COVID -19 The European Shengen Travel Ban and what it means to au pairs from Non-EU countries

The European Commission proposed to all Schengen countries to close the borders for a period of 30 days and on Tuesday all European Schengen countries agreed to follow this proposal and each implement the 30-day ban.

What this actually means and how it works is very well explained in this article.

https://www.politico.eu/article/the-eu-european-union-coronavirus-covid19-travel-ban-explained/

We at IAPA have been asked whether au pairs holding a valid Visa coming from non-EU countries can still travel to Schengen countries during these 30 days.

We (nor probably anyone) can answer this with a simple YES or NO as the situation is complex, differs from country to country and can even change daily.

Au pairs holding a valid au pair Visa may possibly enter the countries they are planning to go to.

However, we strongly advise agencies to check with the border police or relevant ministry of the receiving country before the au pairs leave their home country and make sure whether they will actually be allowed to enter the country and if so if there may be a quarantine necessary after arrival.

Should they already have a flight ticket and the flight hasn´t been cancelled please make sure to follow the above advice. Be also aware that it may be very difficult to actually find any flights at all now as the volume of flights has been decreased to the absolute minimum and is mainly focused on bringing own citizens home. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51904769

If the au pairs don´t have a ticket yet it may be wise to wait a bit until the situation is more clear.

What we hear so far from au pair agencies across Europe is that this issue is being treated quite differently from country to country and many agencies are more focused on helping au pairs who want to go back home to do so. Countries that are under lockdown like France seem less likely to let someone new in than e.g. Germany who still doesn´t have a complete lockdown and so far au pairs can obviously still enter.

We understand that this is a difficult time for everyone and we´ll try to gather, update and share as much information as we can.

But IAPA is also a knowledge-network and relies on information coming from our members. We are happy to collect your knowledge and insights to share them with your peers. If you have further information for us, please let us know at info@iapa.org