Just listened to a US immigration lawyer who is president of some association of immigration lawyers talking about the detained British back packer that had been using workaway. He said this was the first case his association of immigration lawyers heard of immigration detaining a British citizen for breaking her tourist visa conditions. He said what is normal is to ask you to book an immediate flight out of the country and they’ll make sure you are on that plane and they may ban you from visiting for a few years. Apparently it can be a little more challenging if you or your family and friends don’t have funds to fly out of the country but I understand her father is willing to cover any costs to fly her home.
There are now new high profile cases every week, it feels. It is good to know that one risks getting detained in an orange prison suit by traveling to the US.
If you want to talk damage: real damage is done by THS pushing their “explanatory letters” adressed to the border officials.
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If you’re driving and say you’re staying at a hotel, be careful about what you pack or have an explanation ready. Because some sitters pack so much stuff that that might prompt questions. Like most normal hotel visitors don’t pack cookware, coffeemaker, vacuum or whatever else folks have mentioned on threads.
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I can confirm that in the years since Covid I’ve been asked to pop my trunk more times when crossing the border than in all the decades prior combined so definitely be wary of what you bring.
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I did think about that. When I travel by car I typically bring lots of stuff. But heading into Canada I’m just going to bring a small suitcase.
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deleted as similar article was already dropped.
That’s interesting. Because the last times I drove over were in 2017-2019 ish, and both times they hauled me over to search my car. No good reason that I could think of – going to visit friends for a few days and to a festival.
I just got back from the states and this time I felt like the customs guy had a lot more questions than he seemed to have for the cars in front of me, but at least he didn’t want to search the car again.
It was also the first time coming back to Canada that I was asked what stores I shopped at – rather than just what I bought and the value. He may have thought I didn’t buy enough things for a 2-week visit? Dude, I’m overwhelmed with stuff, I don’t need moar stuff – I could’ve given him a long lament about that if he’d suggested it 
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[quote]
…sitters as well as others are now facing challenges when they cross into the US and that the consequences have changed from simply being turned away to being taken into custody for an indeterminate amount of time. [/quote]
Geez. Reading those articles and the general tone of everything these days, I feel like I was lucky to get in & out on my recent sit, and unfortunately that might be my last trip to the states for a while!!
You would think with all the sabre-rattling and howling about malicious illegal immigrants, they’d be directing their attention elsewhere than random genuinely innocent tourists. And put them on a plane or turn them back at the border immediately, what the **** with the expense of detaining them for weeks.
It’s an evolving trainwreck. 
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Ultimately, everyone must consider their own risk tolerance, especially if there’s chance of increased scrutiny at borders. From a host perspective, there might also be re-evaluating going on — maybe they pass on foreign applicants.
From the POV of domestic U.S sitters, there might be less competition in prime U.S. locations if it turns out that fewer foreign sitters are interested in applying. Domestically, we’re lucky, because we have many sits and they’re quite diverse.
At my most recent sit — a repeat in a lovely home in San Francisco, with terrific hosts, lovable cats and loads of amenities — my hosts told me on our first sit, a month earlier, that they’d quickly drawn applicants and passed on some Italians. The hosts didn’t want to risk sitters from overseas.
What a shame for our wonderful world of sitting travel though if that’s the way it goes! #worldneedsfixing
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I think part of the issue may have been that these incidents happened at land crossings not airports, but it’s still a Kafkaesque nightmare and certainly a sign for sitters that the US is cracking down on tourist visa violations, and that multiple visits set off alarm bells for secondary screenings.
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And from my understanding the fact she got refused at the Canadian border which made the US border guards stop her when she tried to re- enter the US.
Sounds like a nightmare!
Some hotels make you waffles or have a waffle maker, so you can make fresh waffles. 
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Right. She wasn’t even originally stopped when entering the U.S. She spent time there volunteering/bartering labor. Canada stopped her and rejected her, sending her back for re-entry to the U.S. At that point, the Canadian rejection got her scrutiny at the U.S. border.
There’s a lot we don’t know and won’t be privy to in her case. But every day people are crossing borders and get through just fine. For me personally, I’d consider my risks based on my circumstances. Like I’m not a young person taking lots of time off and unable to show resources for supporting myself, which would make border agents wary in many countries.
Just wondering as I was browsing on this topic the other day and came up with this article:
(edited by Forum team to remove online article - please keep these kind of discussions more general)
Quite worrying!
I’m not looking for legal advice, just sharing experiences. I’ve been thinking of spending the Summer in UK in 2026.
I’m Italian although I also carry Irish citizenship, I should be ok and shouldn’t apply for the recently introduced ETA.
The post was edited by the Forum team, but they removed the question hence this message doesn’t have a lot of sense…
The question basically was: regarding sittings in UK, has any sitter/host been turned down because of VISA or similar restrictions?
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Like @Maggie8K has said, there are probably other details we aren’t going to know. If I had to guess, I suspect things unfolded in a similar way as those sitters who have encountered problems–she most likely immediately offered up information about the Workaway arrangement when being asked why she was visiting. Also, from what I have read, people crossing into both Canada and the US by land may be subject to more questions than someone flying in.
@Mokina–I do remember reading one post from a blog on another sitting site that talked about a US citizen encountering problems when coming to the UK. But like I mentioned above, her problem started when she voluntarily offered up this information to border guards who then decided to question her further about this arrangement, and I believe she was not allowed to enter the country but I can’t quite remember the exact outcome.
This is a very common theme in these pretty limited instances–they weren’t being directly asked if they were there to housesit or perform any sort of other specific activity, nor were they someone who was subject to any deeper questioning about their travel plans, and felt like they had no other choice but to reveal more specifics. They just seemed to freely state this when being asked the basic question a lot of people may be asked–why are you here? Most people would just say for a holiday.
So long as people don’t mention something like housesitting, Workaway or some other similar activity unprompted, they are unlikely to have an issue.
Though one thing I would say is that for anyone who is really concerned about this, I would not recommend saying you are staying with friends. If you were one of those rare instances of people selected for more extensive questioning, this ‘staying with a friend’ story has the potential to unravel very quickly.
I just crossed into the UK from Amsterdam by bus/ferry and there were no automated gates for passport control so we had to interact with border guards at the pier. He asked why we were here and for how long and I just let him know for tourism for at least a few weeks and didn’t have a set itinerary. He asked where we planned to go next and I told him we were most likely heading to Ireland–he asked if we had already purchased onward tickets but I was honest and said we did not as we didn’t know the exact day we would go there and from which area of the UK. He seemed fine with this.
In the event that someone was ever particularly suspicious of us, my husband and I both have online sources of income that we can show them as well as a pretty decent savings account.
So I think it would be very easy to prove to immigration that we have the means to support ourselves, aren’t intending to establish ourselves in a particular country long-term and work there illegally. So I wasn’t too worried about his line of questioning and that we didn’t have firm answers about our length of stay, our itinerary etc… Everything I said to him was actually the truth. Now if I had said I was staying with a ‘friend’–which really isn’t the truth-- and he wanted to probe that more, there may have been a different outcome.
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This was a recent experience reported on the forum
@Mokina
As you have Irish citizenship this wouldn’t have been an issue for you .
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@Mokina As an EU (Italian/Irish) citizen I think you will have no problem at all in the UK.
Just don’t say you are housesitting!! 
Say you are travelling around as a tourist, if asked. Always good to have a room booking for arrival to show if required.
But most likely you’ll pass through e-gates and not have to interact with anyone!
Enjoy your housesitting in UK! We’re headed there next week (from India) with two sits lined up before heading back on the continent for the next one in the south France!
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