Where are you staying?
We have some friends here and there. We stay in Hotels along the way.
This is an adventure, we stay at a friends home for a start and then see where we will go. We haven’t booked anything yet.
So what do you think? I bet we are not that important to them, so they won’t monitor us constantly while we are in the US.
You know, it’s allowed that circumstances change, also while travelling.
Late to the party… admit to not having read all 503 posts so far!!..
I’ve done 2 sits in the USA (from Canada) in the past year & a half. In both cases flying and the primary interest was events, that I mentioned I was going to, and that was sufficient. No “sits” mentioned.
This time planning to drive across the border and fly from a US airport, much cheaper. No big events to mention this time.
In neither previous sit did I get that “letter”. This time TH sent it.
I won’t be taking it, after reading people’s experiences.
Purpose of trip: “a couple weeks’ escape from winter, visit some friends”. It’s a repeat sit so I can say we’ve known each other a year or so. I have a hotel address for the first night.
I think I’ve got it figured out – do y’all think I need to do/not do anything else?
The only extra thing I’d suggest is have your hosts address to hand to give to border control should they ask, and make sure you and your host have matching stories should they, in (worst case scenario), be called!!
Best way to cope with the “where are you staying” is book the first night in a hotel and have the address and reservation available. They never ask anymore, well in our experience.
Yes, sure. I would even recommend to book a refundable tariff that you then cancel after border control. Or maybe a few refundable booking over your “travelling” time, so you can say where you will be when approx.
No biggie
Funny story (well we thought it was funny).
I have lost count of the times we have gone through immigration in US. Many times it was arriving on a private yacht, dealing with Border Security. Now, in my mind, a private yacht is an ideal way to bring in banned contraband. I have lost count how many times we “booked in” without the personnel even seeing the boat far less searching it.
Once we came into Elizabeth River, North Carolina. Ito get to the dock the boat has to pass a huge naval base with small armed boats scooting around making sure no one gets too close to the huge aircraft carriers etc. no pictures either. They will board the boat if they are remotely suspicious. So, we got through that huge tangle and docked. We had already called Border Control as we approached Hampton Roads Bridge and told them our ATA and where we were landing so they were alerted. We got to the dock, tied up, got the kettle on, we are British and a cup of tea is always a priority, and greeted our friends from afar. Going into a new country which you haven’t “booked” into yet a yellow quarantine flag has to be flown and there cannot be any contact till the forms are filled in and everyone is happy.
Along came the authorities, a lovely man and woman. We have always found these people are kind, efficient and wonderful people apart from one in St Augustine who was a jobs worth and we named him Officer Dibble from the Topcat cartoon. They came aboard and we offered them a cup of tea. Now, from when we radioed them to tell them of our intentions to when we docked was a couple of hours. In that time the lady security officer had done some research and found our travel blog and by the questions she had had read most of it. Ok, we thought, this is not going to be the usual casual check in. Standing to attention we waited for the interrogation. The questions came thick and fast. Where? Why? What? With a huge sigh, we realised she was interested in a personal way of our travels and we spent two hours talking about our sailing experiences and what we have done already and what was next. By the time it was time for them to go we had exchanged emails and were best of friends. As they stepped into the dock, they realised we hadn’t done any of the form filling or passport stamping so they had to come back onboard.
Maybe, with experiences like this it has made us far more relaxed when crossing international borders. They have a job to do and “most” of them just want to do it with no complications. We try to make it easy for them by having the information on hand they need to check us in. Most of them couldn’t care less what your intentions are so tourist and the name of a hotel with the reservation on display is enough to stop the questions. Never joke with them, it might make you appear nervous. Only answer the questions asked and never volunteer information.
These simple things have made our life so much easier for the past ten years.
For folks who are worried and don’t feel comfortable lying or stretching what you believe to be true, the easiest thing to do is to sit domestically or only in places where you’re authorized to work.
What’s the point of arguing about this when everyone’s comfort levels will differ? There’s no cookie-cutter approach and the risks carry potential consequences, but everyone has different risk tolerances and the consequences will weigh differently for various folks. Like if I were blackballed from X country if I had the bad luck to be caught, maybe it wouldn’t be great, but I could live with it.
Again, I don’t understand why you are aiming this toward me or my remarks. This is thread about challenges with border guards. Under the present circumstances, as someone living in the US, I would expect there to be more challenges at the border. And I’ve said so. Recently my spouse and I came home from Europe. With our US passports and spouse’s “Global entry” we were still subject to more than the usual questioning at immigration. If this is happening to citizens, I would imagine it would happen to non-citizens. The reason people get asked these questions is in part to make sure people won’t overstay their visas so yes I’d imagine that something the US government considers “employment” that would allow people to stay here longer would be scrutinized more. That is my opinion and I think given that i’m on the ground here it has some weight.
I don’t know why in reply to me are telling me what you would say to the border guards. I’m not arguing with you about what you plan to tell them. You can tell the border guards whatever you want. Factually, most people get through without much questioning. If you follow this thread however you’ll see that some people don’t. If you’ve ever travelled you are probably aware that sometimes randomly people get stopped for secondary screenings. It is my belief that these “challenges” are bound to increase at US borders.
The only extra thing I’d suggest is have your hosts address to hand to give to border control should they ask, and make sure you and your host have matching stories
Ha, yes, thought of that too – thanks! The HOs are not super-organized people so I would hope she’d remember that in our Zoom I said, “coming for a visit don’t mention housesitting!”
You’d better remind her. And I wouldn’t volunteer information. I would first stick to the
If they ask about where you’re staying. I would then say the name of the hotel you are staying at the first night. Perhaps if you see they are in an interrogatory mood, you can add that you will then visit some friends.
Border agents can ask what they like from their repertoire. Sometimes randomly.
Like I’m an American with a U.S. passport and speak English with an American accent. I went to Edinburgh on vacation (had a hotel booked and a return plane ticket) and a border agent asked me whether I had family in Scotland. I wish! But random. (I’m Asian, with an Asian last name.)
A week later, I did a sit in Glasgow, but I of course didn’t volunteer that, because that would be crazy.
Of course border control asks random things. I travelled about 130 countries so far and got asked a lot of stuff, obvious or nonsense stuff. And I told them a lot, obvious and nonsense stuff.
With the new entry rules for Spain I talked to my host pre sit to organise an invitation letter as advised by the UK gov site if staying with a friend (which I would declare sitting under).
The HO had a nightmare trying to get this completed via the official places needed with government computer issues and a seemingly changing policy due to overwhelm on the systems. The host spent a month trying to complete the paperwork without success. So I flew into Tenerife with some reservations but the border guy just smiled, welcomed me and stamped my passport.
So I’m not sure if it’s selected people that will be asked to present the ‘invitation’ letter? Not sure if this letter will be in addition to the incoming Schengen zone esta?
There are no new entry rules in Spain. The rules that apply are EU regulations from 2016 and 2018 and a Spanish law from 2007.
I think the confusion comes from terrible media coverage of a new rule regarding the information hotels, car rental businesses and other tourist companies are required to collect from clients. I think this was around November.
Invitation letter?
We arrived in Spain at the beginning of December. No invitation letter, nothing new from our last visit apart from having to give some more details to the hosts at an Airbnb that we stayed in between sits. We have now sat in 8 or 9 countries and not once had a problem with Border Staff.
Don’t let posts like that put anyone off International sits. Do your own research and decide yourself whether to follow the dream or not.
The HOs are not super-organized people so I would hope she’d remember that in our Zoom I said, “coming for a visit don’t mention housesitting!” 
