# Bringing nanny from the States



## lutzkk (Aug 18, 2011)

Has anyone brought their nanny from the U.S. with them to Dubai? I'm not sure where to look to research what I'd need to do if we wanted to do this. If you have experience here, please let me know. Thank you!


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## pamela0810 (Apr 5, 2010)

What nationality is your nanny? Out here nannies and maids are pretty much the same thing and you can only sponsor them from certain countries. The link below will give you all the details:

http://www.dubai.ae/en.portal?topic,Article_000546,1,&_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=home



> You can only sponsor a maid from the following countries: India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

A few British families have, at great expense, sponsored a special type of nanny/au pair from the UK, but it's far from the norm partly because maids in Dubai are cheap and cheerful and why bother with the hassles of bringing someone from overseas when you can get a nice Filipino girl for 1500 AED a month?



lutzkk said:


> Has anyone brought their nanny from the U.S. with them to Dubai? I'm not sure where to look to research what I'd need to do if we wanted to do this. If you have experience here, please let me know. Thank you!


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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

pamela0810 said:


> What nationality is your nanny? Out here nannies and maids are pretty much the same thing and you can only sponsor them from certain countries. The link below will give you all the details:
> 
> http://www.dubai.ae/en.portal?topic,Article_000546,1,&_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=home


I think you can sponsor a nanny from countries other than the above list, if the sponsor is also from that country. i.e. an American can sponsor an American Nanny.:tongue1:


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## wandabug (Apr 22, 2010)

TallyHo said:


> A few British families have, at great expense, sponsored a special type of nanny/au pair from the UK, but it's far from the norm partly because maids in Dubai are cheap and cheerful and why bother with the hassles of bringing someone from overseas when you can get a nice Filipino girl for 1500 AED a month?


Probably because the UK nanny is qualified and they can afford to give their kids the best care.


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2011)

TallyHo said:


> A few British families have, at great expense, sponsored a special type of nanny/au pair from the UK, but it's far from the norm partly because maids in Dubai are cheap and cheerful and why bother with the hassles of bringing someone from overseas when you can get a nice Filipino girl for 1500 AED a month?


Maybe because the kids and nanny have a bond together? And because a move overseas is such a big change, the family don't want to have to go through more uncertainty and hassle trying to find a nanny


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## starbright (Jun 14, 2009)

TallyHo said:


> A few British families have, at great expense, sponsored a special type of nanny/au pair from the UK, but it's far from the norm partly because maids in Dubai are cheap and cheerful and why bother with the hassles of bringing someone from overseas when you can get a nice Filipino girl for 1500 AED a month?


I'm a Brit and went to Dubai in the 90's with the English family I worked for as a nanny. I can honestly tell you that there is a HUGE difference between a British/ European nanny and a 'nice Filipino girl'. It amazed me how people could actually trust there maids with their children. On the compound I lived on you would see maids standing out by the pool while the children played in it - could any of these maids swim strong enough to help them if they got into trouble or had the first idea of first aid? Nooo!
I actually helped a woman give a basic first aid course to a group of housemaids and frankly it was frightening to realise just what their knowledge was.
Then there's the whole helping with the homework and actually speaking the English language properly (like wot I do  )


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## dwilkinson (Jan 26, 2011)

starbright said:


> I'm a Brit and went to Dubai in the 90's with the English family I worked for as a nanny. I can honestly tell you that there is a HUGE difference between a British/ European nanny and a 'nice Filipino girl'. It amazed me how people could actually trust there maids with their children. On the compound I lived on you would see maids standing out by the pool while the children played in it - could any of these maids swim strong enough to help them if they got into trouble or had the first idea of first aid? Nooo!
> I actually helped a woman give a basic first aid course to a group of housemaids and frankly it was frightening to realise just what their knowledge was.
> Then there's the whole helping with the homework and actually speaking the English language properly (like wot I do  )


Ok so I dont have a maid so dont have experience to ellaborate on their capability in regards to looking after children. But I am a mum of two and I am not trained in first aid response. Does that mean that I am not fit to look after my children? Does that mean that all the rest of the parents who have had no experience in childcare before they had their children are in the same position? 

And yes I do understand if you pay some one to look after your children you want them to have the best experience/qualification, but surely this is not the be all and end all???

Oh god, I am not a native english bringing my british children too.....bloody hell I think I match the criteria of a "maid"


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## lutzkk (Aug 18, 2011)

pamela0810 said:


> What nationality is your nanny? Out here nannies and maids are pretty much the same thing and you can only sponsor them from certain countries. The link below will give you all the details:
> 
> http://www.dubai.ae/en.portal?topic,Article_000546,1,&_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=home


Our nanny is American. Thanks for the link. I will check it out.


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## lutzkk (Aug 18, 2011)

nola said:


> Maybe because the kids and nanny have a bond together? And because a move overseas is such a big change, the family don't want to have to go through more uncertainty and hassle trying to find a nanny


You pretty much hit the nail on the head. We struggled to find a nanny in the States that we were comfortable with and we love our current nanny of 1 year. I've read on various forums that the nannys/maids that most Dubai expats sponsor can be hit or miss. This scares me. Hiring someone (sometimes sight unseen) to live with you and take care of your children (not full time by any means, but certainly some each day) is an enormous leap of faith. I don't even know if our nanny would consider it. I'm just trying to figure out what the process is in case we want to go this route.


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## Tropicana (Apr 29, 2010)

One reason might be if parents are rich and know they are busy so children will be spending most of their time with the nanny; they may want their children to know that fifty is pronounced fifty and not pipty. Or that snack is snack and not "snuck"

In 90% of cases, people are not hiring a au pair here, rather a maid. Some are good but none come close to what a qualified nanny/ au pair offers.

Then again as in other work sectors, the cheapest worker is preferred no matter how unqualified he or she may be.

For e..g there are so many workers hired nowadays simply because they are 200 dhs cheaper than other Asians, even though some of them dont know more than 3 words of English

We have a new security guard manning the reception of our tower, he literally doesnt know English or Arabic, when i asked "do you know English" he replied "Small". The previous one knew English and was replaced because this guy is cheaper.


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## Tropicana (Apr 29, 2010)

Talking of security guards even they are mostly untrained. I have noticed cases in some malls where people faint or teens act rowdily and the security staff just stands doing nothing; they even need to be told what to do and they give a blank look after that. The only places where guards know what they are doing are in the better malls, embassies and the larger hypermarkets, though in the latter they dont have any emotional intelligence ....


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