French Au Pair Visa Language Requirement

I have been offered an au pair position in France and one of the requirements for the au pair visa is that I must show proof that I am enrolled in a language school. Other people have posted about this but their posts are several years old and no one ever responded to them!

The French consulate's website doesn't tell me how many hours I must be enrolled for, how long I must be enrolled in the course or give a list of acceptable schools to choose from... I sent e-mails to a couple of language schools but they don't me they don't meet the au pair visa requirement... so someone must know what the requirement is then... it's starting to feel like a conspiracy!

Can anyone else who has gotten an au pair visa in France tell me how they met this requirement?

Thanks so much!

-D

Hi,

I run a small au pair agency in France (part-time) while continuing working as an adult teacher (or daily nanny).

It is compulsory to attend 10h per week of French classes in order to obtain the visa. However, most schools offer 6h per week (8 lessons of 45 minutes) + 4h of personal homework. The cost is around 130€ monthly.

I ask the family to enrol the au pair and send a check of 1 month payment to book. Then the school sends a enrollment certificate that we will be add to the form "accord de placement" with all documents to the DIRECCTE (French Regional Work administration). If it is Ok, they send back to the prospective family 2 sample of the form (one for both parts). The Au pair can go to the french Embassy with this documents + others, you will receive their answer a few week later.

I know the red tape is dreadful, it is such a waste of time.

Careful if you have not studied French before, your visa might not be issued (depending of the Embasssy).

Other advice make sure the family knows what to do when employing an au pair. Many (especially using website) do not pay tax and contributions meaning that you are not covered by the national health services.

Thank you for your reply! Can you post a link to your au pair agency? I would like to know more about it.

After posting here yesterday I tried wording my searches a few different ways and found this list of language schools: (um... apparently I'm not allowed to post links but the page I found that was helpful was AupPirsInParis - org)

The three that seem like they would work best for me (because the family will need me all day on Wednesdays) were:

(again... er... CampusLangues - com)
(and... ParisLangues - com)
(and finally... ecole-letoile - com)

Do you have anywhere else that you suggest I look before choosing a language school? Also, do you know if I have to show that I'm enrolled for at least one trimester... or for the full year that I'll be there?

Also, your answer brought up something I hadn't considered: does the family need to show proof of my enrollment to the DIRECCTE or do I only need to show proof of enrollment for my Visa application appointment?

I haven't taken French before but I start private tutoring in French this afternoon (I had applied in a number of countries and wanted to make sure I got tutoring in the right language! I had originally gotten offers over a month ago - one in the UK and one in France but they both fell through related to red-tape issues)... it is a little stressful that I will have so much less time to practice the language now before my interview but I will just have to be very diligent! Luckily my friend speaks French and is attending some of the lessons with me so that she can make me use what I learn outside of the tutoring sessions.

The family has agreed to pay for my Social Security and said that will be part of the contract, I'm their 3rd au pair (the first from the states but the 2nd from outside the EU). I'm glad you mentioned that though because the reason the first family fell through was that I assumed they had brought an au pair from outside the EU in the last few years and it turned out they didn't realize what the new requirements were - it was very disappointing that I waited too long to confirm with them that they were aware... oh well.

Yes, the family has to send the certificate of enrolment to french classes. Normally, the regional DIRECCTE has a list of agreed schools (FLE agreement) otherwise it is not good. That is why the family does the enrolment first and the au pair pays the school fees at arrival.

Usually schools has no courses on wednesday as pupils have no school but it will change in some town this year due to the new government law (it is a real mess here and families are a bit lost about it).

The agency website link is "agence-lc (dot) jimdo (dot) com"

Thank you again so much for your help! I am sorry for the delayed response, when I first tried to respond the site told me it was down for maintenance and I just forgot to check again yesterday.

Yes, my name is often considered a man's name even here in the States and I imagine you would have some confusion with your name here (and possibly the UK, I'm not sure)!

I have a question about your agency... how long does it take your agency to get contracts approved? The DIRECCTE told my host it would take a month to get a response... If we arranged our agreement through your agency would it take any less time? I didn't see any prices on your website so I wasn't sure how your agency works, exactly.

-Dallas

Hello,

Each regional DIRECCTE is different. We are lucky because in Nantes, our DIRECCTE is very efficient : 1 week maximum.

Normally, it should not be quicker with an agency because the documents required are the same. Here it is summer holidays meaning that less administrative agents are at work that is why it takes 3 weeks. My advice is to bring directly all the documents to the DIRECCTE in Paris. If the family is lucky enough (and the agent is cool), it will be done immediately.

On the website, the prices are in the part "dossiers à télécharger/download". For a family, it costs 50€ for registration fees + 250€ for placement (paid once the au pair has signed the agreement). For incoming au pairs it is free and for au pairs from France going to Europe it costs 99€ (290€ for Australia or New Zealand).

I am very happy as 1 girl got her visa yesterday and I keep my fingers crossed for another girl who has her Embassy appointment today.

By the way, have you any friend who would like to be au pair in Nantes aera. I still have 2 families who wants native english speakers.

By for now

Laurence