Much is made of the 'special relationship' between Britain and the United States. When it comes to going to war we are supposedly the staunchest of allies, and we appear joined at the hip on many other issues. So when British nannies hear about prospects of earning up to $700 a week and enjoying a glamorous lifestyle looking after the children of wealthy American families who would treasure their very own Mary Poppins, getting there should be just a formality, surely?
Wrong. Finding work as a nanny legally in the US is almost impossible, because of the country's strict visa and employment regulations (see box).
Anyone caught without a valid visa - and there are believed to be many UK nannies in this position - faces a minimum five-year ban from the US. And, in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the US authorities plan to tighten controls on foreign travellers further from this March.
Sarah Brown (not her real name) was, she now admits, 'a naive and rather stupid 21-year-old', when she flouted US visa controls to work in New York seven years ago. Initially she went out under the Au Pair in America scheme, which allows for a 12-month stay plus one month's travel.
'I got on so well with the family that they looked into the possibility of me coming back legally as a nanny,' says Sarah. 'But they were told by immigration lawyers that it could take years, and the same lawyers said that if I was prepared to risk it they should bring me over.'
Sarah stayed for four, sometimes nerve-wracking years. On one occasion, police turned up at the house after the fire alarm was triggered. Luckily they accepted her driving licence as proof of identity. She dared not show her passport. She returned to Britain after President Clinton offered an amnesty in 1997 for foreigners overstaying their visas.
'I would definitely not recommend that anybody do what I did now. You get swept up in the excitement of it all, but it's not worth it, even though you have a great lifestyle, a car and good pay,' she says.
Sarah's hosts were both doctors, who told her that they would organise any medical treatment that she might need even though her visa status in the US meant that she had no medical cover. Fortunately she did not fall ill.
Others have been less lucky. Clare Braddick of the London agency Imperial Nannies knows of one UK nanny who was bitten by a spider during an illegal stay in the US. Clare recalls, 'She ended up paying thousands and thousands of pounds for hospital treatment because she had no insurance cover.
'This is something I feel really strongly about. I have had some very famous American families contacting me for a nanny and I have told them to speak to an immigration lawyer to see if they can secure a visa. Very few get one - it can take years and it's very expensive.'
Clare says she tells the many young nannies who approach her for work in the US to ignore those who say they can get in on a tourist visa and then work illegally. She suggests they go there via the au pair scheme instead.
Katie Bill, international manager at Tinies Childcare, has a long list of positions for nannies, stretching from Syria and Israel to Sweden - but only one posting in New York, for someone working for the British government and therefore able to hire a UK nanny legally.
She spends her time aiming to expand Tinies' international business - it has offices in Frankfurt and Zurich - by meeting, among others, the human resources managers of large international banks. Globalisation is spawning a potentially huge market for nannies.
Katie says, 'International nannying is growing, but the big stumbling block is America. Despite the fact that we are supposed to be two of the closest nations in the world, going to the States as a nanny is nigh on impossible.
'If I place an ad on our website for a US position I am bombarded with phone calls from people - most of them wholly unsuitable in terms of qualifications, motivation and experience. They are simply lured by the prospect of a glamorous lifestyle, plenty of partying and a large salary.' When a legal US position does arise, Katies says, she usually approaches more experienced nannies.
'Until a breakthrough comes and there can be an agreement between the US and Britain on a proper scheme, I would rather place our nannies in secure, legal work in other countries and have happy nannies. It can be heartbreaking to go through the whole rigmarole of trying to get a visa, only for it to break down at the end.'
Adrian Smith, a New York-based Englishman who runs UK Nanny Worldwide with a colleague based here in Manchester, witnesses some of that heartache and says he is 'horrified' at the numbers of UK nannies who come to the US without legal documentation or suitable qualifications and experience. He is lobbying the US authorities to reach an agreement with the UK to end the abuse of the visa system.
He says, 'It will take one British nanny, working illegally in the US, to have a car accident while driving American children. Afterwards the questions will come: how did she get here? Who placed her here?' Of the thousands of nannies working in the US, he reckons only a fraction are there legally. Some enter the country on the Au Pair in America scheme and then the host family boosts their pay to give them nanny status.
But the threat of future terrorist attacks has made the US authorities tighten security arrangements across the board. Clare Braddick says one girl who went to the US on the au pair scheme was invited back because her host family wanted her to share their summer holiday. However, when she arrived at the airport, immigration officials noticed that her flight had been paid for by the family. 'Even though her intentions were innocent, they grilled her for hours at immigration, and she was shipped out on the next plane because they assumed that she had come to work in the US. It was the worst experience of her life,' says Clare.
Lizzie Stevens (not her real name) has no regrets about turning down the chance to join a family she had been nannying for in Europe to move to the US. She declined on personal grounds, but now she feels relieved, since she did not realise that she would have had to undergo such a rigorous process to obtain a working visa.
'I really want to work in the States, and I am not saying I would not take a risk to do it,' says Lizzie, who has worked in childcare for nine years in Europe as a nanny and maternity nurse.
Her nervousness over the US posting stemmed from an experience in Bermuda two years ago, when her host family asked her to tell the immigration authorities at the airport that she was 'just on holiday'.
She says, 'At the time I didn't think much of it. But in hindsight I would not have wanted to be in that position. It was nerve-wracking going through immigration. I certainly wouldn't want to risk a long ban from the US.'
THE WAY TO WORK
There are currently just two ways for a UK citizen to work in childcare in the US. They can go there on a J-1 visa through the Au Pair in America scheme, which allows them to work for 12 months and enjoy one month's travel under a cultural exchange scheme run by the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS, 37 Queen's Gate, London SW7 5HR, tel:020 7581 7300).
They will receive only around $150 a week, but at least it's legal.
To become a legitimate nanny, and earn as much as $700 a week, is virtually impossible. The only way is for the host family to begin a long, expensive and bureaucratic legal fight to establish the nanny's right to work. First they must prove they are unable to recruit a suitable American to be their childcarer and that they need help from overseas. It can involve as many as four state and federal government agencies, and massive legal costs.
The process of obtaining a Green Card took up to three years during the 1980s. Now it can take up to ten or 15 years because of tighter immigration and employment laws. The penalty for working illegally in the US is a five-year ban from the country. And the detection of those working illegally is set to be speeded up and intensified under yet newer immigration measures, code-named SEVIS, which are due to come into operation in the spring.
US law prevents anyone with a B-1/B-2 visitor visa from working as a childcarer, even if they only do it in exchange for room and board. The only exception to this rule is if the childcarer is accompanying a US citizen or non-immigrant visa holder to the US on a temporary visit. But this only applies if their employer normally resides outside the US.
For details you can contact the US embassy in London on 020 7499 9000.
