suppose we could rematch later if things opened up…

Yeah, we're matched with an au pair from Austria in a similar situation - she had a visa appt, though our admittedly marginal NIE application was denied. We are going to wait until she can come, though in our situation we don't critically need childcare as both our kids are in elementary school, but we enjoy hosting. The in country pool has looked like a giant minefield to me, and imho a bad match is worse than not having an au pair at all.

Anonymous wrote:The government just formed working groups with the EU and others to come up with a plan to ease travel restrictions. They note they "will not move quickly to lift orders" though there is increasing international pressure to open borders for those who are vaccinated, so my guess is there is a fair chance au pairs can come late summer (if they are vaccinated).

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-forming-working-groups-how-lift-key-travel-restrictions-2021-06-08/

That helps with travel but not with getting a visa. Our swedish au pair hasn’t been able to get one yet and the embassy canceled everything through august with no return date. I am considering unmatching to look for an in country au pair but really like her… would you take the risk and just unmatch? I suppose we could rematch later if things opened up…

The government just formed working groups with the EU and others to come up with a plan to ease travel restrictions. They note they "will not move quickly to lift orders" though there is increasing international pressure to open borders for those who are vaccinated, so my guess is there is a fair chance au pairs can come late summer (if they are vaccinated).

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-forming-working-groups-how-lift-key-travel-restrictions-2021-06-08/

Anyone hear any updates on this? I saw Europe is relaxing travel for vaccinated Americans— any chance the US will reciprocate?

I heard that something might be announced May 21?

Bumping this thread. What do we think? Also, do you think au pairs that have been on hold longer (our au pair was supposed to come from Austria in September) will get here faster?

Low. go to plan b

Thoughts on this? Any chance it will help in reverse (getting Europeans in to the US)?

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/europe-may-open-soon-to-vaccinated-travelers-what-does-that-mean-for-americans

We were matched with a girl from Sweden since September, planned to get her in February. The embassy rescheduled her appointment every month since November. Even applying for NIE, her agency there told her the likelihood of her getting her appointment was slim. Sure enough, cancelled for 7th time. She finally decided to withdraw from program for now. I’m sure every country is a little different but it can be difficult. We spoke to a German girl who was in rematch and she got here in January on NIE. Apparently we’re just keeping the world shut down for an infinite amount of time.

Has anyone heard anything about a lift in restrictions?
I heard United Airlines was starting a new route to Europe (DC to Greece) this June, which gave me some hope that borders might open a bit more. But I also saw that the US embassy in France has canceled all appointments for visas through July. The French government's restrictions caused the closure from what I read so it's not a blanket EU situation.
I know this is likely a guess at this point, but... I'll take educated guesses.