Guarding warning after Australian refused entry at US border and deported

Australians considering keeping their homes overseas may be doing so at their peril, with the deportation of an Australian woman from the United States revealing a little-known border rule.

Brisbane resident Madolline Gourley, 32, had planned a pet-sitting holiday in Canada and the US but was forced to fly back to Australia just five hours after arriving at her transit destination in Los Angeles.

On June 30, US immigration officials detained Gourley at Los Angeles International Airport, where the traveler was subjected to multiple invasive interviews.

After two interrogations, she was told that her pet-sitting plans violated the terms of her visa waiver agreement and that she would be placed on the next flight back to Australia.

“An officer asked a series of questions and said what I was doing was against ESTA rules because the owners would have to pay someone to feed the cat if it wasn’t for me” , Gourley said.

Under the ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) visa waiver program, visitors to the United States are prohibited from “any type of employment or from obtaining compensation for services rendered,” it said. a spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is aware that a number of Australians have been deported from the United States since international travel resumed and has urged Australians to inform themselves about entry requirements , transit and exit for their destination.

“All travelers are responsible for ensuring they meet the entry and residency requirements of the countries they are visiting,” a spokesperson said.

Gourley, who did a lot of housework across the United States before the ordeal, said the border rule came as a complete shock.

“I would not be the only traveler with an ESTA [program] visiting the United States on vacation who would sitter their homes and pets through websites such as TrustedHousesitters to reduce lodging costs,” Gourley said. “Other travelers should be warned that even though they all have the right documents, they can be denied”.

The ESTA website states that visitors may “perform or offer any commercial or industrial activity as long as you are not compensated for such activity by a US source, such as a business or employer”.

But the message isn’t clear, Gourley says. “No money is provided to me and no contract is signed. Not exactly a job,” she said. “The [house-sitting] operates on an exchange model.”

This frontier position on house-sitting is not limited to the United States. In the UK, housesitting is considered work, even if it is unpaid, and you must apply for a separate work visa. The exception to this is when you house-sit for friends or family.

A cursory review of a number of popular house-sitting community pages on Facebook reveals that Gourley’s case, while extreme, is not unique. In one instance, a traveler writes that she was unable to board her Paris-London train after immigration officials ruled her pet-sitting plans were “work paid in kind by British laws”.

Another member of the group recalls being questioned at length by immigration authorities as he attempted to enter Canada via the United States. “When we mentioned that we were house-sitting during [friends]this led to “how did you find the house”, and many other questions,” the post read.

An Australian member of a popular house-sitting Facebook group, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid possible border control, said most house-sitters are aware that house-sitting is considered voluntary work, that whether they are paid or not, and therefore know the risks involved. .

The housekeeper said there are several online threads devoted to the subject, and that exercising discretion over intentions to keep the house at border controls is an unspoken rule within the community.

“People who have been there for a long time have their immigration procedures in place. It’s not necessarily lying about why they’re there, but it’s not fully disclosed,” the person said.

Savvy house keepers have perfected ways to cross immigration points without setting off an alarm.

“Whenever we have houseat, we have always combined it with trips; when we arrive, we always book an Airbnb or a hotel at the beginning [to show immigration]“, they said. Usually, this step, combined with their return flight information, is enough to satisfy the border authorities.

The incident comes a month after Australian traveler Jack Dunn was refused entry to the United States, searched, sent to federal prison and deported to Honolulu.

Dunn had planned to visit Mexico, but was unaware of a rule requiring visa-waiver visitors to have a return flight booked from the United States, or onward travel booked to a country not bordering the United States.