I’ve followed a YouTuber couple for a few years who’ve been travelling for 6 mths in the USA, and producing some very positive vlogs. They returned to the UK and were planning to go back except one of them was refused a tourist visa despite having one before without issue and no overstay. It looks as though the issue might’ve been they were ‘working’ as You Tubers rather than simply being tourists…. so is this similar to House sitting being classed as ‘work’.
If the You Tubers hadn’t released videos until they returned home would this invalidate a tourist visa retroactively? If sitters make friends before a trip with hosts is the house/pet sitting then no longer ‘work’? What about if you write a Book about your travels on a tourist visa, is that ‘work’.
Doubt there’s definitive guidance on such. Probably best to go under the radar and, if that doesn’t work, hope you get a bureaucrat or border agent who’s lenient.
I’m thinking about the sitters who also are You Tubers making it even more likely to be seen as ‘work’ in a variety of countries. I know a few THS members are content creators on You Tube. Presumably they don’t have tourist visas though?
At least in the U.S., you can’t do any work on a tourist visa. To work, you’d need other visas, but I don’t know whether they’d give them to YouTubers. Like even when we had employees from abroad come to our U.S. offices and/or come to attend conferences or such, they had to get B-1 temporary work visas, for example. And we were well-established companies, with plenty of employees abroad, and our lawyers routinely knew how to apply. That probably made things go smoothly and quickly, versus some unknown or new company, or self-employment or such. Those might be viewed with greater skepticism by border agents or bureaucrats.
Indonesia has been cracking down on this a bit, lots of influencers in Bali on tourist visas shooting content making money. They can be disruptive or disrespectful and there have been instances where their visas have been revoked and they have been deported. Countries are getting wise to this and some are taking action.
I don’t know the rules, but it amazes me how there’s potential problems as to whether or not pet sitting for free is perceived as a job when it’s in exchange for accommodation, when there are loads more people making videos to post on their channel for income and you never hear of them getting pulled.
In my eyes it doesn’t matter whether they post their video after their return, they are still carrying out a work role in a different country.
Yet another reason personal petsitting blogs, youtube videos, “influencer” status (the most egregious of all for too many reasons to list), etc. are generally not a good idea.
I’ve not consumed pet sitting content and have no interest in producing my own content of any sort, but love lots of social media posts/vlogs about travel and more. They often have lots of good info and, even if not, it’s fun to experience some things vicariously, even if I have no interest in doing X firsthand.
I also don’t begrudge folks making a living or side money as influencers or such. It takes a lot of hustle and consistency to make that kind of thing pay.
A really interesting story. A monetised channel would certainly heighten the “here for work” issue but as others have said that would also apply to authors, photographers, baseball card collectors (a bit of a stretch there but you get the point).
But what really scares me is the surveillance that would be necessary for their system to flag a content creator when applying for a visa. I’m also a bit confused about the story as my understanding is the initial visa has a validity of two years? Were they turned away at the border or advised the visa was cancelled?
We create content but primarily so our friends and family can keep up with our travels and as a creative outlet. I have no interest in the channel being monetised so “technically” the channel wouldn’t add any more to the immigration risk beyond the already heightened risk of sitting as barter.
Would love to hear more about their experience. Would you mind sharing their channel?
Other “influencers” have been caught out, one of which was a THS advocate but she advertised the fact to immigration on arrival and got denied accordingly. But that was at the border.
The Channel is called Those Happy Days.
The comments on the most recent video discuss the issue of tourism v work.
Thank you!
Maggie, that’s an AI response and cannot be guaranteed to be correct.
No kidding. If you feel like, please consult a lawyer. No one is giving specific advice to any individual’s case here.
Note: Even lawyers cannot offer guarantees.