Date: 30.03.23
Dear au pair,
On the 29th of March, the Norwegian government announced a proposal to abolish the au pair program in Norway. We would like to summarize our interpretation of the situation (please note that it is not legal expertise).
The Norwegian government's hearing in this matter is planned to be finished by the 29th of June 2023; then most of the employees in the Norwegian government are on holiday. Therefore, we estimate that the voting procedure will take place after July. The applications submitted before the government has voted against the au pair program will be processed by UDI, even if they are processed after the program has been abolished.
1. If you have applied for a permit on UDI's application portal and have submitted the application to the embassy/Visa center/the police, UDI will process the application according to "the old regulations" (the current rules). In such cases, an au pair visa should be granted.
2. If you have found a host-family, but have not submitted your application yet, we recommend to do it ASAP. Make sure that your online au pair application is completed, the application fee is paid and you should book an appointment in a Norwegian Embassy/visa center ASAP. Kindly follow the instructions that we send/sent you along with your contract. We are working as hard as we can to process all the documents as soon as possible, but at the moment we have little capacity to push host -amilies to send us your contracts/documents. We recommend you be in touch with your host-families and ask them/remind them to send us the contract and requested documents ASAP (so we can review it, sign and forward to you with the instructions). It is essential that we review the contract and documents first and then send them to you as any mistake in the contract or missing documents can lead to a visa rejection.
The capacity at the embassies will be limited from now on, as all au pair applicants want to submit an application as soon as possible. We predict long waiting time in Embassies and visa centers now, so be prepared for that. Some au pairs will not get time with the embassy/police before the program is abolished, but if you submit the application online, pay the fee, and book an appointment at the Embassy/ Visa Senter / police before the program is abolished, your case should be processed by UDI according to "the old regulations".
3. If you still have found a host-family, but want to find one and want to try to come to Norway before the au pair program is abolished, we recommend you to use this “gap” we will have until October. We recommend being more active on our website, accepting the host-families we offer, and actively responding to the host-families’ messages/emails (do not forget to check the Spam folder)
4. If your au pair permit for Norway is already granted, you can come to Norway, but make sure you come while your entry visa is valid (if you are coming from outside of Europe) or your current visa in Schengen is still valid.
5. If you are staying as an au pair in Norway now and consider changing your host family, please be aware that you can apply for a new au pair’s visa in Norway and transfer to a new host family.
If you think that it is unfair that the au pair program in Norway will be removed, we encourage you to write a response to the political parties. Please send us your suggestions of what you want to say to the politicians and we will send the suggestions together with our answer. Please send us these suggestions by e-mail indicating in the subject “ Dear Politicians”. Thank you for your support!