From the WWOOF UK website:
The main reason for your visit to the UK must be for tourism or to visit friends or relations. So, assuming you do not have a visa which you know will allow you to enter the UK to volunteer as a WWOOFer, WWOOFing should always be incidental to your visit, and not the main reason for it.
A visa that allows volunteer work is required, so they are essentially telling people to say the purpose of the visit is tourism or visiting friends/family.
FWIW, yesterday, an anonymous poster on the unofficial Facebook group posted that they — as a U.S. passport holder — were stopped and interrogated while entering the U.K., and “My belongings were searched and I had to show receipts for all accommodations during my stay.”
“I was even asked if I was entering the country to do animal care. Luckily, I have receipts to cover every day of my stay except 4 days. Otherwise, I could have been banned from ever returning to the UK!”
They said their passport was flagged as they went through e-gates, directing them to a human border agent. Who knows why they were flagged — they blamed their THS membership, which would be odd, because immigration officials probably wouldn’t have legal access to such.
(I posted a screenshot of this person’s post yesterday and it was rejected by forum moderators here. Maybe the screenshot was a problem.)
Yes I saw that on the Facebook group, a big argument going on about it. How could immigration possibly know this anonymous person was a member of THS unless they told them? Must be some other reason they were flagged.
You said that “those are also illegal”, referring to WWOOF, WorkAway and HelpX. And I’m saying: they’re not illegal. It’s legit volunteer work.
Whether your visa allows it, is a different discussion thus let’s not conflate the two. Discussion closed.
I saw this yesterday too. Unless they demanded THS hand over the names of all their members to create some sort of ‘watchlist’ similar to terrorists, I can’t see how they would have had anything to do with it.
While I am not privy to the priorities and agenda of immigration officials in this country or any other, I can’t imagine any are sitting around wringing their hands, worrying what to do about housesitters, who make up a miniscule fraction of the tens of millions of visitors who enter countries like the UK or US. But who knows?
Yup, it didn’t seem to make sense about why blame THS membership. But I found the search and questioning about animal-sitting interesting. Seems like an unusual Q to ask. It will be useful to see whether anyone who’s not posting anonymously says something similar in coming months.
Has anyone else been to the US house sitting from the UK? Did you need a visa?
We have agreed a sit in California in January and are very excited about the trip and meeting the lovely doggies we will be looking after.
However, we have now heard that the US immigration authorities class house-sitting (even if it is unpaid) as unauthorized work under the visa waiver scheme, and we may not be allowed in without a visa. Advice online is conflicting and I haven’t yet been able to contact anyone at trusted housesitters except a chat bot that couldn’t help.
THS won’t give you specific immigration info.
The U.S. doesn’t legally allow visitors to come do sits. You’ll need to just say you’re a tourist.
Whatever you do, don’t use the letter provided by THS, just say you’re a tourist. Personally I would book the first night in a hotel, to reinforce this.
Never say you are going to housesit- it is too risky. And definitely do not show the THS letter! Either action more or less guarantees being turned away at the border!
If you are staying in a hotel first then have those details available to show.
If going directly to the sit you could say your are visiting friends and touring and give the HOs name and address. You may be questioned about your relationship to them so have a story prepared and make sure you inform the HO too so they are kept in the loop!!
And if you have a return ticket, it is probably good to be able to show that too. Just look like a normal touristing very temporary visitor.
You would not be able to obtain any sort of visa that would allow you to do so something like house sitting. US border officials have stated that an activity like this would be classified as ‘work’ and wouldn’t be allowed on a tourist visa.
It is kind of like all those volunteer opportunities that people do–in most places you can’t really do them on a tourist visa but they do it anyway. I don’t think in either situation, much harm is being done. It isn’t any sort of ‘immoral’ behavior.
People housesit internationally as a way of engaging in leisure travel at a reduced cost, so while they are providing some sort of service to the host, their motivation is to see the place as a tourist not work a ‘job’. I always found it odd that people would even mention housesitting.
I never did all these years and it wasn’t because I was trying to hide it–if wasn’t until very recently that I even realized it could be viewed as a problem. So in the rare instances I was even asked my reason for being in the country, I said for tourism, and I never felt I was lying.
The US got over 66 million international visitors last year, and I imagine they process people pretty quickly, especially if you are a visa-exempt national entering with that waiver ( I am a US citizen so I only know the process from that angle). This means you are unlikely to face any extensive questioning about your travel plans unless you seem particularly suspicious in some way, which most tourists probably don’t.
I think it is important to note that the one highly publicized incident that gets all that attention was not a typical experience in that the only reason this person faced more extensive questioning is because they had recently been in the US for an extended period, so the guard wanted to know more about what they had been doing there, and at that point she mentioned the sitting. So unless you are someone who has been entering the US regularly for longer visits, you probably wouldn’t find yourself in this same position.
There seem to be at least a dozen cases per year.
It is not uncommon that border guards ask where one will be staying. Maybe you never had that question, but people that look like a hotel would be expensive for them do get asked that. I heard it on the Flixbus when I crossed the Dutch-German border earlier this week. Then you need an answer that is not a lie.
Just another case at the US border. A sitter from Canada tells about it in the Facebook group today. She showed the THS letter to the border guards.
In the same thread also a reply by someone else:
After they took our bio-metrics and made files for each of us they turned us away explaining that we have a file set up now and if we ‘try’ this again we will be charged with ‘fraud’ and be restricted from entering the U.S. for 5 years !!
We are both retired Canadians with No criminal records.
As we were being escorted back to Canada they made me feel dirty, and like a criminal.
Why oh why won’t THS scrap those letters? It is so damaging to its members.
It’s definitely a worry. I’m in Canada.
I had a lovely sitter from UK. Has been here twice and on the first sit was extensively questioned- got through but a bit of a worry. Answer a question the wrong way, or more picky customs agent, may have been turned away. We would have been scrambling not to mention the stresses on the sitter. The risk is real. It may be infrequent. But it is real and I do not think THS has identified the risk adequately.
I think that the more experienced members will be aware of this, and what to say (I’m a tourist) and not do (use the THS letter), but I can see a few newbies being caught out . Immigration do seem to be tightening up on this.
Agreed. The best that THS could do is withdraw the ridiculous letters, which beg trouble, and avoid lulling people into false confidence.
THS should just tell folks to check policies in each country and avoid exposing them and THS to unnecessary legal risks with those letters.
THS can’t promise how any country will handle such cases (and the countries themselves are inconsistent) and THS’s opinion on legality is worthless. No country will do X on THS’s or any other company’s opinion. The idea is ludicrous when anyone applies common sense.
As for sitters who take sits abroad, they’re taking on legal risks in nearly all cases, unless they have a legal right to work in that country. If you can’t comfortably and convincingly say you’re there for tourism or such, then you risk being refused entry. And that might include a black mark for future visits, whether sitting or otherwise.
It could be much worse than 5-year ban. It could be a permanent ban, with no chance of a waiver or appeal. Specificlly the Immigration and Nationality Act states:
Any alien who, by fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact, seeks to procure (or has sought to procure or has procured) a visa, other documentation, or admission into the United States or other benefit provided under this Act is inadmissible."
In the US: Whenever anyone applies to my sit from another country, I ALWAYS refer them to this thread, and discuss the issue. Some sitters have been completely unaware. Others have reassured me that they are aware and don’t usually face issues either because they actually have a US passport, are coming in on a non-tourist visa, are traveling with a US citizen, have a hotel stay planned before the sit and a return ticket for a relatively short stay, etc.
I’ve had a few Canadians apply and specifically because of some issues, especially with people driving across, I’ve declined them.
Just want to add, based on my experience as an NYC host, a lot of the “foreign” applicants are true “tourists” not regular nomadic sitters. Many of them are clearly looking at a chance to stay 5-10 days at a saving of easily $250USD a day for a decent hotel, and further savings because they could have most meals at home. This is especially true as Airbnb has been so restricted. As a host, I would reject a lot of these sitters even without the border challenges because many of them don’t have a lot THS experience or petsitting experience of any kind. Often they sound like great people, but probably not the best fit for my aging multi-cat home. They also seem to be the most surprised to hear about the border restrictions, and probably joined thinking it would be a great and easy travel hack.