Please share experiences with countries other that the benighted USA (my home) regarding housesitting vis a vis it being an exchange of services or something that does not fit traveling on a tourist visa.
There is a recent thread about Ireland
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We never disclose we are Housesitters to any immigration officials in any country we travel to. We say we are on holiday. We are middle aged / retired. I guess this is why we have never been questioned in 8 years of housesitting overseas. THS website have letters for immmigration, that members can print off.
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Probably better to ask which countries don’t consider house sitting as work.
Previous threads show that the majority of countries do consider it as work .
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This is curious as I spent two months in Ireland last winter. At customs I said that I was on holiday and doing some genealogy research which is the truth.
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Not an expert, but I think MOST countries or at least many of them are going to have rules about in-kind services even when no money is exchanged. The US is not an outlier. If probably makes sense if you are thinking of sitting in those countries, to find out the rules for each one. There also might be complicated exceptions like with EU or schengen. So asking randomly on a thread is probably not the best idea.
The main difference now with the US, is they’ve gotten crazy strict and intrusive, so coming here even as a tourist with only tourist plans can feel risky, and there is of course the possibility that other countries that aren’t as strict, might be a bit retailiatory towards US citizens, so there is that.
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That’s interesting. While a Dublin sit is my dream, I’d probably combine it with something else and it wouldn’t even occur to me to mention housesitting at the border, just tourism, and I’d probably come in with a night or two at a hotel.
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Yes, I would love to find out the rules for each country; however, I spent (for example) a great deal of time on several official Australian websites, and the only reference I found to housesitting or exchange of services was a friendly advice piece for Aussies to properly vet a housesitter. Hence, I am seeking real world experiences from this community.
@JohnT, perhaps a better question may be which countries have border agents that are currently aggressively enforcing housesitting as employment with in-kind compensation. To our knowledge, and could be wrong, related laws have been constant for some time. But recently some countries have determined to increase expectations of border enforcement.
That said, if you are a US based housesitter then it seems likely that you may find atypical number of housesit opportunities in the US. There appears to be a significant number of international housesitters that have determined not to travel to the US.
There is an extensive thread on THS Forum on related matters:
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@JohnT, the search for clarity makes complete sense.
Alas current border enforcement appears to be actively unadvertised and occurring on a surprise basis (many examples in mainstream media). Related motive seems unclear but it is possible that border agents may seek to “catch” some form of demographic of person crossing the border.
In such an environment then seeking clear upfront insight seems credibly improbable. Put plainly, you may not find the information that you seek. Therefore, irrespective of laws and enforcement, then there is now elevated risk of uncertainty.
We each must assess personal risk appetite, potential rewards and act accordingly.
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If you search other threads you’ll see that those immigration letters are likely to do more harm than good. Most people have advised strongly against using them.
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As a US citizen with a US passport this has been my experience-
the UK x 4 trips (1 precovid , the others post)-post covid my 3 entries into the UK I’ve not had to talk to a person at the border, all automated.
South Korea, entering at Jeju, not Inchon - no questions that I recall at all.
Canada x 2 - once at Calgary transferring onward to I said tourist, and once at Toronto transferring to Halifax, the agent specifically asked if I was going to the __ academic conference I said “no tourist” and that was all ( I think they’d had a number of folks going to the same big conference that day).
Australia - 1 time, automated and no additional questions from the agent who reviewed the automated entry document.
But I’m 70 years old so probably don’t fit the pattern for someone coming for the wrong reasons.