I hope you’re all doing well! As some of you might have seen, CBC News recently posted an article about a few of our members experiencing border issues while travelling.
A few of you were eager to chat about this yesterday, but as we mentioned, we had to hold off on diving into that conversation for a bit. We wanted to make sure that no ongoing immigration-related matters were being impacted, but rest assured, we’ve passed along your comments and feedback to the Trusted Housesitters team.
The good news is that we can now open up a space for you all to discuss the article! Please remember to keep the conversation respectful and within our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service.
We also want to clarify that while we understand the curiosity and questions you might have, the Forum team doesn’t have any more information to share. We can’t address specifics about individual cases, elaborate on statements made by TrustedHousesitters or journalistic content. If you do have any questions or concerns, we recommend reaching out to Membership Services directly.
The article and various sitters’ experiences underscore that anyone who sits abroad needs to exercise judgment and be discreet. If they’re not comfortable just saying that they’re traveling for pleasure, then they should be prepared to be refused entry and maybe get a black mark on file and be refused entry in the future.
It’s also clear that the letters that THS shares can do more harm than good, and sitters use them at their own risk.
To me, it’s common sense that no company — whether THS or otherwise — can sway any country’s border policies or laws. I’d never use the THS letters, because they’d incriminate the sitter.
Perfectly said. International travel, at the best of time needs research and a certain level of street smarts. There is no excuse now days to be unprepared. The THS “letter” was ill conceived and has just confused the issue.
Good answers @Maggie8K.
I’ve only been stopped once by border agents in multiple sits across Europe (as a Brit). This was in Berlin airport. The border agent was friendly buy asked my purpose of travel, where I was going to be staying and what sights I was going to check out while I was there. I told him I was staying with a friend, here’s there address, these are the things I’d like to see while in Berlin and as my friends place is close to Treptower park what did he make of said park? He was happy to stamp my passport and let me through then.
A Trusted Housesitters spokesperson told CBC it’s aware of only a “very small number of border agents not being satisfied” with its explanatory letters.
I really find it hard to imagine. Suppose a US border guard stops a Canadian. They tell the guard they will be petsitting. The guard wants to deny entry. Then the sitter shows the THS letter. And that magically satisfies the border guard?? I don’t believe that could ever happen.
I would think that showing the letter only hurts a sitter’s chances of getting admitted, because it shows that they were aware and it shows that there is a commercial company behind this. Also the kind of mansplaining tone of the letter risks putting off the official.
We have travelled all over the world and pet sat in 3 continents, never ever had problems with border guards.
Our rules -
Never joke, they have no sense of humour
Always book a hotel/airbnb for the first night in the country. It is easier to use this than a “friends” house.
Tourists and mention some places your going to sight see at.
Answer questions but never give any other information unless asked for.
Never complain. It’s their country, their rules.
We perfected this while sailing and checking in and out of over 60 countries on our yacht. We called it the fixed smile entry and exit syndrome.
I landed in Ireland for a few days of leisure after a sit. The border agent asked where I was staying and I couldn’t remember the neighborhood, so I said my hotel’s near a bunch of bars. Then I paused and said, well, I guess that wouldn’t narrow things down in Dublin. He laughed, told me to enjoy myself and sent me on my way.
When I go on sits, I enter my hosts’ address and such into my mobile address book beforehand and know what they do for a living, because friends know stuff like that. And if asked, I’m prepared to say that we met in an online forum about pets. Any info about sitting, I store in the cloud, so I don’t have anything incriminating easily visible, because border agents can check your electronic devices if they’re suspicious. I also take a screenshot of my bank balance before I go, in case they want to see proof of funds and I can’t get a signal to access a bank app.
I do the above, because I saw a video series on border security and various countries’ border agents screen for stuff like the above. They basically don’t want visitors breaking the law and/or unable to support themselves. And various countries see sitting in exchange for housing as doing work, which they don’t allow visitors to do.
Sometimes, folks post in the forum or elsewhere that they don’t consider it work. Well, border agents don’t care what we or THS think.
Yet more people who haven’t done their homework. However, I can understand that some people wouldn’t be comfortable in not bringing up the fact they’ll be housesitting. I’ve not been asked yet by border guards what my purpose is except recently when entering Denmark for a few days when I wasn’t housesitting. I would always book a few days in an Airbnb/hotel before a housesit abroad and give that address. I can also consider homeowners as friends as, by the time I arrive, will have had at least one video call and lots of communication so they feel like friends.
We’d never mention housesitting while travelling abroad. Completed a few sits in Canada and only been asked briefly for our purpose of visiting, at Toronto & Montreal airports. We also had the hotel booked for a couple of nights but they didn’t ask to show any accommodation proof. When travelling to Panama for our sit, we asked the owners (who had B&B there) to provide a booking confirmation for us, just in case, as they were picking us up from the airport. While travelling to Madrid (from the UK), no questions asked, the same with Caribbean, but we also had a place booked for a day or two.
And like @Maggie8K , we take a screenshot of our bank balance. Also, we are doing mostly long sits (2-3 months) and always trying to create friendly relationship with the owners beforehand - similar to what @Smiley is doing.
The whole letter thing feels like THS’s lawyers have told the company, “Do not tell sitters to tell border guards they’re coming in to stay at a friend’s house.” The letter is absolute BS, and it’s disingenuous for THS to even recommend using it.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to discuss this latest news article. I am not condoning THS responses to this type of issue and as a full time traveler I do feel for the people involved, but also feel that pet sitters need to be proactive in researching the rules of the countries they plan to visit and how to handle the issue of a work permit. Please stop relying on others to watch your back… from the discussions I see in the forum, and with directly homeowners, my experience has been that members don’t realize THS’s role in the transaction.
Their Terms of Service state, in several sections, how they are not party to the contract between HO and Petsitter…
Section 1.4. “We are not involved directly in discussions between Members or the arrangement or performance of any Sit and are not a party to any agreements you may make with other Members.”
or Section 2 that starts as “2.1. When you arrange a Sit via our Platform, you are entering into an agreement between yourself and a Pet Parent or Sitter (as applicable). " and continues
" 2.2. We are not party to any agreement, contractual or otherwise, between a Pet Parent and a Sitter.”
so why rely on their information about how to handle border issues (a legal matter)?
I agree with doing your own homework, but THS is knowingly creating confusion for unsuspecting folks. It’s needless for them to do that. They could just remove the letters and say nothing other than suggest that folks do their own homework, because each country has its own policies and laws about visitors.
Because they claim to have gotten the text of these letters from immigration lawyers?
And many people seem to have the impression that THS is a kind of members’ organization, not just yet another rather lucrative company that wants/needs to grow and make even more profit.
The solution is so simple: I tell the border agents the truth – that I’m in the country for purposes of tourism. That’s genuinely why I’m there; I want to explore the place and be a tourist. I always have a booking for the first few nights at a hotel or Airbnb, so if they ask about my lodgings, I can tell them truthfully where I’m headed.
Border agents do not demand to know where you’re staying for every single night you spend in their country! It’s totally normal to start out at one lodging, and move around spontaneously. Even if I’m not pet-sitting at all, I often travel spontaneously and find various sorts of lodgings on the spot. So there is no need to mention that some of your nights in country might be pet-sitting. (Or they might not; hosts cancel, stuff happens…) You are still honestly a tourist. I’m totally baffled as to why anyone says anything else at a border crossing.
And staying in a hotel or Airbnb the first few nights makes sense, anyway: You need to rest up from travel, and orient yourself, before you can reasonably show up to care for someone’s animals. Plus if your flight is delayed, you don’t want it to make you late for your pet-sit. If you can’t afford paid lodgings for a few nights, you shouldn’t be doing international pet-sits, because THS arrangements can always fall through.
"While she feels Trusted Housesitters should be held accountable, she also regrets not doing deeper research before becoming a member. "
While I agree that THS should never have offered these letters as a “resource” to sitters and should be removed from their website, this is the crux of the issue, sitters relying on unofficial, non government, immigration information and not doing enough research for international travel! It’s easy to blame others for your lack of due diligence!
Unless THS are going to offer protection of an international legal team who can be contacted 24/7 to back up the claims in these letters - IMHO THS should not offer misleading legal advice to sitters ( in the form of these letters ) . These letters give sitters a false sense of security that they will be ok if they show the letter - a letter which will actually get them into even more trouble with the Border Control.
I never paid attention to the letter as I had no intention of using it but I have just read the article and in this quote:
“more cost-efficient manner of vacationing, and NOT to seek a 'job ’ [or] to take away an employment opportunity”
It’s clear it’s not going to work because it’s basically not true. We certainly do not seek a job but we are taking care of houses and pets and those activities are otherwise job opportunities for other people.
Also the expression
“we, respectfully, do not feel that the above-described arrangements would fall under this category.”
doesn’t sound like a legal term. Who cares what THS or anyone feels when it comes to international immigration issues and knowing that an immigration officer can deny your entry even when you have a visa?