The rules don’t necessarily pertain to the logic of “taking away someone’s job.” The law is the law and different countries have different visas and different rules about who can do what on which kind of visa. Part of the “logic” of some of the US laws is the government does’n’t want people to overstay their visas, so potentially with in-kind work like housesitting for accomodation, someone could stay indefinately as it’s a loose system and people might be tipping, giving food, or paying travel expenses. There’s also the idea of “volunteer” opportunities becoming exploitative or being fronts for various kinds of trafficking.
I’m not defending the rules or the laws, but it’s basically like someone getting stopped for speeding and trying to talk their way out of a ticket by saying that they are very safe drivers and were in complete control of the vehicle. Sometimes the law is just the law.
There may be some exceptions but in general most countries don’t want their citizens deprived of work opportunity by foreigners. That is exactly why there are work visas that are distinct and different from travel visas and are much more difficult to obtain.
The US system asks a lot of questions geared toward making sure people aren’t going to overstay. Some of these involve “work” some of these involve living situations which is why even staying with a “friend” or “relative” will sometimes set off alarm bells.
Trusted House Sitters started in the U.K. in 2010 . At the time British nationals could legally visit , live or work in all the countries in Schengen Area ( most of Europe ) without any restrictions on the type of work or the length of their stay . And vice versa.
So the issues around house sitting being considered work by immigration officers was a problem that was rarely if ever encountered when TrustedHouseSitters started .
I just saw this in the newspaper. So it seems that this is not entirely new, but still could be good to know that it might get horribly expensive after February 25.
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