All of this is so shocking to hear considering what’s now happening at our borders under this administration.

Anonymous wrote:Our Brazilian match just had her visa denied! Ugh…she’s going to reapply but we’ve never experienced any of our matches get denied. This will be our third au pair. I’m embarrassed to ask but is it the US denying or their home country? Any advice appreciated!

The visa is issued by the US government to come here so it is the US that has denied the visa.
I went through the same thing (different country) and my advice is to move on. We tried to appeal because we felt very attached to the person we had matched with, but we got nowhere, and wasted a few months in the process and were then scrambling to find a new AP in time.

Our Brazilian match just had her visa denied! Ugh…she’s going to reapply but we’ve never experienced any of our matches get denied. This will be our third au pair. I’m embarrassed to ask but is it the US denying or their home country? Any advice appreciated!

We had our last Thai au pair denied and we tried to appeal with no luck. Sad because we really loved our previous Thai Au Pairs. One did not return to Thailand (she got a student visa and then ended up getting married) but the others returned as planned.

Anonymous wrote:Our candidate was denied for having insufficient ties to her country even though at 21 she has her own apartment, job, and a large family. She was born in a third country and immigrated as a young child - this apparently was a basis for discrimination. Disgusting.

She might not have been able to communicate her ties sufficiently, or there were other aspects she didn't share with you that swayed the application against her. For example, having an apartment is great, but if it's a rental and she's not keeping it, that's not exactly a tie to her country. Or she might have siblings or other family members already in the US, and THEY might be overstays themselves. If she is from one of the countries with very high overstay rates, then the burden of proof is higher. It's not just what she did, it's what other au pairs did before her making it very difficult for aspiring au pairs.

In the soup nazi voice, “no 90day fiancé for you!”

The UDI says that my application is waiting to be processed but the VFS already sending back my passport here in my country any idea?

The Thai candidates likely had passports that identified them as male, hence the visa denial.

So true. Expert Au Pair was the only agency doing Philippines for awhile. But they have seen 100% visa denials since 2018, and no longer recommend Filipina candidates. Unfortunately, our AP was one of the ones who decided not to return home, which impacts any future applicants behind her.

Agree that it's not useful to get involved. Find another applicant.

Our LCC says the agency tracks rates of nonreturn (skipping out on the flight home), then pulls out of the country if it gets too high. Our agency no longer does the Philippines, for example.

Our candidate was denied for having insufficient ties to her country even though at 21 she has her own apartment, job, and a large family. She was born in a third country and immigrated as a young child - this apparently was a basis for discrimination. Disgusting.

Anonymous wrote:Our Thai aur pair got denied today too. It's nothing to do with the au pairs - its the State Department that appears to have changed policy.

Avoid Thailand as a source of APs and don't get disappointed.

Our Thai aur pair got denied today too. It's nothing to do with the au pairs - its the State Department that appears to have changed policy.

Former State Dept Consular Officer here - don't bother to appeal. Move on. She failed to convince them she intends to return to Thailand - no letter from you will help.

we just had our potential Thai AP denied We are going to appeal because we have a bit of time but the agency wasn't positive about our chances with Thai au pairs...