Hi. My name’s Madolline.

And I’m seeing the world One cat at a time.

Part 3: House and pet sitting questions answered

Part 3: House and pet sitting questions answered

by | 28 January 2026

Here’s another house and pet sitting frequently asked questions (FAQs) post. This one covers things I see discussed online, and questions I have been asked by journalists and strangers alike.

Can I house sit with my partner, family or friend(s)?

I don’t think there would be any issue house and pet sitting with your partner as long as you mention them on your house sitting profile and/or in your application. Some owners don’t want children in their homes and others prefer solo sitters. Every listing is different.

Is it possible to arrange back-to-back house sits if you’re spending more than a few weeks in one city or country?

Back-to-back house sits are very much possible. I spent February to late-August 2024 doing back-to-back sits across Canada and my frequent trips to the US were doable because I was able get sits in cities I wanted to visit. Some of my sits are confirmed months in advance, but not always. I remember being in Salt Lake City, with no sit to go on to until one came up in Denver. The Denver sit was due to start three days after the Salt Lake City one ended. Similarly, I had a gap between a sit in Vancouver and my next one in Montreal. I was prepared to spend a week and half in a hotel, but I was able to get a last-minute (by my standards) sit in a town an hour and half outside Toronto.

Then there’s people I know who choose to house sit locally as opposed to renting or buying a house. One of them actually owns a house, but prefers to rent it out. These people have been living like this for years and they don’t plan on stopping.

What is the most popular house sitting website?

The most popular house sitting website has always been TrustedHousesitters. Sites like Aussie House Sitters and House Sitters Canada are starting to grow in popularity after TrustedHousesitters introduced a booking fee.

Where can I find paid pet sitting opportunities?

Rover (USA and Canada) and Mad Paws (Australia) are the two websites I know of where you get paid to pet sit. But not all owners on Rover and Mad Paws want a live-in pet sitter. Some prefer a sitter who will drop by once or twice a day.

Why do I need a work visa to do unpaid house and pet sitting in a foreign country?

Because unpaid house and pet sitting is viewed as work. You must be authorised to work in that country or what you’re doing (i.e. unpaid house and pet sitting) is illegal. ‘Work authorisation’ can look different depending on the person and where they’re from, but the US and UK governments have said individuals cannot house and pet sit on a tourist visa (or ESTA for visitors to the USA). Even countries with slightly more ‘relaxed’ immigration rules—like Canada, Australia and New Zealand—have turned sitters away because they didn’t have a work visa.

Do you have a favourite cat or house sit?

My favourite cats have been Henry and Josie from Toronto. The Toronto sit also happened to be one of my favourites and I got invited back a second time. Other sits I’ve really enjoyed include looking after Jaws and Killer in Vancouver, and Klaus and Maisy in Melbourne.

Has an owner ever accused you of stealing something from their home?

I haven’t been accused of stealing anything, but there’s two recent stories that come to mind. A Californian couple was arrested in October 2025, and a woman from South East Queensland is said to have stolen appliances and bank card details from a couple who found her on Maw Paws.

How do you recover from a bad review?

I have maintained a 5-star rating, but my advice would be to get a few local sits so the bad review moves further down your profile. Sitters might want to acknowledge what was said by responding to that review or they may choose to ignore it. Sometimes a bad review is not indicative of what you did or didn’t do, but is just a reflection of the person you sat for.

What are some of the weirder rules you’ve encountered?

Some of the weirder ‘rules’ I’ve had to follow include:

  • The cats are not allowed in the bedroom.
  • Use this spoon and this spoon only to serve the cats their wet food. At this sit, the couple even had a particular sponge I was told to use to clean the cats’ food bowls.
  • Wet food being served as a treat. This cat was fed a kangaroo mince–pumpkin mix once or twice a day, but she really loved her weekly serve of wet food.

How has house and pet sitting changed since you started out in 2017?

Expectations have shifted and some sitters come across as quite entitled. For instance, one sitter posted about the owner changing the dates for her 3-month sit. The dates were either being brought forward by a week or pushed back by a week, and the sitter was annoyed she now had to pay for a week’s worth of accommodation in what she described as a ‘desirable holiday location’. Sitters need to remember these services exist to serve pet owners—house sitting websites weren’t created for sitters to score a free place to stay.

Other questions

If you’ve got a house and pet sitting question that hasn’t been answered here, have a read of my other frequently asked questions posts:

I’ll do my best to respond to any questions left as comments or sent through my website’s contact form.

Looking back on my 2024 house and cat sitting travels

Looking back on my 2024 house and cat sitting travels

by | 31 December 2024

This year saw me reunite with some of my favourite cat friends and I met some cute new ones, too.

I spent a considerable part of the year in Canada* where I did three repeat sits—two in Vancouver and one in Toronto—and got to explore new cities like Victoria and Halifax. I could’ve spent all of 2024 in Canada, but I started to miss home. It also became exhausting (and expensive) going from house sit to house sit. So I decided to return to Australia at the end of August after securing a permanent government job. A permanent job means my future house and cat sitting travels will be limited, but I was able to get one last sit in for 2024.

This post comprises mostly photos from this year’s Canadian cat sitting travels, but I’ll also introduce two of my favourite cats who’ve been featured on my cat sitting Facebook page and Instagram account yet remain without mention on here. Their names are Henry and Josie, and they’re two rescue cats from Toronto.

Henry and Josie

Where do I begin with these two? Henry and Josie are so special. I first met Henry and Josie in 2023 after their owners reached out to me on House Sitters Canada. This would be the family’s first time using a live-in house and cat sitter, and I like to think I left a good impression because I was invited back this year.

Henry and Josie were described as an affectionate, food-motivated duo. When you hear ‘duo’, you’d think they’d get along. But they’re not the the best of friends. Henry would love for them to be mates, but Josie still isn’t sold on Henry. When we all met, back in August 2023, I was told Josie [still] can’t understand why she has to share her humans with Henry. And while Henry is very respectful towards Josie, Josie still feels the need to give Henry a paw to the face every few days.

The family adopted Josie, now aged 10, first, with Henry being a more recent addition. They may have adopted Henry during the pandemic, but I can’t be sure. Henry spent the first year and a bit of his new life living in the family’s office. This—along with under the couch—was his safe space and was somewhere Josie would leave him be. While Henry’s still a little reserved, he now roams freely around the apartment and doesn’t mind helping himself to whatever you’re eating. His favourite daytime napping spot is on the office window bed and he enjoys sleeping between your legs at night. It’s incredibly uncomfortable, but he’s just too cute to disturb.

Josie, on the other hand, will sleep almost anywhere. She loves a good blanket fort, sitting or napping on your lap, sleeping next to you each night, and she’d sleep on top of me if I took a nap on the couch. Josie is also surprisingly active despite being a little more senior and the tiniest bit bigger than your average cat. Watching her run after paper balls and swat at the feather on a stick always made me laugh.

Henry and Josie, despite their differences, are united through their love for food. They’ll wake you up about an hour before their automatic feeder goes off (3am) and again at 7am (that’s when it’s time for wet food). They don’t eat again until around 5pm, but that doesn’t stop Henry from trying to eat all the human food. On this sit, he:

  • ran off with the egg from my Indonesian noodle dish
  • snuck off with a few McDonald’s fries
  • broke through the cling wrap to lick the cream cheese icing off the carrot cake I bought earlier in the day.

These two kitties really do mean a lot to me. Their owners even gifted me a Henry T-shirt and it’s probably the best house sitting gift I’ve received. The material is decent quality and they wear really well. The owners’ Josie one actually looks like something you’d get from a vintage store. For anyone who wants to get their own pet T-shirt made—and I’m guessing there’s at least one or two of you—here’s a link to the Etsy store.

Other cats I cared for this year

This year’s first house and cat sit was an international one. It was one I was familiar with and ended up being the first of two sits I’d be doing for this lady. Her Ragdolls, Jaws and Killer, are still quite young, but they’re not the ‘we’ll chew your cords and destroy all your things’ kind of young cats. Jaws is the one with the taupe-coloured markings and Killer is a flame point (i.e. ginger). Some of their favourite things include  racing out the front door each time you come home, jumping into the fridge and hanging out in the bathroom.


I then spent a few nights in Calgary where I was looking after two rescue cats. Birdie (tortoiseshell) and Tank (ginger). Birdie enjoyed inspecting my dinner(s) and Tank liked to chew on the plants.

Montreal was my next stop. This was a house and cat sit for a friend’s sister. My friend’s sister happened to live a few streets away from where I did my first Canadian house sit. The kitty’s name was Tango and he preferred to spend most of his time outside. Tango wasn’t bothered by the snow, but he didn’t love the rain.

After about a month in Montreal, I went back to the west coast. I’d secured a sit in Victoria, B.C., which is where I spent the Easter break. Victoria was a city I’d heard so much about last time so I was determined to get a cat sit there. The kitty I was looking after was called Nahlah. She was another sweet, affectionate ginger. And another rescue cat.

I then returned to Vancouver for a 10-day sit in the city’s West End neighbourhood. I was looking after Isabel, a feisty older lady who would stand on her plate to remind me it was time to feed her. The West End location ended up being really convenient because Jaws and Killer’s owner—another West End resident—was heading out of town again. The first few days overlapped with this 10-day sit, and meant I had to do drop-in visits to feed Jaws and Killer their breakfast and dinner.

I went from spending most of May with Jaws and Killer to a relatively short sit in a smaller town in Ontario. This one slotted in nicely with a gap I had between when my last Vancouver sit finished and when my summer sit in Montreal started. I’m not sure the Kitchener–Waterloo area has much to offer international tourists, but the apartment was comfortable and the lady’s cat, Bella, proved to be a total love bug after some initial hissing and scratching.

Most of June was spent in Montreal. It was incredibly humid (I should’ve known), but Montrealers really love summer. The city has festivals and street performances on almost every night of the week, and a lot of restaurants and cafes erect a terrasse to make the most of people wanting to get out and enjoy the warmer weather.

My two Montreal companions were Marlon (black and white) and Penny (white). They’re originally from Calgary, Alberta, and I think this was their first Montreal summer. I don’t know how warm it gets in Calgary, but I felt especially bad for Marlon. He was booked in to get shaved when his owner returned.

It was now time to return to Toronto to look after Henry and Josie. I spent all of August 2023 looking after them and I’d be with them for all of July. I don’t think either one of them remembered me at first, but it didn’t take them long to realise I was OK. And Henry seemed a lot more interested in me after I returned with donuts. I wish I could look after them every time their owners went away, but, sadly, that’s not practical.

The last house and cat sit of the trip was in Halifax. Another city I’d heard so much about and another city I was hoping to get a cat sit in. I think I’d secured the sit while I was looking after Bella, in Kitchener–Waterloo, so it wasn’t one that had been organised months in advance. Because there’s so few sits advertised in Halifax, I was pretty pleased with myself to have landed it.

The Halifax kitty I was looking after was yet another rescue. His name was Sushi. He had the prettiest green eyes and would ‘gift’ me his worm toy over the course of the night. I was gifted the worm toy almost every night of my stay. Another Sushi quirk was that he liked to paw his dry food out of his bowl, place it on the floor, and pick it up—with that same paw—and put it in his mouth.

Sushi would let me tuck him in each night. I don’t know whether he actually liked it, but he allowed it. It was incredibly hot during some of those summer nights in Halifax, but, again, the only one bothered by the extreme humidity was me.

My last house and cat sit for 2024

Upon returning to Australia, I started to think about where I wanted to spend Christmas. Corporate offices are usually closed from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day so that gave me a good week or so to get away. I was tossing up between Melbourne and Hobart, but there weren’t many house sits going in Hobart when I started looking. So I went with Melbourne.

It would be my third or fourth time house and cat sitting in Melbourne, and the second Melbourne sit I’ve done over the Christmas holidays. This time, however, I’d be looking after two kittens. Klaus and Maisy. The only other time I’ve looked after kittens was when I was house sitting in Cincinnati. This was five or six years ago, and the owner decided to adopt them a few weeks before the house sit started.

When I spoke with Klaus and Maisy’s owner, back in September, she’d only just adopted them. She was told they’re part Ragdoll, but I have a feeling they’re more Siamese than anything else. They definitely look Ragdoll-like in their earlier photos, but they appear a lot more Siamese-y now they’re about six months old.

Klaus and Maisy are, as you would expect, playful and curious. They’re also pretty weird and very affectionate. Klaus (grey) is the chill one and Maisy (darker markings) is the menace. They like to watch you from the office window, play with anything and everything that resembles a toy, and snuggle up to you at bedtime.

Klaus likes to spends his afternoons napping, but Maisy would rather play and hunt from within inside the apartment. I have caught Maisy staring blankly at a wall, hiding under a mat and with her eyes fixated on the inside of a lampshade. Outside noises seem to pique their interest so I’m curious to see how they’ll respond to Melbourne’s New Year’s Eve fireworks shows.

Plans for 2025

I return to Brisbane on 3 January 2025 and start back at work on 6 January. Now that I have a permanent fulltime government job, I don’t know where I’ll be off to next. Or when. But I do know that I’ll have to be a little bit more strategic when it comes to using my annual leave.

*I have an open work permit for Canada. My working holiday visa is valid until July 2025.

My winter and spring cat sitting adventures in Canada

My winter and spring cat sitting adventures in Canada

by | 4 June 2024

I spent the last three months cat sitting in Calgary, Montreal and Victoria before returning to Vancouver for another two sits.

Calgary

The first of the house and cat sits was in Calgary. It was a relatively short one—only four or five nights—but it filled a gap in my itinerary. Calgary also happened to be a city I was keen to return to after spending three nights there last September. I was expecting an average daytime temperature of around -15°C and a few snow days. The coldest it got to was -20°C, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounds.

The two cats I was tasked with looking after were called Birdie (tortoiseshell) and Tank (ginger). Birdie is the older of the two and she was adopted before the couple got Tank. While Birdie and Tank get along just fine, Birdie preferred to spend her time sleeping in the basement. Tank, on the hand, would rather be with/near you. Or sitting in the shoebox I kept for him.

The owners warned me Tank would wake me up very early to request his breakfast, but they didn’t tell me how just cute the whole thing was. That first morning, at around 7am, Tank jumped on my bed. He rolled around on it for a minute or two, and let out a quiet meow before positioning himself against my legs and falling asleep. That was Tank asking for breakfast. If only all cats were as polite as Tank.

Birdie, despite spending most of her time downstairs, would resurface every couple of hours to meow at me for food or follow me into the bathroom. I found out that her owners refer to her as ‘Scraps’ because she’s always trying to steal people’s food, but Birdie’s fondness for the bathroom remains a mystery.

Montreal

I was originally meant to arrive in Montreal at 3.30pm on a Monday. The night before, WestJet emailed me to say my flight was cancelled (it actually wasn’t (it ended up flying out about 30 minutes later than scheduled)) and they’d be putting me on one that left Calgary just before midnight. The red-eye flight would see me land in Montreal at around 7am on Tuesday. Not ideal, but, thankfully, my friend’s sister—the person I was cat sitting for—didn’t leave Montreal until Wednesday evening.

My friend’s sister’s cat’s name is Tango. Tango is an indoor–outdoor cat, with most of his time spent wandering the neighbouring alleyways. Even if it was raining or snowing, Tango would prefer to be out in it. Sometimes he’d just chill on the balcony-like space out the back. Then there were times when he’d be gone for more than 12 hours. I was told not to be too concerned if that happens, but my sister’s friend has fretted over his whereabouts in the past. She has taken to attaching an AirTag to Tango’s collar so she could get a better idea of his general location.

Tango was a real character. He preferred to drink from one of the vases scattered around the apartment. He would also drink from my glass if I had one at the dinner table. He liked to sploot, nap in a cardboard box, and creep on the birds and squirrels from the kitchen window. In the evenings, he would position himself against my laptop as if to say ‘Please stop looking at your laptop and look at me’.

Victoria

I’d seen more snow in Montreal than I’d expected, but I was now on my way to Victoria, B.C., just as the city’s cherry blossoms and flowers were starting to bloom. Victoria was somewhere new for me, but it was a city I heard mentioned plenty of times on my previous trip to Canada. I was able to book a ticket from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport to Victoria International Airport that ended up saving me a lot of time. Most people who visit Victoria get the ferry from Vancouver, but I didn’t care for 1.5 hours on public transport and another 1.5 hours on the ferry after a spending five hours on a plane.

Nahlah, the cat I was spending the next 25 days with, is a COVID kitty. She had become accustomed to having humans around 24/7, but hasn’t always been a fan of them. Nahlah’s owners told me it took her weeks—if not months—to feel confident enough to leave the couple’s office/spare bedroom. It took just as long for her to let them pet her. The office is still kind of a safe space for Nahlah and it’s where I chose to sleep during my stay.

Nahlah is a very unique-looking kitty. The first thing you notice is she’s ginger. Yes, a female ginger cat. That’s pretty rare. When I first saw photos of her, I thought she may have been a Bengal. After I met her, I started to think she was part Abyssinian. No-one knows for sure. But what I do know is Nahlah loooves to be brushed, enjoys keeping warm under the range hood (the couple leave the lights on for her) and is a big fan of going on walks. The couple use a harness and cat leash to take her out at least once a day, and they’ve got one of those space bubble backpacks for her to see out of. Nahlah has even been to Mexico. Her owners spent four months on the road—living out of their van—and Nahlah accompanied them on the trip.

Nahlah’s home is central to almost everything anyone visiting Victoria would want to see or do. The Dallas Road Waterfront Trail was two blocks away, Beacon Hill Park was 10 minutes in the other direction, and the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Royal BC Museum and Fairmont Empress hotel were buildings I walked past most days.

Other days were spent relaxing at the apartment, with Nahlah close by. Her little cat bed had been left on the fold out couch and I’ve never met a cat who was so attached to their cat bed. Most cats I know prefer to sleep on the human’s bed. If I stayed in, Nahlah would spend the entire day in that cat bed. And the majority of the photos I sent to the couple were of Nahlah snuggled up in it.

Nahlah’s owners were beyond generous and great sources of information. They picked me up from the airport and drove me to the ferry terminal when it was time to leave. The drive to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal would’ve taken close to an hour and a half on the bus, and it wouldn’t have been fun with a 23kg suitcase, carry on suitcase and heavy backpack. They were so knowledgeable about Victoria and Vancouver Island, and other parts of Canada I am hoping to visit.

Back to Vancouver

After saying goodbye to Nahlah’s owners, it was time to board the Vancouver-bound ferry. I had no choice but to use public transport to get from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal—where everyone heading to Vancouver gets let off—to downtown Vancouver unless I wanted to fork out around $100 for an Uber. Due to a medical emergency on the previous Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay ferry, my ferry was 30 minutes late which meant I missed the 3pm and 3.05pm buses to Bridgeport Station. I had a bit of wait for the next bus, but I eventually made it to Vancouver’s West End to commence the first of two cat sits I’d organised after arriving in Canada.

My second time house and cat sitting in Vancouver

My second time house and cat sitting in Vancouver

by | 28 February 2024

I decided to return to Canada (with my open work permit) after spending three and a half months there (using that same open work permit) last summer.

Last year’s trip started with a house and cat sit in Montreal which meant an additional five-hour flight to the other side of the country. I remember having just under two hours to pass through immigration, sort out my work permit and provide immigration officers with whatever paperwork they wanted to see, collect my suitcase and re-check it in, go through security, and be at the gate ready to board my 8:55am flight. While all Air Canada luggage is now sent through to the traveller’s final destination, it’s a lot of stress I could do without and that’s why I was hoping to start off in Vancouver this time. Turns out the lady I sat for in September needed a sitter for 10 days in February. Her dates slotted into my draft itinerary almost perfectly so I told her I’d be happy to take the sit.

The lady shares her West End apartment with two Ragdoll cats from the same litter. They’re 1.5 years old, and their names are Jaws (girl) and Killer (boy). While ‘Killer’ might seem like an odd name to some people, it makes perfect sense when you know their owner. Some of my friends thought Jaws may have been a biter/chewer, but she was named after Steven Spielberg’s film Jaws. Jaws’ owner is fascinated by sharks and went swimming with them on one of her visits to Australia. Cat Jaws even has some shark Jaws toys.

Despite their scary-sounding names, Jaws and Killer are gentle and affectionate. The only ‘violence’ you’ll see these majestic-looking kitties inflicting is upon their toys. And, boy, do they have a lot of them. I don’t think I’ve ever met a cat(s) who plays with their toys as much as these two do. One of their favourite things to do is bring their ‘catch’ to you in bed, or drag it into the shower and continue thrashing it around. Sometimes I’d wake to find an assortment of toys strewn across the bed. Or still in the shower the next morning. Then there was the time one of their toys fell out of my backpack as I went to pay for something at Winners.

It’s interesting to see their personalities are still developing and how they’ve changed since I was here last. Their owner also commented on how she’s noticed the cats’ colours deepening. Jaws has a lot more grey/taupe to her and Killer’s ginger points might be a little more prominent.

I recall Killer being the needy sibling and Jaws mostly keeping to herself. It could’ve been that Jaws is—or was—a bit more reserved around strangers. This time ‘round, Killer is content to be alone (except for when he demands five minutes of your time every evening) and Jaws is the one who wants all your attention. Jaws will now position herself next to me and still be my side when I wake up. Both cats do like to involve themselves in whatever you’re doing and this can sometimes include running into the shower as soon as you’ve turned the water on. Jaws will try to catch the water drops from the other side of the glass door while Killer sits in the bathroom sink. They also like to welcome you home and Killer is the first one to dart out the front door. He’s allowed to walk around in the building’s closed off hall area, but must be supervised for the minute or two he’s allowed to roam. Jaws is a bit more hesitant about venturing out, but she’ll take a quick peep from behind the door before deciding whether or not it’s worth the effort. If she does venture out, she’s usually quick to return. Killer, however, likes to be chased back into the apartment.

Things to do

I didn’t expect to like Vancouver as much as I did, but I guess that’s why I was so keen to come back. English Bay and Stanley Park are within walking distance from the West End apartment, and you can be at Coal Harbour or downtown within about 20 minutes. Here’s some of the things I enjoyed most and these can be done/visited/seen at any time of year.

Main Street, Mount Pleasant

It’s actually called Main Street and isn’t just the main street in Mount Pleasant. I’d recommend walking from about E Fifth Avenue all the way to down to E 32nd Avenue and back up again. The area is known for its vintage and antique stores, but I found it had a lot of good homewares, stationery and ‘things’ stores. Some of my favourites were Front & Company, The Storehouse and Welk’s. Lots of street art in the area, too.

Granville Public Market

From where I’m staying in West End, the trip to Granville Public Market is a scenic one. I walk down Denman Street, past the A-maze-ing Laughter sculptures, and along English Bay and Sunset beaches to get the False Creek Ferry from the Aquatic Centre. It takes less than five minutes to get to Granville Island.

I’d say Granville Public Market is one of the best markets I’ve been to. It’s got its fair share of food, but it has just as many stores selling handmade (and not handmade) goods.

Shop Makers

Shop Makers is a “celebration of local artistry and entrepreneurship” and they’ve got stores all over the country. Everything is handmade by a Canadian artist and each artist gets 100% of the money made from a sale of their goods.

'I can't read' sticker

I’m not sure how I originally learned about Shop Makers, but I must’ve stumbled across a store in Gastown or Kitsilano when I was here last. My favourite Shop Makers store would have to be the one in the Park Royal mall because they’ve got so much cat stuff (stickers, keyrings, etc.). North Vancouver is pretty good, too, and definitely one of the bigger stores.

Lynn Canyon Park and suspension bridge

Lynn Canyon Park offers a significantly cheaper—i.e. free—alternative to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. And there’s 617 acres of forest and several hiking trails to explore. I did some of the Baden Powell Trail before turning around to get the bus back to downtown Vancouver before it got dark, but I’d be keen to come back in the summer.

Stanley Park

I’d never heard of Stanley Park until I got chatting to another Australian on my Niagara Falls tour. She told me it was one of the first places she visited in Vancouver and that it’s bigger than Central Park.

A popular walk within Stanley Park is the 10km seawall loop that forms part of the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront path. It takes between two and two and half hours to do, and you’ll pass Siwash Rock, Lions Gate Bridge, Brockton Point Lighthouse and the Totem Poles.

Next stop

I’m at Vancouver International Airport waiting to board a plane to Calgary. I spent three nights in Calgary last year, but that wasn’t nearly enough time to see everything I had on my list. This time I’ve got five nights in town, and, unlike my last visit, I will be doing a house and cat sit.

Getting back to international house and cat sitting

Getting back to international house and cat sitting

by | 7 August 2023

One year later and I finally made it to Montreal. This time, however, I wanted to ensure I had the correct paperwork—i.e. a work visa—so I could house and cat sit without issue.

The working holiday visa I applied for forms part of the International Experience Canada (IEC) program that’s designed to give young people from participating countries the opportunity to live, work and travel in Canada for up to two years. For Australians interested in applying, you must:

  • be between 18 and 35 years old
  • have a valid passport
  • receive an invitation from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to submit an application. Receiving an invitation to apply does not mean you’ve been approved for a working holiday visa.

Australia seems to be one of the only countries without a cap on the number of invitations sent out so I think it’s safe to say almost all Australians who register with the IRCC will get an invitation to apply unless they’re deemed inadmissible to Canada.

The application process

I received an invitation to apply a few days after registering my interest.

We are pleased to invite you to apply for the Working Holiday (IEC) work permit under the International Experience Canada program.

The letter said I had to do one of two things:

  1. Apply online and do this by 19 January 2023, or
  2. Decline the invitation.

I was given 20 days to submit all my paperwork and pay the fees associated with the application. It’s $161 CAD regardless of which IEC stream you’re applying for—working holiday, young professionals or international co-op (aka internship)—plus an additional $100 CAD for those who are after an open work permit.

The IEC application form required me to upload several forms of identification, a police check, a traffic history report and my resume. I had to provide my electronic travel authorization (eTA) number; print, fill in and scan a form about my family (things like names, date of birth, citizenship); and declare if I’d been denied entry to another country.

Have you ever been refused a visa or permit, denied entry to, or ordered to leave Canada or any other country/territory?

This is something that’d been weighing on my mind a lot—how being refused entry to the United States would affect future visa applications. I wasn’t sure if telling the truth would result in an instant rejection, but, thankfully, there was an option to attach a letter outlining the particulars. I wrote a two-page letter and included a screenshot of the email I received from TrustedHousesitters community manager Angela Laws saying house sitting abroad doesn’t breach any visa conditions.

Angela Laws, Social Media & Community Manager, wrote: “The immigration specialists have concluded that members can travel internationally to sit and that they are not in breach of any visa conditions.”

This email highlighted how TrustedHousesitters members are misled about visa requirements and don’t realise the huge risk they’re taking when they accept an international house sit. Work visas are required to house sit in the US and UK, but TrustedHousesitters continues to argue “TrustedHousesitters is for tourism” and “not for arranging house sitting as work”.

Biometrics

IEC applicants must also book an appointment at a biometrics collection services centre to get photographed and fingerprinted. The Canadian Government won’t assess your application until this is done. You’ve got 30 days to give biometrics and they’ll be valid for the next 10 years. Applicants need to be mindful not all cities have a biometrics collection centre(s) and there mightn’t be much flexibility with appointment availability.

Waiting for a decision

It was a nerve-racking few weeks because I really wasn’t sure how the Canadian Government would view being refused entry to the USA. I know I’m not the only person who’s been refused entry, but I’m yet to learn how other countries handle these situations.

Google didn’t have any answers, but it led me to this Working Holiday Visa Canada IEC 2023: Ultimate Application Guide blogpost. I reached out to the author, Gemma, a Canadian citizen as of 2018, asking her if she knew of anyone with a similar set of circumstances. She said she was aware of a few “relatively similar situations” where someone had been refused entry to another country. Like me, they included a detailed letter explaining what’d happened and ended up being granted an open work permit. Gemma gave another example in which someone was asked to leave Canada because they overstayed whichever visa they had. They were also successful with their working holiday visa application. Her email made me a bit more optimistic, but it ended with: “Again, though, it’s all to the discretion of the actual processing agent so it’s hard to say.”

Two weeks later and I got an email saying my application status had been updated. I logged in and scrolled down to see my work permit had been approved. This was pretty exciting because it meant I was able to house and cat sit in Canada, and I could get a paid job if I wanted to.

Your application to work in Canada has been initially approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The final decision to issue you a work permit and allow you to enter Canada is made after an examination by an officer in Canada. At that time, an officer will assess if you still meet the requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, its Regulations and any other Canadian legislation.

The “requirements” included things like showing proof of:

  • funds (minimum of $2,500 CAD) to support yourself
  • health insurance to cover the two-year period granted to working holiday visa holders
  • a return ticket to Australia.

Good to go

Now it was time to think about when I wanted to go to Canada. My original plan was to head over in September/October, but my employment contact was finishing up at the end of June. I started looking for house sits in the cities I was meant to visit last year. Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, but I was open to pretty much anywhere as long as the person’s place was close to public transport.

It didn’t take long for a house and cat sit in Montreal to come up. It started on 5 July, with an end date of 27 July. I applied and received a message back asking if I could do a quick phone call with the owner. We scheduled a WhatsApp call for my Saturday morning/Friday afternoon Montreal time and I was offered the sit a few minutes into the call. The sit’s start date coincided with the cheapest airfare available for the entire month of July. If it had started on any other day, I would’ve been looking at paying an extra $600–$700 AUD for my ticket. I booked with Air Canada and flew straight from Brisbane to Vancouver.

Arriving in Canada

Even though my work permit had been initially approved, I knew it didn’t guarantee me entry to Canada. It didn’t guarantee anyone entry to Canada. I was fretting about the Canadian immigration officer seeing the stamp at the back of my passport and the possible interrogation that’d follow. And while I still met the requirements (money, insurance, return ticket), you just never know what kind of shitty human you might get at immigration. As Gemma said: “It’s all to the discretion of the actual processing agent.”

Passport stamp: Refused in accordance with INA section 217

My flight touched down at Vancouver International Airport just after 6am. I think it was one of the first flights in that morning because there was no-one around. This was both good and bad. Good because I was in and out of the eTA line within a few minutes. Bad because the immigration office—where people wanting to sort out their visa paperwork go—didn’t open ’til 7am. I was passed around a bit before being told to head toward the “Sortie” (exit) sign and speak to an officer in there.

This particular section of the airport reminded me a lot of the secondary screening facility at LAX. It was quiet and seemed a lot more serious than the area where most passengers pass through. I kept thinking back to that night at LAX, but I was trying to remain positive. I went up to the only officer on duty and said I was here to activate my work permit. I was expecting a whole lot of questions, but all the officer wanted was my passport. He said to take a seat and wait for my name to be called. I didn’t know what the next steps would entail, but my work permit was printed within 10 minutes. It’s valid for two years from 5 July 2023 and comes with three conditions:

  1. The work permit is not valid for employment in businesses related to the sex trade.
  2. I must leave Canada by 4 July 2025.
  3. Unless authorised, I am not allowed to attend “any educational institution” or take “any academic professional or vocational training course”.

The only other thing the officer said to me was I’d need the work permit details to apply for a Social Insurance Number (SIN). A SIN is required before I can start working in Canada, and, apparently, it gives me access to certain government benefits.

My immigration experience in Canada was totally different to what happened in the United States. Those entering Canada on an eTA (i.e. most visitors) don’t have to provide an address for where they’re staying and the only immigration official they deal with is the one they hand their slip to in what seems to be a very casual interaction. No-one asks how long you’re staying for or where else you’re visiting on your trip. I find it hard to believe house sitting would ever come up because there is no conversation to be had as you enter and exit passport control. Remember, though, you always need to read up on what is and isn’t allowed on the type of visa you’ve got because it’s not just the United States ruining house sitters’ travel plans. An American TrustedHousesitters member was taken in for secondary questioning at a Canadian land border crossing and was told “staying for free [as a house and pet sitter] is still considered work”. They were let off with a warning, but not everyone is as lucky when it comes to international house sitting with the incorrect paperwork.