That’s great news @Stefania - wishing you a wonderful sit in Florida! Please make sure to let us know how it goes!
Good luck. Florida is beautiful!
I really wish THS would add a section to the sitters’ profile to say, “Legally authorized to work in…” and then a list of countries or areas. This would of course be self-report and I would not expect THS to police this. But what happened to you, @Stefania, is happening to a lot of sitters - with the immigration crackdowns in the US, HOs are quite reluctant to accept sitters from overseas. This despite the fact that many sitters have dual citizenship, work permits, or other reasons why it is perfectly legal for them to sit in the US, and vice versa. I am legally authorized to work in countries where it would not be obvious from my background or profile, and I’d love to be able to indicate on my profile that, for example, I am legally authorized to work in any Schengen-area country.
But I am NOT authorized to sit in the UK. It would make it SO much simpler, @Jenny , if HOs could search for sitters legally authorized to sit in their area. Again, I’m not expecting THS to police this - it would be self report. But I don’t want UK homeowners contacting me, since I can’t sit there, and I do want Schengen area HOs contacting me. And as you can see with @Stefania, she wanted a sit in Florida but many people assumed, incorrectly, that she was Italian and couldn’t legally sit there.
I don’t think listing citizenship is the answer, since you don’t have to be a citizen to be legal. Just “Legally authorized to work in…” And if that could be used to filter out things in the search, too, that would be even better. I’m tired of sifting through the hundreds of UK search results that I can’t legally do, when all I want is Schengen-area Europe. From a technology perspective, this is pretty easy to do.
I’ll pass your feedback over to the team @KittySitter
Thanks for your concern and sharing @KittySitter. I actually don’t know if it’s the same issue and I question the idea that Housesitting for no pay is “work” that requires any kind of legal permission like a visa or similar. Have you looked directly into this? Have you spoken with a specialized lawyer in the target country, in your case, the UK?
For me it was more that I am new to TH, and arriving from abroad, traveling to the US which, as I understood it might have been perceived as potentially complicated because of recent immigration issues. So that’s really an entry question not a question of work legality or status since, to my knowledge, housesitting through this platform shouldn’t be deemed as a job. I have to assume that TH has looked into this subject long ago. If not, well maybe they should. And I agree that you should be able to limit your search to Schengen countries.
As a US citizen living abroad visiting the US, the situation is fortunately more advantageous. In fact, I’ve already been assigned two sits!
Can you explain your direct experience that makes you think you can’t legally housesit in the UK? Does that apply to any non UK citizen? Are you a hundred percent sure of this?
Please present all the information you have so that we can fully understand the issue. If this problem exists we all need to know.
And can I ask that you present this in a new thread? This seems like a big topic that merits it’s own discussion.
Thanks!
@Stefania there is a very very long discussion on the problems of sitting & work. All your questions are covered here Challenges with Border Guards - RE the Laws
Yes, @Stefania, as @Crookie says this has been explored extensively in that other thread. Every person will be different but yes, I am 100% certain that in my case, I cannot legally housesit in the UK. When the UK was a member of the EU I could have, but with Brexit that is no longer the case.
My situation is not indicative of anyone else’s - when in doubt, consult an immigration attorney.