OP I feel your pain. We matched with someone who I truly believe would have been perfect for our family, but she was denied her visa (in a country where visa denials are uncommon). The local counselor (contractor of the agency) never did a practice interview with her or gave her any advice, and it sounds like she just froze up with nerves during the interview and was denied on the spot. We waited for her to get a second interview a few months later, but she was denied immediately once the officer saw she had already been denied that year. This was a long time ago but I still feel sad for what could have been, and frustrated as this completely threw off our childcare plans and timing. However my advice to you is to move on. It seems like getting a visa once a potential AP is denied is almost impossible, even if it's arbitrary and unfair. Wishing you luck.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Unfortunately it was extremely difficult to get an au pair to sign with us in the first place, so I'm not optimistic about securing a new au pair. Seems like it might be best to pursue a nanny or daycare at this point.

Anyone have experience getting the agency to return the funds?

What agency?

I'm with APC, and its refund policy is straightforward.

We've never had a visa denial for an incoming AP; she must have failed in her responses to some of the questions. As mentioned above, if she appeared to be interesting in staying in the USA beyond her AP time, that could be a reason.

We did have a previous AP get screened out at immigration when she was coming back to visit her cousins in another state. She must have messed up or not been able to show she could pay her way during her stay. Immigration is pretty tough on these girls whilst allowing many completely undocumented people to pour over the southern border.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Unfortunately it was extremely difficult to get an au pair to sign with us in the first place, so I'm not optimistic about securing a new au pair. Seems like it might be best to pursue a nanny or daycare at this point.

Anyone have experience getting the agency to return the funds?

How much did you pay? Usually you don't pay until you are within a month of arrival. I doubt you would get the match fee back. If you paid the full bill for some reason, you are probably out of luck. The companies aren't known for refunding.

Why?

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Unfortunately it was extremely difficult to get an au pair to sign with us in the first place, so I'm not optimistic about securing a new au pair. Seems like it might be best to pursue a nanny or daycare at this point.

Anyone have experience getting the agency to return the funds?

How much did you pay? Usually you don't pay until you are within a month of arrival. I doubt you would get the match fee back. If you paid the full bill for some reason, you are probably out of luck. The companies aren't known for refunding.

OP here. Unfortunately it was extremely difficult to get an au pair to sign with us in the first place, so I'm not optimistic about securing a new au pair. Seems like it might be best to pursue a nanny or daycare at this point.

Anyone have experience getting the agency to return the funds?

Agree with 13:25

Long time HM here - your candidate isnt coming and probably cant even reapply for the visa for a while - I think you should move on

I believe Cultural Care is over the limit of visas they can sponsor and won't get another chunk until after the New Year. Could it be your agency is in a similar situation?
We had visa denials when we were hosting (2, peru and south africa). The agency did nothing except open up the portal for us to start interviewing again.
It's the risk of hiring an aupair. Most of the time, Germany, France and UK are safer bets visa wise.

This is for a country that rarely gets denials. The biggest issue here is the lack of engagement from the agency. With time of the essence to identify a backup childcare solution (e.g., a rare subsidized daycare opening, a potentially acceptable rematch candidate that's available right now but will disappear soon, a local nanny who is likely lawfully present in the United States), I'm really frustrated that I can't even get the agency on the phone to talk through exactly where we're at, the potential paths forward, and a timeline for when we'll know 100% what's happening with our current candidate so we can act on our backup plans.

I've been hearing about visa denial for Thai au pairs.

The agencies are really not service oriented. Long time HM here, don't expect much from them

A visa denial is a common occurrence in the world, and the Agency doesn't have any control over the results of the interview. May I ask what country the AP was from?

Nothing the agency can probably do at this point except write a letter that will take weeks to makes its way to the consulate. You should start over, and consider that the reason she didnt get the visa is because the consular officer who interviewed her thought it likely she was going to stay in the US rather than return home after her AP term.

Anyone have experience with an au pair being denied a visa? The agency hasn't been particularly responsive. For example, it took hours to get a call from HQ after the denial, then government affairs sat on the matter for a couple days to consider options without any clear status updates in the interim. Communication has been wanting, to say the least.

It took many months to find a good candidate who would accept our offer, and now we're scrambling for childcare again and considering how and whether to try to claw back our program fees. I also get the sense that the agency doesn't consider us their top priority...