What are the steps to host an au pair in Luxembourg?

This step is not so easy as you might think. There is no au pair agency officially located in Luxembourg but a lot of online platforms connecting host families and au pairs such as aupair.com, kangarooaupair.com, www.aupairworld.com and greataupair.com can help in your search. One piece of advice: do not accept immediately any au pair candidate and try to find someone whose expectations are in sync with yours.

To obtain the au pair approval, you must introduce a request to the Ministry of National Education, Children and Youth (Ministère de l’Education nationale, de l’Enfance et de la Jeunesse) with different administrative documents: the application form (available online in French and English), a household composition certificate issued by the commune of the residence, a criminal record certificate dated less than 3 months ago for all adult members of your family and a proof of day-care arrangements for children under 6 years old (this may be provided by a day-care facility or a parental assistant or you can also make an affidavit). 

At the same time, your future au pair must have the approbation of the Ministry for Family Affairs and Integration. For this purpose, the following conditions must be fulfilled: be at least 18 and less than 30 years old, reside in a country other than Luxembourg, hold a certificate giving them access to higher education in his/her country of origin or prove that he/she has attended class until the age of 17, have basic knowledge of one the languages spoken by your family as well as English or one of the 3 administrative languages of the country (French, German or Luxembourgish), provide a medical certificate established less than 3 months prior to arrival and attesting his/her ability to carry out simple routine family tasks, including childcare and have concluded with you an au pair hosting agreement.

If the au pair is a third-country national (from a country which is not an EU Member State, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland), a procedure in two steps is required. Before entering the country, the au pair must apply for a temporary authorisation to stay to the Immigration Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and request a visa if needed. After entering the country, the au pair must undergo a medical check and apply for a residence permit (the temporary authorisation to stay is only valid for 90 days). 

The provisions of the Labour Code do not apply to hosting an au pair. But in order to prevent any kind of abuse, the Luxembourg of February 2013 law determinates a very specific framework in which your rights and duties as a host family are clearly defined. Once your au pair arrived in Luxembourg, you must register him/her for health insurance and accident insurance and take out civil liability insurance for him/her from a duly approved insurer in Luxembourg. In addition to providing food, a private room and unrestricted access to your home, you must pay the au pair a monthly set amount corresponding to ¼ of the social minimum wage as pocket money (€ 512) and cover costs related to his/her language courses. The participation of your au pair in household chores must not exceed 5 hours on average per day in a one-week period and 30 hours on average per week in a one-month period. According to the Luxembourg law, working is not the primary goal of the au pair’s stay.

The au pairs’ stays are managed, monitored and coordinated by the National Youth Service (Service National de la Jeunesse - SNJ). The SNJ acts as an intermediary between host families and candidates, manages requests for approval of host families and for au pair approval, monitors au pairs’ host situations, organises mandatory information sessions for au pairs hosted in Luxembourg and provides mediation in the event of disputes between a host family and an au pair.

You may host at most one au pair at a time and the total duration of the au pair’s residency must not exceed one year. You have the right to terminate early the au pair hosting agreement, with immediate effect, in the event of force majeure or serious misconduct by one of the parties, and through prior notice of at least 1 month in all other cases.

You can find more information on the site https://www.accueil-aupair.lu managed by the SNJ.

04/20