Age: 18 to 25 years

Duration of stay: An au pair stay cannot exceed the duration of one year.

Pocket money: at least 450 euro per month (which necessarily must be paid by means of bank transfer)

Working hours: no more than 4 hours per day and 20 hours per week

Spare time: The au pair is entitled to one day off per week.

Language course: During the stay the au pair is obliged to participate in a course of the language spoken in the region where the host family lives with a recognized institution.

Insurance: The family has to conclude a health insurance for the au pair. It is also advisable to conclude an additional insurance which covers liability and accident and an insurance to cover potential expulsion costs. It is important for au pairs that need to have a visa to go to Belgium.

Administrative procedure

Nationals of European Union countries, Island, Monaco, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland need neither  a visa nor a work permit to work in Belgium as an au pair.

Nationals of non EU countries need to have a valid work permit. An au pair in Belgium may not have had a work permit for Belgium before.

The host family has to apply for an employment authorisation and for a work permit B. The application must be submitted to the immigration service competent for that particular part of the national territory. It is necessary to add a medical certificate of the au pair and an employment contract to the application.

The au pair may not yet have reached the age of 26 years when the employment authorisation and the work permit is granted.
The validity period of the employment authorisation and the work permit for the au pair cannot exceed one year.

A host family cannot have an employment authorisation for several au pairs at the same time.
A host family also cannot have had three employment authorisations for au pairs before.

Those who would like to stay in Belgium for longer than three months need a Schengen visa type D. They need to get the visa before going to Belgium and they can only apply for it, if the host family has already received the employment authorisation and the work permit B.
The au pair needs to apply for the visa at the Belgian diplomatic service or the Belgian Consulate of the country where she or he lives.

May a Belgian family employ a Belgian au pair?
It is possible if for example a Flemish family employs a Walloon au pair or if a Walloon family employs a Flemish au pair.


Useful links:

Work permit for au pairs
Information in respect of visa


We cannot guarantee that all information we gathered is correct or complete although we have done our best in the research. We appreciate any comments. Thank you.