Parents Take Great Pains in Selecting Child’s Caregiver

WASHINGTON — A nervous new mother returning to work is desperate to find a nanny. An obliging immigrant shows up, asking for modest wages and cooing sweetly to the baby. The mother is tempted to hire her on the spot.

Then she thinks about Louise Woodward, the British au pair convicted in October of killing a baby in Massachusetts, and Zoe Baird, whose U.S. attorney general nomination was scuttled in 1993 because she hired an illegal Peruvian couple and never paid Social Security taxes for them.

The mother starts getting cold feet. Is the woman’s scratchy immigration card a valid work permit? How will she behave alone with a cranky baby? Is she a good driver? Can her would-be employers get into serious legal trouble if they lose their way in the maze of government forms required of those who hire immigrants?

These and other concerns have been the driving force behind Nannylaw, an 18-month-old legal service in Rockville, Md., that helps put a working parent’s mind at ease. For a hefty fee that starts at $800, co-founders Anne Albright and Laura Rhodes will check references of prospective household employees, search police and motor-vehicle records for any problems, make sure the employees are authorized to work in the United States and file the proper tax, insurance and Social Security forms.

“We got the idea for this practice because I have a great nanny at home, and I want people to be as happy with theirs as I am,” said Albright, 36, a Georgetown University Law Center graduate who has a 2-year-old and is the daughter of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.

At Nannylaw, if a family is sponsoring a foreign-born nanny to become a permanent legal resident, Albright and Rhodes will shepherd the application through. They advise parents on how to deal with emergencies or ask questions that will uncover a nanny’s views on physical discipline. In a pinch, they can also get on the phone and explain to an employee in Spanish what she is supposed to get at the grocery store.

The company is not the only local business that assists employers in hiring immigrants as domestics. Many families ask their tax lawyers or accountants to handle the paperwork. Immigration lawyers routinely help employers sponsor baby sitters for green cards. And there are a dozen employment agencies that specialize in providing qualified, often foreign-born, nannies.

“People have a baby on the way or they lose a nanny, and they panic about hiring someone,” said Rhodes, 39, an immigration and criminal lawyer who speaks fluent Spanish and is expecting her first child. “Many of our clients work in government or law, and they are very aware of the Zoe Baird situation. They want to make sure there are no mistakes.”

One way to keep a good foreign-born nanny is to sponsor her for permanent legal residence. But under recent changes in immigration law, the number of visas issued for such unskilled workers has been cut from 10,000 to 5,000 a year. This means many applicants will have to wait 10 years or more--long after their initial work permits expire--to be granted legal residence.

At the same time, Congress has made it much harder for illegal immigrants to stay here, or to return to the United States if they are caught. Last month, Congress briefly extended a law that lets illegal immigrants who are on track to becoming permanent residents remain in the United States if they pay a $1,000 fine. But after next month, that loophole, too, will be closed, and illegal immigrants will have to return to their native countries to wait for their residence permit, or risk being banned from ever returning.

Albright and Rhodes try to nudge the legalization process along, but sometimes there is nothing they can do.

In that case, they explain the legal risks to employer and employee. Sometimes the employee is let go, and occasionally a family will help her find another job abroad. But often, neither the family nor the nanny is willing to part company.

“I’m afraid there is very little relief for people in this situation now,” said one lawyer and mother in Maryland who did not want to be identified. “The bottom line for many of us is this: Unless you’re going into public life, what should you care about more, whether the person has a green card or whether she is a loving caregiver?”