Probably shouldn't tell border patrol you're doing unpaid labor in a country you're visiting. When speaking to authorities it's best to say the absolute minimum required for the encounter.
Barter isn’t really “unpaid”, but you also just shouldn’t be working if you don’t have work authorization. Border authorities have the means and motivation to validate any story you have about your stay.
You can get banned from coming to the US if they catch you lying about the reason you're crossing the border. It's a long arduous process and lawyer fees to get the ban overturned. Happened to a Canadian I knew a decade ago when they tried to enter on a tourist visa for business purposes.
I'm sure it's similar in other countries but US has always been very strict given the huge amount of people trying to work there and the very finite supply of work visas.
From my experience you'll also get extra scruntiny if you're traveling solo like this girl. I was secondary screened twice coming for business where they double checked my paperwork and TSA lady in the back asked a bunch of silly questions (like "what is PayPal").
In the US, it's very clear. If they don't have work authorization from USCIS, they shouldn't be doing work. There's some guidelines out there on the internet [1], but the students should be extremely careful; any form of compensation or expectation of future compensation for their work could put them in serious trouble. The University of Michigan has a more fleshed out guideline page for their international students [2].
There are acceptable grounds for revocation of naturalization [1], but I'm not sure that having previously violated visa terms necessarily qualifies. The question becomes was he lawfully admitted to permanent residency, and was there a concealment of material facts or willful misrepresentation involved in the process. We would need to really see his immigration file and have knowledge of the dates he was in the US, and when he performed work.
> but are they absolutely prohibited from work of any kind?
Generally yes.
But you can have on-campus jobs to supplement your income, and there are at least two programs (CPT and OPT) that let you get approval for limited-term employment in your area of study. CPT also requires university approval.
She was on a tourist visa. She should have gotten a J-1 visa who can do 20 hours/week part time work with some constraints. Some details about this visa: https://yfuusa.org/2024/05/16/j1-student-visa/
European country really gave me bad taste when it comes to visa experience. Gave me the absolute minimum despite having a good paying job - and even after marrying a EU citizen I still had a hard time.
This is news because this woman happens to be from a developed country and not a developing countries.
I was travelling to Ireland(Dublin) as a tourist and during questioning by a border agent I mentioned that I might check my email (they noticed my laptop), the border agent simply advised me that my visa did not allow work but since I was clearly being transparent about my actions and intentions that there was no reason for them to block me or require me to apply for a working visa, so after what was a friendly chat, I was on my way.
I've also had similar interactions in other European countries such as Germany(Munich) and the UK(London Gatwick) - both of which are particularly thorny about economic migrants posing as other types of visitors or asylum seekers, again no problems and the staff are courteous while conducting their duties professionally.
Meanwhile my last trip to the USA during Trump 1.0 involved the border agent not even speaking to me, but instead holding out his hand for paperwork - so I'd hand him a paper, and if it wasn't the one he wanted, he'd flick it back at me. It's obvious he's just trying to start shit so he can have an excuse to abuse the power granted to him. (LaGuardia Airport).
This has been the case before the current administration. It isn't administration elusive. There is a lack of professionalism by some US border agents.
Sure as you might, I assume you're a citizen of the EU. That really just means you're happy you live in an area where you're a citizen with effectively no limit on what you can do in areas where your citizenship is acceptable to do what you want to do.
Don't forget, your country absolutely has their own visa terms, and they absolutely do enforce it.
I'm personally satisfied with my citizenship as well.
Europe treats tourists from developing countries way worse than US does when you apply even for short term tours with all details. US looks at bigger picture, history if any, financial conditions but Europe literally wants you to have planned down everything to the most relevant detail and will then issue a visa 1 or 2 days longer than the itinerary and ask you to piss off
Well, I live in Europe and work for an American company and I don't need a visa. In general, the USA is a very nice country to visit but for long-term living I prefer the EU.
New Yorker here. Last year one of my meditation teachers here in the city casually mentioned that in some sects of Tibetan Buddhism there's a prophecy of some sort of catastrophic global event between 2026 and 2032, and a former monk friend of his advised him to leave NYC by 2030. From some casual googling it seems like the text is "The Light That Makes Things Clear: A Prophecy of Things to Come".
I'm a non-believer when it comes to these sorts of things, but if anything was to convince me otherwise it'd be watching Trump speed run us towards another World War these past few weeks.
My personal 'unknown wisdom' conspiracy is that there's some knowledge about UAPs which is why politicians are being so weird. Rubio/Vance going from calling Trump a nazi to joining him. I know it's just they're shitty people, but part of me would rather it's some secret UAP knowledge.
And what UAP has with Trump? Remember US is going crazy others Democratic countries aren't and russia is being russia, don't confuse USA going downhill because of their shit politics as the world is going under, cold war was a lot worse
Well he has talked repeatedly about taking Greenland "by force", which in itself wouldn't be a world war, but of course is still terrible.
I think the concern is that telling Ukraine to surrender their land after they were invaded by Russia will give Russia the confidence to start attacking other European countries. Traditionally, NATO would have protected us from that happening, but with Trump upsetting all our NATO partners, I'm kind of concerned that that won't help this time.
This, basically. He's said that we're going to take Greenland one way or another, is talking about taking the Panama Canal, is basically telling Russia we're on their side and Europe can deal with it themselves, and China is ramping up activities around taking Taiwan [1]. He's also classified the cartels as terrorist organizations and has talked about sending in elite US forces to take them out, which Mexico has said they would view as a violation of their sovereignty.
I've been listening to a lot of French news lately and France is already talking about needing to build more nuclear weapons and to extend nuclear protections across Europe, as the US has in a short few weeks completely alienated all of our allies from the past 80 years [2].
So, I don't know, seems like we're closer to everything going to shit globally than in any other time in my 40+ years.
Well, this is how yout tell anynone feeling like fixing like they might be in a position of fixing old grudges or grabbing some land - go for it! :P Not very safe and can get out of hand very very quickly...
I get the same, and all of these tend to be a trigger for me too -- too much caffeine, dehydration, and rapid light intensity change (like looking outside and then back to my computer screen).
In addition to chugging water and staying in the dark with a face mask, I've found that taking raw honey right as it's coming on makes it go away rapidly.
My long term prevention is taking magnesium daily and LSD once or so a year. Once I started doing that the frequency went to almost zero, and whenever I don't do that they start up again.
It definitely depends on the person and the state of mind they have when they go into it. I've had really overwhelming de-personalization episodes on LSD as well and they were extremely positive, life transforming experiences. I had studied and practiced Buddhism for years prior to having those experiences, though, which helped me integrate what was happening. It was like all of a sudden getting a direct experience of what was previously just words and philosophy -- "oh, this is what he was talking about."
Had I gone into it totally blind with no way to frame it it probably would have been a nightmarish scenario though. There's a reason why Right View (samyak-drishti) is the first of the 8 Noble Truths [1] and the one really emphasized in the beginning of your Buddhist practice.
Possibly, but there are a lot of people that self-administer LSD for migraines who say it helps tremendously. I'm also one of those people. Between occasional LSD and daily magnesium supplementation, my migraines are very infrequent these days.
I've had headache-free ocular migraines since I was about 13 or 14. Your typical aura/flashing/light sensitivity. They always are proceeded by some flash and then I know I have maybe 15 minutes before I'm in the middle of it.
Anyway, two things that I find helps. The easiest one is supplementing magnesium -- if I ever run out and forget to order more for a couple weeks I'll inevitably have a migraine. The other one is LSD or mushrooms. My friend is a science journalist and covered a group of people taking LSD for cluster headaches, and I figured if it was working for them it was worth a shot.
I still get them a few times per year, but it's way way less frequent now.
I found my ocular migraines were triggered by my looking out the window in the morning while I brushed my teeth. On sunny days it was a lot of brightness to take in. Since I stopped doing that I haven’t had a single one.
Yes, the change of light intensity is a common trigger for me. Either looking at a screen and then outside, or vice versa, or even bright led lights. But they've still largely gone away with regular magnesium supplementation and occasional psychedelic use (a few times per year).
