A personal employee or domestic worker who accompanies or follows to join an employer who is seeking admission into, or is already in, the United States in B, E, F, H, I, J, L, M, O, P, or Q nonimmigrant status, must meet the following requirements:

(1)  The employee has a residence abroad which he or she has no intention of abandoning (notwithstanding the fact that the employer may be in a nonimmigrant status which does not require such a showing);

(2)  The employee can demonstrate at least one year’s experience as a personal employee or domestic worker;

(3)  The employee has been employed abroad by the employer as a personal employee or domestic worker for at least one year prior to the date of the employer’s admission to the United States or if the employee-employer relationship existed immediately prior to the time of visa application, the employer can demonstrate that he or she has regularly employed (either year-round or seasonally) personal employees or domestic worker’s over a period of several years preceding the domestic employee’s visa application for a nonimmigrant B-1 visa;

(4)  The applicant must have an employment contract that has been signed and dated by the employer and employee, and the contract must include the following provisions:

• The employee will receive the greater of the minimum wage under U.S. federal, state, or local law (Further information is available from the Department of Labor’s website at www.dol.gov),
• The employee will receive free room and board;
• The employer will be the only provider of employment to the employee; and
• The employer must pay the domestic’s initial travel expenses to the United States, and subsequently to the employer’s onward assignment, or to the employee’s country of normal residence at the termination of the assignment.

Personal employees or domestic workers may accompany or follow to join a U.S. citizen employer who is traveling to the U.S. temporarily, provided the U.S. citizen employer has a permanent home or is routinely stationed in a foreign country. The U.S. citizen employer must be subject to frequent international transfers lasting two years or more as a condition of the job as confirmed by the employer’s personnel office and is returning to the United States for a stay of no more than six years and the following requirements are met:

(1)  The employee has a residence abroad which he or she has no intention of abandoning;

(2)   The alien has been employed abroad by the employer as a personal employee or domestic worker for at least six months prior to the date of the employer’s admission to the United States; or the employer can show that while abroad the employer has regularly employed a domestic worker in the same capacity as that intended for the applicant;

(3)  The employee can demonstrate at least one year experience as a personal employee or domestic worker by producing statements from previous employers attesting to such experience; and

(4)  The employee is in possession of an original contract or a copy of the contract, to be presented at the port of entry.  The employment contract must be signed and dated by the employer and employee and must include the following provisions:

• The employer will be the only provider of employment to the domestic employee;
• The employer will provide the employee free room and board and a round trip airfare;
• The employee will receive the greater of the minimum wage under U.S. federal, state, or local law for an eight hour work-day (Further information is available from the Department of Labor’s website at www.dol.gov),
• The employer will give at least two weeks’ notice of his or her intent to terminate the employment, and the employee need not give more than two weeks’ notice of his  or her intent to leave the employment; and
• The employment contract must also reflect any other benefits normally required for U.S. domestic workers in the area of employment.

Personal or domestic servants who are accompanying or following to join an employer who is the holder of an A, G or NATO visa are eligible for A-3, G-5 or NATO-7 visas.  This category of persons includes, but is not limited to, cooks, butlers, chauffeurs, housemaids, parlormaids, valets, footmen, nannies, au pairs, mothers’ helpers, gardeners, and paid companions.  Please click here for further information.

If you wish to work as an au-pair through an approved exchange visitor program, you may be eligible for an exchange visitor (J-1) visa.  Please click here for further information