Anyone ever hire an aupair? What’d you do about the visa?

The wife is kinda overloaded with the kids atm & we have a spare room so we figured an aupair would be great.

But we’re unsure how they’d legally be allowed to enter Japan on a visa

5 comments
  1. Pretty much the only way you’d be able to do this is if the aupair is eligible for a Working Holiday visa (available to young people from a select number of countries), or has Japanese heritage that would entitle them to a visa. There is no way to sponsor a visa for a domestic worker or aupair to come from overseas.

    If you have a HSFP (Highly Skilled Foreign Professional) visa – the one with the points system for salary, qualifications etc. – then you can bring a domestic assistant with you to Japan, but this doesn’t apply in your case, because the domestic assistant has to have worked for you for at least a year prior to entering Japan, and they have to enter the country with you when you first arrive.

    Your best bet would be to see if you can hire an aupair within Japan – it’s definitely extremely uncommon here though. I’m spitballing here, but perhaps you might find people qualified and willing to do it among migrant communities from countries where this is a much more common arrangement, such as the Philippines?

  2. Are any relatives available nearby to help?
    The city hall also has a “rent-a-helper” service. It’s a NPO where old people stop by to help out for however long you need them and you pay a very cheap rate.

    If money is not an issue then you can probably hire a former ALT who doesn’t mind living in a room provided they have a decent salary from you. A lot of people in this country seem to want to have a secret job with money handled under the table.

    (In other words, no need to outsource abroad when there’s plenty of people willing to help out in your area)

  3. I used to be an au-pair.
    I found the job on an aupair website, of which I can’t recall the name, sorry.
    I was going to a Japanese language school at the time and had a student visa. I wasn’t sponsored by the family.
    But if your wife is ok with having no help for 5 hours, either in the morning, or in the afternoon, that could be a solution.
    Hope you find your match!

  4. WHV is the common way to go. But they can’t tell the embassy that they are planning to work as an Au-pair as the main purpose of the visa is to travel.

    Put an ad on Aupairworld

  5. Unless you’re on a HSFP visa an aupair will need another visa (WH etc.) to come live/work in Japan.

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