Swedish Au Pair in the US

[SavantGarde 0]

Hi everyone!

My girlfriend and I are in a unique situation. We met in Thailand last year and have been traveling back and forth between the US and Sweden to visit each other since then. We are planning on getting married in the relative future, however we've both agreed that we want to save money and "do it right" when we do. I've recently landed a reliable job here in the States that will give us the opportunity to save some money for a wedding/visa/etc. and we're looking to have her come work here as an au pair for some time so we can establish ourselves with a place to live and a comfortable life here before getting married.

We've come upon a fortuitous situation where we've found a Swedish family near my hometown who are looking for a Swedish au pair but have not had an au pair in the US yet (only back home in Sweden before they moved here) so they are unfamiliar with the process. I told them I would do some research and fill them in. We've looked into the J-1 visa and the details regarding it, however I can't find anything regarding our situation specifically. We're looking for help on what to do next when we know a specific family who is looking for a specific individual (my girlfriend) to come work with them.

We have a few questions but other tips are greatly appreciated as well:

- Will we be needing to go through the same steps as though we didn't know the family? i.e. go through an agency to arrange the visa, sign a contract, etc..

- What sort of time frame are we looking at if we get things taken care of as quickly as possible? We're looking to have her move here toward the end of summer or early fall at the latest.

- Will she really be needing to take post-secondary classes while working as an au pair here? We read this on a site somewhere and weren't sure if this was agency-specific criteria.

Thank you so much for your time and effort in replying to this. Any help for our situation is going to be fantastic for us because we're basically at square one.

[canadian_wife 1,822]

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=b69c83453d4a3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=b69c83453d4a3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD

Have you read the USCIS page on J-1s? You will require a sponsoring agency

good luck

[SavantGarde 0]

Yeah that's what we figured, thank you. I think we'll just have to look more into specific agencies and find out if they can set us up with the family here.

Also, does anyone know what kind of expenses the family themselves will be paying to apply?

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

Totally depends on the agency and where you live.