Dear Partners and Colleagues

Once again I find myself writing to you amidst an environment of rapid change and
huge challenge.
Like you, this morning we awoke to the World Health Organization’s
announcement that coronavirus/Covid-19 is now a pandemic - and that President
Trump has announced a 30 day ban on travel from Europe to the USA.
I have summarised below the action we are taking in response to this latest, plus
ongoing, developments:
 
European Travel Ban:
With the announcement that flights from Europe (excluding UK) are banned for 30
days with effect from midnight on Friday 13 March, we will need to delay any
incoming arrivals for au pairs from Europe for the March 16 th and March 30th
arrivals - with the possibility of the April 14th arrival being impacted also.
Families and au pairs are being contacted today by our US and UK teams
respectively to determine, on a case by case basis, how best to proceed. 
Once the 13 March deadline has passed, we will be asking all affected, European
au pairs to get prepared by completing their online orientation training (see below)
and to monitor the Resources section of their applications site where we will be
posting ongoing Coronavirus updates.
If you, or any of your au pairs have any questions about the travel ban, please
message us via: info@aupairamerica.co.uk. This way we can ensure we monitor
and respond to all queries in a timely and coordinated way.
Any non-European au pairs who are due to arrive in the US over the next 30 days
will travel as planned - and we will be contacting them directly to confirm this.
Likewise, we will be contacting all other, non-European placed au pairs to confirm
that they will still be travelling as planned.
 
Orientation:
The March 16th arrival and orientation will take place in Stamford as planned.
However, we have made some adjustments in keeping with CDC advisories.
Au pairs arriving over the next few months will be advised that all orientations will
be fully online for au pairs arriving from March 30th through April 27th. 
This means that au pairs will not attend a 3 day orientation in Stamford. Instead
they will fly from their home country directly to the airport in their host family
community.  Host families will pick them up directly from the airport.
Au Pairs will complete the bulk of the orientation via online training modules prior
to arrival in their host family. They will also be required to complete a two hour,
online Red Cross course by the end of their training period after their arrival to their
host family.
The online course will also be supplemented by a phone in, Q and A session
hosted by orientation trainers.
The online course fully meets Department of State regulations and we will continue
to monitor coronavirus advisories and make changes to arrivals after 01 May as
necessary. 
 
General Coronavirus Status Update:
We are continuing to accept au pair applications for our program.
We will be posting ongoing coronavirus updates for au pairs in their online
Applicant Resources pages (‘Life in the US’ and ‘Preparing for the US’) - so please
encourage them to monitor these on an ongoing basis.
Likewise we will be posting ongoing updates for yourselves in your ‘Agency
Resources’ pages.
As mentioned above, if you have general questions about coronavirus – or
questions relating to specific au pairs – please direct them to
info@aupairamerica.co.uk
 
As ever, I thank you for your ongoing patience and understanding as we manage
yet another bump in the road for our beloved program.
I have every confidence in all of our abilities to weather this latest storm - and to
keep this program alive and kicking!

With best regards

 
Linda