How to Become an Au Pair in France as an American: Requirements, Visa and Pay

Yes, an American can be an au pair in France. French law has a status made for it, the jeune au pair long-stay visa, open to non-European nationals aged 18 to 30 and requested in the United States before you leave: the host family houses and feeds you and pays at least 320 euros a month in pocket money, for childcare and light housework capped at 25 hours a week. This guide covers who qualifies, what the family owes you, hours and tasks, French classes, the written agreement, the steps from the US, the fees, social security, the two-year limit and what can follow. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Rules change, and your situation may differ: always verify current requirements with the relevant French authorities or a licensed professional.

What Is an Au Pair in France?

In French law an au pair is a jeune au pair: a foreigner aged 18 to 30, hosted temporarily by a family of another nationality to improve their French and their knowledge of France, in exchange for light housework and childcare. The definition is in article L. 426-22 of the CESEDA, the code on the entry and stay of foreigners, in force since May 1, 2021.

You are hosted, not hired: there is a written agreement and pocket money, not an employment contract and a wage. Service-Public’s page on the scheme, verified June 1, 2026, warns against confusing it with two neighboring statuses.

Only the first column concerns an American arriving from the US: the stagiaire aide familial (family-help trainee) is a European scheme, and the salarié au pair (au pair employee) has an employment contract.

Au Pair in France Requirements: Age Limit, French and Nationality

You must be 18 to 30 years old, a national of a country outside the European Union, hosted by a family of a different nationality with which you have no family tie, and able to prove basic French, a secondary education or a professional qualification. Service-Public’s page on the jeune au pair residence card, verified May 1, 2026, requires all of them together, plus a signed agreement and a long-stay visa.

The family cannot be American, even if it lives in France, and it cannot be related to you. And the pages give the age range, not the date on which it is checked: near 31, ask the consulate before the family signs.

No test and no CEFR level is named: the card’s list of documents accepts any document showing basic knowledge of French, a complete course of secondary studies or a form of professional qualification. Proof that you finished secondary school, which is what a US high school diploma shows, therefore meets the condition without a French certificate. For other statuses, see how much French each visa and permit requires.

What the Host Family Must Provide: Room, Meals and Pocket Money

The family must house you, feed you and pay you at least 320 euros of pocket money a month. Your room must be your own, with at least 9 square meters of living space and at least one window.

Pocket money. The 320 euros are not computed from the minimum wage or from your hours. Article R. 426-13 of the CESEDA leaves the minimum to an order of the minister in charge of immigration, and the order of March 4, 2019 sets it at 320 euros a month: Legifrance shows that text in force on October 12, 2026, unchanged since March 6, 2019. The agreement states the amount agreed and its payment day.

What the parents sign up to. On the agreement form, the parents commit to feed and house you for the whole agreement, to bear the cost of the health insurance you take out, to keep housing and feeding you if you fall ill until arrangements are made, to let you attend classes, and to pay the pocket money every month on a fixed date. They certify that they are not related to you and that French is the language used in the home, and they stand guarantor for your living costs, your lodging and the risk of accident.

Hours, Tasks and Days Off

You may spend at most 25 hours a week on the family’s tasks, and you are owed at least one full day of rest every week. The tasks are childcare and light housework, and the form’s notice excludes children under three and dependent adults.

• Tasks. The law speaks of light housework and childcare, and the form asks for the weekly hours of housework linked to the daily life of children over three.
• What is excluded. The notice names children under three, elderly people, people with disabilities and dependent people.
• Days off. Under leave rights, Service-Public gives only the weekly day: vacation weeks are for you and the family to write down.
• No other job. You are not authorized to work on the side, outside the tasks agreed within the host family, which rules out paid babysitting for another family.

If the tasks include driving, your US license is recognized for one year from the online validation of your visa: see driving in France with a US license.

French Classes and Studies

The family must leave you the time to attend classes, in the subjects of your choice, but the official pages do not make enrollment in a French course a condition of the status. The agreement has a line for the classes you plan to take, filled in if known.

Compulsory enrollment in French classes for foreigners belongs to the European trainee scheme, not to yours. Nothing on these pages says who pays for the classes: settle it with the family in writing.

If a degree is the goal, the student visa for Americans is the route built for it.

The Au Pair Agreement (Cerfa 15973) and Whether You Need an Agency

The agreement is an official form, cerfa 15973*01, titled “Convention conclue entre le jeune au pair et la famille d’accueil”. You and each host parent sign it before you leave for France, and it is attached to your visa application.

The form is completed online, printed, then signed by everyone. It records your identity and the parents’, the household and the ages of the children, your room, your tasks, weekly hours and days of rest, the pocket money and its payment day, your classes if known, and the start and end dates.

A first agreement cannot exceed one year. It can end early in three ways: by mutual agreement, immediately if one side commits gross misconduct (faute lourde), or, when one side breaks its commitments, after a notice period that cannot be shorter than one week. The prefecture’s office for foreigners is informed. A dispute with the family goes to the tribunal judiciaire or the tribunal de proximité, the local civil courts, and the form gives victim-support contacts.

Agencies. No official page requires one. The law, Service-Public and the form describe an agreement concluded directly between you and the family, and none mentions an intermediary for the jeune au pair. An agency is a service you may choose, not a legal step.

How to Become an Au Pair in France From the USA, Step by Step

The order is fixed: a host family, the signed agreement, the visa application in the United States, then validation in France. Service-Public states that the visa application is filed no more than 3 months before your planned departure, with the French consular authorities of the country where you live.

1. Find a family that meets the conditions. Another nationality than yours, no family tie, French spoken at home, a room of your own.
2. Sign the agreement and gather your proof. Cerfa 15973, signed by you and each parent, and a document showing basic French, completed secondary studies or a professional qualification.
3. Fill in the France-Visas form. France-Visas generates the list of documents for your category, the authority for the appointment (the France long-stay visa guide for Americans covers the mechanics).
4. Attend a TLScontact appointment. TLScontact runs ten US centers and you may book at any of them. You hand over the file, give your fingerprints and photo and pay the visa fee, and the French Consulate in Washington DC decides: see how the TLScontact appointment works.
5. Travel, then validate the visa online within 3 months, and check that the family declares you to Urssaf within 8 days.

Your passport must be valid at least 3 months after the end date of the visa, issued less than 10 years ago, with at least 2 blank pages. France-Visas publishes no fixed processing time, so buy your ticket once the visa is issued.

You cannot start on a visa-free stay and regularize later: the agreement is concluded before departure and the visa is requested in your country of residence, while the 90 visa-free days are a tourism and short-visit permission. After a refusal, see what to do when a long-stay visa is denied.

What an Au Pair Visa for France Costs

You pay the visa fee and TLScontact’s service fee in the US, then 100 euros to validate the visa in France. Staying beyond the visa adds 150 euros for a first residence card.

These are reduced amounts. Article L. 436-1 of the CESEDA, in the version in force since May 1, 2026, sets the tax on a first residence document at 300 euros and brings it down to 100 euros for the jeune au pair, and a 50 euro stamp duty is added when a card is issued. Renewing the card costs 100 euros. You pay in tax stamps (timbres fiscaux), bought on timbres.impots.gouv.fr.

You owe no social contributions on your pocket money. Only the host family is liable for them, on a flat base of 56 times the hourly minimum wage a month, 689.36 euros with the SMIC at 12.31 euros, or 13 times a week, 160.03 euros. See also what it costs to move to France from the US.

After You Arrive: Validation, Social Security and Health Coverage

Two deadlines open when you arrive: you validate the visa online within 3 months, and the family declares you to Urssaf, the body that collects social security contributions, within 8 days. You are then covered by the general social security scheme, and the family alone pays the contributions.

Validation. Your visa is a VLS-TS (visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour), a long-stay visa that also serves as a residence permit: it exempts you from requesting a card for as long as it is valid. You validate it on the ANEF portal and pay the 100 euros, which makes your stay regular and lets you cross the Schengen border again: how to validate a VLS-TS shows how to count the deadline. The jeune au pair card is among those that do not sign the republican integration contract.

The family’s declaration. The family sends the form “Déclaration d’embauche d’un emploi familial” (cerfa 11469*03) to the Urssaf of its home.

Your coverage. The general scheme covers sickness, maternity, work accidents and the basic pension, and you also come under Ircem, the supplementary pension fund of household employees. If you have no French social security number, it is up to the family to have you registered. The health insurance office typically expects a full birth certificate with an apostille and a sworn French translation (which US documents need an apostille and a certified translation), and how French health coverage and the carte Vitale work covers what follows.

How Long You Can Stay as an Au Pair, and How to Renew

A stay lasts from 3 months to 1 year and can be extended once, up to 2 years in total. The extension takes a new agreement of one year at most and a residence card requested at the prefecture.

To stay beyond the visa, which lasts one year at most, you request the jeune au pair card at the prefecture or sub-prefecture of your home in the 2 months before the visa ends.

Service-Public lists the file: your visa and passport, proof of address less than 6 months old, 3 photos, the new agreement signed by both sides, the document proving your level, a copy of an identity document of each host parent and a signed copy of the commitment to respect the principles of the Republic.

The prefecture must decide within 90 days of a complete application, and silence after 90 days counts as a refusal. The card lasts as long as the new agreement, and the total stay under this status cannot exceed two years: there is no third year.

The official pages do not describe a change of host family during the stay: put the question to the prefecture before you move.

What Comes After: Studying or Working in France

The au pair status ends at two years and turns into no other permit by itself: Service-Public’s au pair pages describe no bridge to a student or work card. To stay in France you must qualify for another status on its own terms.

• Studying. The student route runs through Campus France and a proof of funds of 877.50 euros a month since August 1, 2026: see the student visa for Americans.
• Working. A French employer must first obtain a work authorization (autorisation de travail) online. When you already live in France, you request the salarié (employee) card at the prefecture of your home before your current permit ends, with a copy of that authorization, and the card costs 350 euros. How an American gets a work visa in France explains how the authorization is judged.
• From France or from the US. Which changes a prefecture accepts from inside France, and which go back through the consulate, is the subject of changing visa status while already in France.

Au Pair, Nanny or Teaching Assistant: What Is the Difference?

A nanny (garde à domicile) is the family’s employee, with an employment contract and a wage, so an American needs a residence status that allows work, which starts with the employer’s work authorization. An au pair is hosted under an agreement and receives pocket money.

The Teaching Assistant Program in France, run by the French Embassy, places US citizens and permanent residents aged 20 to 35 in French schools for seven months, up to 12 hours a week, for a gross stipend of 1,010.67 euros a month: you work in a school, not in a family’s home. Teaching English in France as an American covers that program and the other routes. For the way French families employ a nanny, see childcare in France for American families.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Each of these mistakes can cost you the status, and each is avoidable before you sign.

• Arriving visa-free to start early. Nothing on the official pages lets you become a jeune au pair from inside France on a tourist stay.
• A host family of your own nationality, or relatives. Either one closes the status.
• Signing for more than 25 hours, for a baby, or for a second job. The cap is in the law, the form’s notice excludes children under three, and no work is allowed outside the host family.
• Forgetting the validation. It is due within 3 months of arrival, and it is what makes your stay regular.
• Asking to extend too late, or counting on a third year. The request goes to the prefecture in the 2 months before the visa ends, and the total stay cannot exceed two years.

Practical Checklist

• Check the conditions: age 18 to 30, a family of another nationality and unrelated to you, proof of your level, a room of 9 square meters with a window.
• Agree in writing on the pocket money (320 euros at least), its payment day, the weekly hours (25 at most), the day of rest, vacation and who pays for classes.
• Complete cerfa 15973 online, print it and have it signed by you and each parent before you leave.
• Prepare your diploma or proof of French, and a full birth certificate with an apostille.
• Fill in the France-Visas form no more than 3 months before departure, then book TLScontact.
• On arrival, validate the visa within 3 months (100 euros) and check that the family has declared you to Urssaf within 8 days.
• To extend, sign a new agreement and go to the prefecture in the 2 months before the visa ends (150 euros).

When to Get Help

A file with a signed agreement, a diploma and a family that meets every condition can be prepared alone. When a point is less clear-cut (an age close to the limit, an agreement shorter than a year, an earlier refusal), a Visa Dossier Review reads the assembled file before it goes to TLScontact, while you can still correct it.

FAQ

Do I need a visa to be an au pair in France?

Yes. An American needs a long-stay visa marked jeune au pair, requested in the United States no more than 3 months before departure. The 90 visa-free days do not give access to the status.

Can I be an au pair in France just for the summer?

Only if you stay at least 3 months: Service-Public gives the hosting period as 3 months to 1 year, and the official pages describe no short-stay or Schengen au pair visa.

What is the average au pair salary in France?

There is no official average, and legally no salary: the minimum is 320 euros a month in pocket money, on top of room and meals, and the agreement can set more.

Do au pairs pay taxes in France?

Not social contributions: Service-Public states that only the host family is liable for them. The official au pair pages say nothing about income tax on pocket money, so ask the French tax administration. As a US citizen you remain subject to US filing rules on worldwide income wherever you live: see US taxes when you live in France.

Is being an au pair in Paris different from the rest of France?

No. The status comes from national law, so the age limit, the 25 hours and the 320 euros are the same in Paris as elsewhere. Only the offices change: the Urssaf and the prefecture are those of the family’s home.

Do the same rules apply to au pairs from the UK, Kenya, the Philippines or South Africa?

Yes. The status is the same for every national of a country outside the European Union. Only the place of application changes: the visa is requested from the French consular authorities of the country where you live.

Conclusion

Being an au pair in France as an American rests on one form and four numbers: ages 18 to 30, 25 hours a week at most, 320 euros a month at least, two years in total. Sign cerfa 15973 with a family of another nationality before you leave, apply for the visa in the US, validate it within 3 months of arrival, and check that the family has declared you to Urssaf.