Remember that movie trope with the police officer who smashes your tail lights and then fines you?

🤣

Well duh, but authority personel didn't just suddenly start misusing their power. That has been happening since forever. With about 200k visitors a day, you are bound to have some bad incidents, which gets reported on now, which is good.

But just because it wasent reported on before doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

zxgfndhef remember, visiting another country is a privilege, not a right. While there, one is under that nation's rules. As a guest, one can be removed at anytime, (like private property). Finally, insinuating the US is more corrupt than Mexico, or 90% of other countries is wrong.. maybe travel more? Or don't visit :)

Who / where insinuated that?

And what other country detains visitors from the EU/UK/CA for weeks or in solitary confinement?

"roughly 95% of countries have laws allowing detention for a week or more if you break their laws"... including EU/UK/CA :)

According to the NBC article linked above:

"Two hours later, she calls me and says, ‘Hey, I'm going to be deported back to Germany. They think I'm coming here to work.’"

So the US authorities believe they were going to work on a tourist visa. Whether what they were going to do counts as work or not, I don't know. We're mostly nomads here that work on tourist visas. We know the risk when we go to various countries. Many of us have been denied entry because of this. This isn't something that's unique to the US, although I know that the US has always been more hostile toward the idea of people working on tourist visas, even in the case of, say, a remote, foreign employer, than many other countries are.

And yes, the US can deny entry for basically no reason or any reason. I believe most countries operate like this. For example, I frequently visit Peru, and it's always been my understanding that it's up to the immigration officer to decide whether or not they let me in. But in actual practice, someone being turned down is rare. As it probably is for the US as well.

Very true. This has always been the case, nothing has changed in this regard.

"break their laws" in what way?

Is showing up at the border with a service exchange intent (eg. house/pet sitting vs. staying in that house, with no monetary exchange, as arranged through TrustedHouseSitters) breaking the law already?

None of these high profile cases today I can't link here but google the Forbes article (it lists 4) involve bringing any forbidden items for instance - which would be grounds for detention (maybe)

Or are you talking about committing a "crime" after you've been admitted?

Some references would clarify this.

Where exactly does it report "number of phone searches has increased" ?
I couldn't find it

https://www.instagram.com/share/reel/_6NoGCo7Q

New article, but again I can’t find where it says phone searches has increased?

This is what's increased - https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/01/26/ice-arrests-raids-trump-quota/

No, in your original post you said phone searches. None of your articles support this statement as far as I can see.

Quote:

> And DHS is collecting information on people without criminal records, too. Reports suggest that more travelers are being screened at ports of entry.

I’m well aware of what the 3 letter agencies do, I’m personally very against it. But I’m not a resident so I have no say in the matter.

Reporting does not mean that it’s factually correct, a report that “suggests” anything carries a large uncertainty as there is no way to know the validity of the claims.

speaks for itself. check: state.gov

I hold a Norwegian passport, I have flights for a 1week stay. I have family back home, I have a conference I’m attending.

There should be very little uncertainty with my visit, if there is, it’s quite evident that I’m very pro USA. And am invested finically inn several US companies.

If I somehow manage to make them suspicious about my visit, then that’s entirely my own fault. I am well aware of their rights to turn me away, and as I have said, nothing has changed for me in 2025 compared to any other year.

have a great trip

Thanks man! 🖤

How is the US right now? I’ve been in Brazil a while but am considering returning to my home state (Florida) for an internship in a new field. I’ve seen some not so great stuff in the news lately but I guess that’s been the case for a few years now

If you have us passport, should be just fine. There's just frequent protests at town halls/state capitols but otherwise nothing major has changed

US is good.. frankly doing better. News is significantly overblown.

Ok good to hear, lot of negativity in press lately. Politically I’m neutral, just wanted to hear from somebody there

US, and Florida + Miami are on the rise. Would recommend

The main thing that keeps me from going back there is I don’t like how strict the laws are. I’ve never been pulled over by police in any other country

Hi visiting from UK for a few months, need a US number for some 2FA texts. What’s best/cheapest solution? 🙏

you can be a nerd and use twilio.

not the best and easiest, but the cheapest!

How would that work?

just signup

buy a us number

and then check console messages when you get a text

tello.com

To save you some hassle here, often Twilio / Skype (rip) / other VoIP numbers won’t work for SMS 2FA, especially for banks and PayPal, it knows they’re not a normal number and will reject. Sometimes it works some of the time but if you’ve got money riding on it, the headache is not worth it.

tello.com works beautifully over wifi as it uses regular GSM infrastructure which gets tunnelled over the internet

https://www.ultramobile.com/
This one works with banks, works outside the US for about 5$ a month

textnow app

Does anyone have experience in San Juan? Will be there through the weekend ✨

san juan, washington? or san juan, puerto rico?

PR my guess 🙂

Hey SF Bay Area folk!

Heading to the area to explore the AI startup and indie hacker scene.(Just flew over from Asia all the way…)
Where’s the real action happening?
Is there a good neighborhood or co-living community you recommend to stay in to be in the middle of it all?

google voice!

Hey folks, does anyone know any coliving type spaces in LA?

why this group is so dead?

gm, I'm down to hang out if anyone is in NYC

I think it’s not a very common digital nomad destination

means digital nomads are smart - not overpayin taxes

its not about taxes, US is expensive

unreasonable expensive. 1 day in LA is basically whole month in Vietnam

Not the most exciting place either in my opinion, I’m from there

there are some beautiful nature

Agree with that

I will be there for a few months but I have a lot of friends that will host me

otherwise I wouldn't spend so much time

Yea forget paying for hotels or airbnbs there it’s ridiculous

Im living in Salt Lake, is not too expensive.

Currently living in Boise - USA also just a big, spread-out place. Other countries are like....1-3 nomad favorite cities it seems like. USA has a lot of places to go but need money to get there

A car is essential because of the poor public transit

Depending on one's travel appetite RV'ing could also be an interesting option

My dad is a big RVer and that’s one of my favorite memories from childhood

My retired parents are RVers, scuttling around the US. Probably the best way to experience different parts of the country if one can handle some occasional scary driving. And renting a spot in an RV campground is more affordable than other rental options (but can still get pricey in high demand places)

I'm over here dreaming of trains 🥲

Yea my dad almost got in an accident several times, especially on narrow roads but it’s probably the best way to see the country

Speaking of traveling around US. Starting next monday, I want to hop around west side of USA. Thinking in between California and Colorado as starting points. Anyone wants to join?

yo yo guys, flying to the SF on Tuesday. Anybody wanna meet?

Hi! My partner and I are planning to travel to Miami in about a month as house sitters, using our tourist visas. We’ll also have a return flight booked to show at the airport. We both work remotely on our laptops.

I’ll be carrying three laptops, a tablet, and two suitcases with some basic items like a coffee maker, a frying pan, and other essentials.

Do you think there could be any issues at airport immigration, and that they might not let us in? Has anyone been in a similar situation before? Any advice or tips would be super helpful!🙏

working in the US, no matter for whom or where/how you get paid, is illegal. if they decide that they don't like you, they have that against you and are sending people to jail for it. obviously they don't check everybody, so you can try your luck. but better prepare a good story to tell at immigration.

Are you saying nomads have been sent to jail for real? If so, at the border or once they were through immigration?

Make sure you sew diamonds into your clothes and then give them to me when you get here.

Hey! 👋 Newbie around here. Do you think that working from the computer remotely is also illegal or only working in and for the US?

Just dont mention anything about the work, act as a tourist and you’d be fine 99.9%. it would still be illigal to work under tourist visa though…

my boyfriend is from the US (and I'm not) so I was specially concerned about it, and according to everything that I read, just working on your computer in their territory is illegal. obviously once you're in, the chances of them figuring that out are very low.

Honestly I would leave at home any items that are not common for a tourist, a frying pan definitely would cause stress if you get the wrong agent lol

I'd say it's a bad idea from the beginning. "House sitting" is obviously illegal, especially in the US (from their perspective, you're taking someone's job away that way). You might need to explain why you don't pay for the accommodation yourself, and who these people are who let you in. And you don't have a good answer.

Doing some work from a laptop while traveling is a lesser problem if the purpose of your trip is obviously tourism (you're not staying too long, you're visiting several places and not just one, you're paying for accommodation yourself). Solving occasional work issues on your tourist trip that are unrelated to the US is not explicitly forbidden.

I am trying to avoid returning to the US and I was born there lol

"She had stayed with a host family in Portland, Oregon, helping out around the house in exchange for lodging" - that's the key point here. That person is just stupid and doesn't know the rules apparently.

yeah lock her up and throw away the key

WOOFing, pet sitting, house sitting are a thing internationally, and until recently you were able to do this kind of things in the US too. Although maybe illegal or suspicious, nobody really cared. So I can see why she’s not “just stupid”. Things have abruptly changed.

It is getting more authoritarian there

Understood!! Will check that for sure :)

Anyone free for dinner/drinks in SF tonight?

Ey guys ✌️ Texas resident here (please don't hate me). Anyone has a Revolut account?
Im worried that after six months of location tracking every time I open the app they ll shut down my account

I have a US based Revolut account and permanently live in Portugal with no issues

Hello! For folks that are citizens or permanent residents, how do you manage health insurance in US for the time when you are not nomading? Do you purchase it on your own or rely on the one provided by your employer? Thanks 🙏

👋 from the only nomad currently in Cleveland. 😝