How to Vet a Nanny in Thailand: Background Checks, References and the Trial Day

Families hire nannies on a smile and a good feeling more often than they would ever admit, and most of the time it works out. When it does not, it is rarely dramatic — it is a nanny who does not come back, a story that does not add up, a bag that is heavier on the way out. Vetting is boring, takes two weeks, and is the only thing that turns a good feeling into a reasonable decision. Here is the checklist we run, and how to run it yourself.

1. Identity and the right to work

Start with the least interesting check. A Thai national shows a national ID card and house registration (tabien baan); photograph both and confirm the name and face match. A foreign carer — Filipino and Myanmar nannies are common in Bangkok — needs a passport with a valid visa and a work permit that covers domestic work for your household. A tourist visa or a work permit for a different employer is not eligibility, and employing someone on one exposes you as well as her.

If someone is evasive about documents, stop there. It is the one check that has no grey area.

2. Police criminal-record check

A Thai criminal-record check is run through the Royal Thai Police Criminal Records Division at their Bangkok office. It needs the candidate's signed consent, a copy of her ID and house registration, and one to three weeks. The result is a certificate stating whether there is a record. Foreign carers need the equivalent from their home country — the NBI clearance for the Philippines, for instance — which they can usually obtain through their embassy.

Agencies run this before a candidate reaches a family. If you are hiring directly, ask the candidate to obtain it; a nanny who has done this before will not blink, and one who has not can be walked through it.

3. References you actually call

A reference is a phone number, not a letter. Ask for at least two previous families and call them yourself, in Thai if you can or with a Thai-speaking friend if you cannot. The questions that get honest answers:

• How long was she with you, and why did she leave?
• Would you hire her again? (Listen for the pause.)
• Tell me about a difficult day — a sick child, a tantrum, an emergency. What did she do?
• Was there ever anything about honesty, punctuality or phone use that bothered you?
• Is there anything you wish you had known at the start?

Two clean references from families who kept her more than a year are worth more than any certificate. One reference that turns out to be a cousin is a reason to stop.

4. Training that matters

For anyone caring for a child under five, insist on child first-aid and CPR — a half-day course offered by the Thai Red Cross and several private providers. It is cheap, it is not universal, and it is the difference between a nanny who calls you when a child chokes and one who acts. Safe-sleep training matters for newborn roles; food-hygiene certification for anyone cooking.

Experience claims should be specific: which ages, how many children, how long, what the days looked like. "Ten years' experience" with no families to name is not experience.

5. The interview, in both languages

Interview in the language the nanny will use with your children and, if you have one, with a Thai speaker present. You are checking three things: whether she can describe a normal day in detail, how she talks about previous families, and whether she asks you anything. Good nannies ask about the children, the hours and the days off. Ones who ask nothing are either desperate or not listening.

Discuss the hard things now: phone use, discipline, screen time, what happens if you are late home, what happens if she is ill. Every one of these is easier at the kitchen table than at 19:30 on a Tuesday.

6. The paid trial day

This is the check that predicts success, and it is the one families skip to save a day's pay. A trial day is a full working day in your home, at the daily rate — ฿2,500–3,500 in Bangkok — doing the real job with you nearby but not hovering. You see how she handles the children, the kitchen and the boredom of an afternoon; she sees the home and the honesty of the brief. The children usually decide. At CareRova the trial-day pay is deducted from the first month if the placement goes ahead.

7. Write it down

The placements that fail in month two almost always fail over something that was never agreed: Saturday hours, whether cooking was included, the day off moving every week. Before day one, write a one-page agreement: days, hours, duties, salary and payday, days off, public holidays, notice period on both sides, and what happens when she is ill. Thai domestic-worker rules require at least one day off a week, paid public holidays and annual leave after a year; a fair agreement starts there.

Doing it yourself versus using an agency

Everything above can be done by a family directly, and if you have the time and a Thai speaker it costs a few thousand baht in fees and two to three weeks. What an agency adds is the volume — a shortlist rather than one candidate — and what happens afterwards: cover when she is ill, someone to call when something is wrong, and a replacement if it does not work. CareRova's rates include all of that on managed placements, and placement-only is available if you would rather employ directly once the vetting is done.