Today we are introducing all what you need to become an au pair in Italy. This is a position that could be considered coveted, as it has many advantages and brings lots of opportunities.
Sure, you may first want to know what on Earth an au pair is. It is easy to mistake au pairs for nannies. Even though both do child care, a nanny is an employee with a salary who may or not be live-in. On the contrary, au pairs are usually young women from overseas who take care of the children for a certain time in exchange for boarding, food, and a modest stipend.
Girls can take the opportunity to be an au pair in Italy, for example, and become a temporary member of their host family. Rather than employees, they would be at the level of exchange students who want to experience living abroad and improve their linguistic skills. Certainly, the au pair position offers more cultural opportunities than financial as, for example, the stipend an au pair can make a month won’t surpass 300 euros, and is not by any means to be considered a salary with all the legal implications of the case.
And if you are not from the EU, the length of your stay should not go beyond three months. After that, non-EU citizens, including British citizens after Brexit, need to apply for a visa, which you can do at the Italian embassy or consulate of your country.
HOW TO BE AN AU PAIR IN ITALY
There are a few requisites:
- AGE: You should be between 18 and 30 years old to be eligible for any au pair jobs in Italy. So, it’s obviously a position ideally aimed at students who have completed high school or are about to start college. If you are a European national, the age limit drops to 17.
- NATIONALITY: You need to be from a country other than Italy. If you are from Spain, France, or any other of these EU countries, the 90-day rule doesn’t apply to you.
- MARITAL STATUS: You must be unmarried and not have children.
- RESOURCES: You are able to afford the cost of the trip to the Bel Paese.
- And most importantly… You do wish to go there.
Take into account that, by accepting to take care of the host family’s children, you are accepting all that it implied; thus, you are not being hired as a housekeeper, but childcare requires certain chores to be done at home, like putting the kids’ toys away.
HOST FAMILIES
The applying families also need to meet certain criteria to host an au pair:
- At least one of their children has to be underage, this is, aged non over 18.
- The idea is not to have their au pair sleep on the living room’s couch, so they must spare a room apart for the au pair.
- They are willing to “adopt” this au pair for a limited time, assigning her childcare and related, non-destroying-for-a-human-being housework, for at least three months if a non-EU citizen.
- Their household language is Italian rather than their guest’s native language. Even though the cultural immersion will be mutual, the au pair is willing to become proficient in Italian. Of course, nobody is getting thrown in the slammer for speaking either one or the other language. However, you can allot time for your au pair to attend an Italian language course.
- And unlike your au pair, you are Italian nationals.
AGENCIES
Of course, breaking through the au pair world may require a little help from a friend, namely an au pair agency. There are plenty of those globally, in Italy, and obviously on the Internet. Either if you are an aspiring au pair or a family willing to apply as hosts, one first website you can check out is www.aupairworld.com. Italian applicants can set the language to Italian. Another au pair agency in Italy is www.aupair.com, as well as is www.internationalaupairitaly.com; you just need to do some good browsing for more and will certainly find something that really fulfills your expectations.
Of course, relying on an agency has a fair number of advantages: they will help you with the paperwork and will make sure with the host family that your stay won’t become an overseas version of Cinderella. Again, take into account that it is not a Roman holiday, but it is not about boarding a slave ship or being swallowed in the nowadays trending modern slavery.
AS A CONCLUSION
We hope this brief article is useful for those interested in becoming an au pair in Italy. It is important to keep in mind most of these aspects, being prepared for the fact that you will have to be in charge of certain chores. However, it is not just about doing a job. Being an au pair in Italy is an outstanding opportunity to broaden your social, cultural, and human horizons, as it can become a defining once-in-a-lifetime experience, and you and your host family may hit it off to the extent that you keep in touch for the years to come, always invited to come back home and spend holidays as one more family member. It can be sweeter than that!