How to become an Aupair in Switzerland

If you arrived here, you may be expecting to find all the legal and information requirements to become an Aupair in Switzerland, this post is a recompilation of all the information needed from how to search for a family going through the legal procedures needed to complete and finally some practical information all based in my experience as an Aupair in Switzerland (Zürich). On the comments section you can ask any question that you think it's not clear, I will be happy to answer!

General AuPair information in Switzerland

How long can I be an Aupair in Switzerland?

Up to 12 months, can be extended to 24 months if you are EU/EFTA citizen.

Which are my duties?

All your duties should be discussed between you and the family to avoid missunderstandings. An Aupair is someone that wants to learn the language of the country of destination and in exchange takes care of the children of the family. Aupairs are not housecleaners, or 24 hour nannys. 

Which are my rights?

For at leat half of the aupairs working hours one of the parents must also be present/available. And the working hours should not exceed 30 h per week. At least 1 free day per week is mandatory and the schedule must allow you to join a language course.

You must have your own room as any other member of the family and meals are included.

Hollidays are paid and in case of illnes you are paid too.

How much can I earn?

Aupairs in switzerland can earn up to 990 CHF per month, the common salary is between 500 - 700 CHF/month.

Extras you can discuss with the family

Some families are open to discuss about the travel expenses, in my experience some families contributed with the 50%.

The process of becoming an aupair

If you want to learn a new language and you have good hand with kids, becooming an aupair can be the perfect experience for you, so the first step is finding a family.

1.  How to find a family

Looking for a family is the most important step in order to become an Aupair, there are different ways and all of them have their pros and cons.

        1.1 Aupair World

I personally love the web site AupairWorld.com, there I found serious familys and it is a really detailed website. The families fullfill their profiles and give information about their expectations and all what they offer to you.

Here I show an example of the information you will be available from the families:

 

Here you can see an example, I highly recommend paying attention to all these little details in order to avoid missunderstandings and "surprises".

The first step for you would be creating a profile, for that you only need a e-mail and a description about yourself and your expectations. You can also check here my recomendations to create an atractive profile in order to increase your chances of finding a family with examples of good ones to inspire yours.

The advantage of this web page is that you can send and recieve messages from the families unlimited without buying any kind of subscription. They also have really good informative posts about the requirements for every country.

    1.2 Aupair.com

This second web site aupair.com is similar to the first one but with the disadvantage that you cannot send and receieve personalized messages unless you buy a membership, it is a bit expensive but can be also a good option. 

Since you can add your e-mail and contact info, it's more likely that you are contacted by the families which limits a bit the search. If they don't discover your profile, it's really difficult that you get in touch with them unless of course that you decide to purchase the membership.

Here you can see the subscription prices

    1.3 Word of mouth

This is the most complicated way but the one that is highly succesful. Get in touch with other Aupairs that are already on the country you would like to go it's the best to get a family without "surprises". Nowadays reaching previous AuPairs it's easy thanks to Facebook groups and social media in general.

You can check here my recomendations to find the perfect family for you.

Once you find your match family, it's time of taking care of all the paperwork needed.

    2. The contract

It is highly important to sign a contract before you travel to your destination since you will need it in order to fullfil the legal requirements in Switzerland.

There is not a official swiss aupair contract but there are a lot of models availabe online that you can check in order to double check the one your family sends to  you. I highly recomend doing this since some details could be missing in the one they provide you and can avoid different situations (i.e extra duties not discussed before, etc).

Here some information that should be present:

- Family information ( such as employer name and adress)

- Your information (name, ID/passport number, birth date)

- Gross salary, wage for accommodation and meals, gross salary, date of payment (i.e, the 28th of each month)

- Information about the deductions applied to your salary

- Net salary

- Working hours

- Description of the work: how many children you will take care of, what will you do (playing, bring them to school, etc), little houshold tasks, etc.

- Holidays

- Any further information i.e working on some sundays or any other special requirement.

- Accomodation and meals (a room in the house, a little side house, etc)

- Language course and who will pay for it (in switzerland families must pay for the language course)

- Travel expenses

- Accident on and off duty insurance

- Trial period, period of notice, etc.

- Signatures

    3. Legal requirements in Switzerland

        3.1 General requirements

For becoming an Aupair you must be between 17 and 25 years old ( up to 30 for EU and EFTA citizens).

• EU countries include: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
• EFTA countries include:  Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

Your native language must be different as the spoken by the family and the most important must be different from the main language of the specific region of Switzerland.

• German is the most widely spoken language (19 out of 26 country's cantons are predominantly Swissgerman-speaking).
• French is spoken in: Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Vaud.
• Bilingual cantons, they speak both French and German: Bern, Fribourg and Valais.
• Italian is spoken in Ticino and Canton Graubünden.

I've known cases of German Aupairs coming to switzerland and having a lot of paperwork done since german is spoken in both countries. There is also the posibility of a Nanny contract in these cases but it is subjected to higher taxes. 

You also must be not married and don't have children, and finally willing to join a language course during the stay.

        3.2 Visa and entry requirements

While aupairs from EU and EFTA countries can search the family and "do itselves the work", aupairs from non- EU / EFTA countries need to be placed by agencies. These agencies are called SECO-licenced agencys and consist in a family-aupair matching after paying a fee.

EU and EFTA citizens, need to complete either 2 or 3 steps depending on the duration of the stay.

All other citizens need to apply for a VISA, countries which don't have a diplomatic relationship with Switzerland can be dennied. Since the contact family-aupair is done by an Agency they will provide all the information needed, normaly it is just a normal VISA procedure + the health insurance descrived below.

    1. Registration at the municipallity ( up to 3 months stay and longer)

 It is a really easy procedure, should be done within 14 days of the arrival and before the bggining of     the contract. You just need to google the Registration office of your municipallity and show up with        your passport or ID and a copy of your contract. You will need to pay a fee and they will provide a document that justifyies your registration.

If your stay is no longer than 3 months you only need to do the registration and get a health insurance.

    2. Residence permit (only if the stay is longer than 3 months)

Only if your stay it's going to be longer than 3 months, you must ask for a short-term residence permit also known as L-permit. You can ask for this at the registration office of your municipallity and they will get you an appointment for a biometrie.

In canton zurich you will only need to go to the migration office of the canton with your passport or ID, the process doesn't last more than 10 minutes.

Other cantons may require a copy of the contract, a passport picture and the document that the municipallity gave you after the registration.

    3. Health insurance (compulsory no mater the lenght of the stay)

It is compulsory no mater the lenght of the stay.

Aupairs are considered workers in Switzerland, so the family needs to provide health, accident, pension and unemployment insurance contributions. This will be done by the family and what  you have to look for is a health insurance that covers the KVG requirements. 

"The rule is that all persons residing in Switzerland are obligated to take out insurance with a recognized Swiss health insurance company pursuant to the Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG). The obligation to take out insurance commences at the time the relevant person takes up residence."

There are cheap options for Aupairs such as Swisscare.com that offer the health insurance for 61 CHF per month. Half of this mensualities will be covered by the family so in the end you will have to pay the other half out of your net income, there are families that pay up to the 65% of it. Here an example with one of my contracts:

Base salary - 1760 CHF

Deductions (negative)

Food and accomodation      51.70%     of 1760        910

AHV/IV/EO                          5.15%     of 1760        90.64

( Age and Survivors' Insurance)

ALV                                        1.10%    of 1760       19.36

(unenployment insurance)

NBU                                        1.61%    of 1760      28.35

(Non-occupational accident insurance)

Withholding tax 9 CHF                                              9.00

KV Ag proportion  65%        65%         of  - 61     -39.65

Net salary                                                                 742.30

As you can see the KV proportion is added in your salary (negative deduction converts in positive), only the 35% is payed out of the net salary.

Hope this information helped you to find the information you needed and encouraged you to become an aupari in Switzerland. Don't hesitate in writing all the doubts you have in the comments, I would be happy to answer!