Iceland au pair visa (residence permit for au pair)

The applicant must be between 18 and 25 on the day the application is lodged; the date of birth is decisive, and files sent before the 18th birthday or after the 25th are rejected. You must not plan to settle in Iceland and must have no family link to the hosts.

The host household is a married or cohabiting couple with children, or a single parent with children, and at least one adult must be an Icelandic citizen or hold a permanent residence permit, so families living on temporary permits cannot host. A family may have only one au pair at a time.

The family must show secure support for its own members at the standard rates (ISK 259,951 for one adult, ISK 415,922 for a married couple), plus ISK 129,976 a month for the au pair and the pocket money of ISK 60,000 for every four weeks, for the full permit period. The Directorate may ask about social assistance received and the hosts’ criminal records in Iceland and abroad.

First residence permits are applied for on paper only. Pay the ISK 120,000 fee by bank transfer to the Directorate of Immigration (IBAN IS05 0515 26 410424 670269 6399, SWIFT GLITISRE, Íslandsbanki) with the applicant’s name and date of birth as the reference, then post the signed form, receipt and documents to Dalvegur 18, 201 Kópavogur, or leave them in the drop box at reception. Unpaid applications are returned and the fee is not refunded if you withdraw.

Applications are not checked on arrival: the Directorate confirms receipt by email and contacts you or your agent only if something is missing. It publishes which months it is processing on its waiting-time page; a decision on a new permit can take up to six months.

When the Directorate approves the application, it asks the relevant embassy to issue an entry visa (D visa), normally the mission responsible for your place of residence. Within 90 days of the grant you must attend a photo appointment at the Directorate of Immigration in Kópavogur or a District Commissioner’s office, submit a notification of residence, and, if you come from a country on the Directorate of Health list, have a medical examination within two weeks of arrival. Miss any of these and the permit is not issued.

Once these steps are done the residence card is ordered; you are emailed and can collect it five days later where your photo was taken. The Directorate asks Registers Iceland to record your legal domicile, which gives you an Icelandic ID number (kennitala).

If the placement ends early, notify the Directorate on its termination form. You may sign a new agreement with another family and submit it with that family’s proof of means; with less than three months left, apply for renewal instead. The permit can be renewed once, for at most a year, with a new agreement. It cannot lead to permanent residence, and former au pairs must spend two continuous years abroad before applying for a work-based permit.

The written agreement on the Directorate’s own form sets the terms. Au pairs work no more than 30 hours a week and 5 hours a day, in daytime only, with one day off a week and at least one weekend off a month, and a week’s holiday after 26 weeks. Tasks are childcare, taking children to school and activities, and light cleaning, cooking and shopping; caring for chronically ill children and night work are excluded.

The family pays at least ISK 15,000 a week in pocket money, provides free meals and a lockable private room with a window, buys health insurance for the first six months, and pays at least half of the travel costs, or all of them if the family ends the agreement without fault on your side.

A refusal is a written decision that can be appealed to the Immigration and Asylum Appeals Board (Kærunefnd útlendingamála) within 15 days of receiving it. An appeal does not normally suspend the decision unless you ask for suspension; refused applicants who are in Iceland are usually given about 30 days to leave. If you miss the deadline, the refusal becomes final.