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Au Pair - Quit & Travel Europe ? Legal or not?

6K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  GraceBlue 
#1 ·
I would love some advice,

I've searched the internet but haven't found any relevant information on this specific topic. I'm currently au pairing in the French countryside but wish to leave my host family early ( things aren't working out). I have lots of money saved and would like to travel before i head home (back to Aus). Is it legal for me to travel freely around Europe after i leave the family, until my visa expires, or do i risk getting evicted/deported etc ?

I've been with the family for 4 months and my visa doesn't expire for another 8 months. I'm an Australian citizen with a Type D 'etudiant' multi visit, Schengen Visa (once all the paperwork is done the visa for au pairs is the same as for students, so i'm not sure if anyone could tell if a traveler is a registered au pair or student anyway). Are there any serious consequences? Is their anyway for officials to know my contract has been terminated ? I'm not 'overstaying my visa' or anything, is this legal or not ?

:fingerscrossed:

Thanks for your help,
Grace :)
 
#2 ·
AFAIK, your au pair visa is tied to your employment. However, I have no idea what happens when your employment terminates early with regards to you staying in France.

I do know that as a non-EU citizen living with a long stay visa in France that you are only allowed to visit other countries within the Schengen zone for 90 out of 180 days. You are expected to retain residency in France (which means you have to live there the majority of time - which is essentially the other 90 days out of 180) In other words, "traveling Europe" for 8 months on a French long stay visa doesn't work unless you are spending the majority of the time in France.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for your message, I am aware of the Schengen Agreement and will be visiting friends and living with them in Paris for the majority of my stay. But I don't want anything against my name as i want to work in the UK next year, so i need to be sure this is legal.
 
#4 ·
well the uk is not in the schengen area so , as brett said , they won't give a damn

with regard to leaving the schengen area , how will anyone know you didn't stay the whole year with your current employer ...is it marked on your visa that you must ? even if it does will they really try and get you ejected from the country ? and if you leave the schengen area from another country eg belgium , your visa will show you are leaving within the time limit anyway
 
#6 ·
Chances are the French immigration folks won't come after you. But, given that the au pair visa is a type of student visa, there may be some problems related to your not completing the classes you're signed up for as an au pair. (France does require au pairs to be attending French language classes as part of their au pair contract.)

The other thing to remember is that, as a foreigner with a titre de séjour, you are supposed to notify the préfecture when you move. If there were to be any need to contact you (by the French administration), they would send a registered letter to the address of your ex-employer. Depending on what it was, if you failed to respond, you could run into problems.

And, as you mentioned, your ex-employers certainly aren't going to continue to pay your insurance once you're gone. It's entirely possible that you may be able to get away with staying out your visa with your friends. They aren't likely to spend much effort in hunting you down. The risk, however, is if you get into a situation where you either have to prove your "regular status" in France or you should get sick or hurt and it comes out that you don't have insurance coverage.
Cheers,
Bev
 
#7 · (Edited)
Hey Bev, thanks for the help!

As the family i'm with lives in such an isolated area i managed to get my visa approved on the agreement of a one month very intensive french course, instead of a few hours a week for a year. i've already completed the course so luckily the french classes won't be an issue for me.

I hope to stay on good terms with the family, so hopefully they can pass on any mail.
do you know if it is likely that they would send me any important mail ? what would they send me? i thought i'd finally finished all the paper work after i got the final stamp of approval :confused:

I'm very accident prone so i will definitely be taking out my own insurance.
 
#8 ·
Any official mail would be something like taxes, liability (say, if you had an accident or ran afoul of the law in some way) - stuff like that. Not horribly likely, but just the sort of thing that will come back to bite you if you're not careful.

Simple example: when I was attending classes in Paris (back when I was illegal here) the transit police would come through the car every night on my return from Paris, checking for tickets. They always seemed to catch a few folks who had jumped the turnstyle, and if they were foreigners, they were asked for their carte de séjour. Those who couldn't produce a carte de séjour were escorted off the train at the next stop. Just don't jump any turnstyles or do anything else likely to earn you a citation or other correspondence with the administration.
Cheers,
Bev
 
#9 ·
Just don't jump any turnstyles or do anything else likely to earn you a citation or other correspondence with the administration.
Cheers,
Bev
Okay great thanks ! YAY looks like i'll be having a long holiday in Europe !
I just heard back from a few au pair agencies who actually said they think its totally legal to do what you want once you have your visa and you leave a family early :cheer2:

They said the only trouble i might have is if i wanted to stay an extra year in France and tried to renew the au pair status.
 
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