Employing my own non-EU mother for childcare?

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Well...I have a feeling this is either impossible or completely idiotic, but figured it's worth a shot to ask.

My American mother has offered to take care of our soon-to-be-born baby, after our parental leave. Great! The only problem is... she lives in the US, and we live in Switzerland.

Although she's fully willing and happy to move over here for about a year or so, after reading up on the topic, it seems that isn't so easy. I understand it's almost impossible for a non-EU parent who is not rich or fully dependent on children for care, or other very special circumstances - and even then it's difficult. Especially since I'm not Swiss, only a B permit (though my wife is Swiss).

So my silly question is - is it possible to employ her as a full-time nanny? We would pay her a typical salary, then she would live with us, and take care of our baby while we work. It would be even better if she could live separately (even though I love my mom, of course )

I'm guessing no, because of the labor law that gives priority to Swiss nannies. And probably a bunch of other reasons.

If it helps, here's a summary of our situation:

I'm American with a B permit, my wife is Swiss We live in the canton Vaud My mother is American, not rich, lives in the US, divorced My wife and I both work 100%, and plan to go back to 100% after parental leave (3 weeks for me, 4 months for her) We prefer to have individual childcare at our house, if possible (was considering a nanny or nanny share, before my mom offered this) We're not super rich either, but do earn enough to consider hiring a full time nanny (4-5k a month....). Although not much left in the budget after this. We're willing to rent a slightly larger apartment/house, to all live together (now really not much left....) We won't be moving back to the US I'll be applying for my Swiss citizenship later this year

So EF, I kindly ask for your help as I couldn't find this particular question anywhere else. What do you think?

P.S. - this is my first post, sorry it's a lot but I also feel compelled to say thank you since I've benefited from the incredible knowledge shared by users here. So thank you!

2

Short answer, no. Non-EU nannies are not allowed unless they’ve already been with a family abroad who then move here.

“Third-country nationals cannot be employed, as it is not possible to obtain a permit for these persons. There is an exception for families who move to Switzerland and have legally employed a domestic worker/nanny where they live now.”

https://www.perfectway.ch/en/for-fam…mestic-workers

3
One of my friends had her mother over for three months at a time, with breaks. It wasn't perfect, but it helped. Especially the first three months.

4
Thank you for the quick and helpful answer... I figured as much.

Whelp, back to the childcare drawing board!

5
Take time off and look after your child yourself for a year or two....

Kids are fun and once the time has passed, you cannot get it back.

Your "career" maybe one thing, but life is not all about careers' it about living and enjoying yourself.

6
Well I would say if you could afford to pay 4-5K a month (which is a 6K cost to you) and rent a bigger flat, then you would probably qualify to be able to sustain her living here if you applied for family reunification given she is alone in the states and her family is now in CH with children coming etc? I don't know much about it but was wondering....

7

How do you know she’s alone in the States? Might be siblings/other kids there. And the rules for non-EU family reunification are very hard. She’d need to already be financially dependent on the relation here, no one else in the States who could look after her, etc.

8
You are right I don't - was speculating on possibilities. Probably this is not a good solution.

9
Yeah she isn't alone in the states - my siblings live there near her, and she's fully financially independent.

So this is why I asked because it seemed slightly different than some of the other situations I read about, which seem to be focused on taking care of aging parents, not aging parents taking care of your kids

10
Would it help if she came for 3 months then went back and came again, as suggested by NotAllThere? If so, she can do that as a tourist so long as she watches the number of days.

11
Yeah actually we had considered that, it might be a good compromise. Though I'm not 100% sure how it works yet.

Do you know if there is any sort of time limit for that? Is there a minimum amount of time she has to leave CH/EU in between the 3 month visas?

Could she go home for a week then come right back for another 3 months?

12
My understanding is 180 days in, 180 out. If you do it all in big blocks. If you break it up more, like a month on and a month off I'm not sure how it works. Paging member Medea???

13
It's also illegal and if she was caught deportation and a ban on returning is on the cards.

14

It’s 90 days in, 90 days out before she could return again.

There’s a calculator here if you can understand how it works and some examples.

https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home…tsrechner.html

Bear in mind that if she did seriously overstay she might risk being banned from entering Switzerland/Schengen area for up to 3 years.

15
Why would it be illegal?

If the woman has the right kind of citizenship (and a proper visa in place, if required) then a holiday visit is perfectly in order. This holiday (and the sum of the holidays each year) must be shorter than whatever the visa (or repeated permission) says, as in the rules set out by Medea.

Many, many relatives visit their families on this basis, all perfectly legally.

16
Except the person was not coming for a holiday, work is work regardless of whether you are paid for it, receive benefit in kind or now pay at all. Paying multiple visits with short intervals in between, staying in the exact same location each time with family, is just advertising it.

Remember in these cases the burden of proof is on the tourist to prove that they were there solely for the purpose of a holiday, not on the authorities to prove you worked.

At the end of the day people have to decide if it worth the risks or not.

17
As I see it, a grandparent coming to stay with the family for a few weeks or months, and then returning to their own home, is a reasonable thing to do, and done all the time, world over. And it can be done legally, in Switzerland.

NotAllThere was saying that friends do that. And yes, I know grandparents who visit, too, repeatedly, several times a year. While the grandparent is visiting, they don't just sit nodding on the sofa all day, but participate in home life, just as both the parents do, and the tasks sometimes include cooking, and sometimes childcare, etc.

I agree with you, Jim, that it would be illegal were the parents actually to pay the grandparent a salary or an hourly wage, for this participation. But I don't think I've heard of such a case, since I've been living here.

18
+1 for what doropfiz says. I think the OP only mentioned a salary in the context of the parent needing some kind of employment in order to stay longer-term. As that's not realistic (job permit) then visits are the only option.

One thing for the parent to consider is health insurance. Make sure the American insurance will provide some coverage over here if needed. Check whether any prescriptions can't be filled here for some reason. Etc.

Oh, and toubie - Congrats on your new addition!!

19
The definition of work does not require payment nor even payment in kind and the bigger challenge is the assumption of guilt until you prove otherwise.

If you come for say 4 trips of 2 months with little breaks in between and spend the entire time living with your son or daughter who have a new baby, good luck with trying to convince an immigration officer that you are not there to take care of the baby.

I certainly would not want to risk being barred from coming to visit the grand kids for a couple of years. But everyone has a different idea if the risk is worth it or not.

20
Thank you! for both the great info and the sentiment