Public broadcaster NRK reports that the American, a 22-year-old from Rhode Island, had begun volunteering on a farm in Eidskog in east Norway before being arrested by police.

She had booked her place through the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms initiative. She was set to be on the farm for two weeks on a voluntary basis before continuing her travels.

However, police picked her up three days after she arrived in the country for breaching the Immigration Act. This is because US citizens and all third-party nationals need a valid permit to work in Norway.

“A foreign person who intends to take up work for or without remuneration, or who wants to run a business in Norway, must initially have a residence permit which gives the right to take up work or run a business,” Vibeke Schem, a press advisor for the Norwegian Immigration Directorate, told NRK.

“In this connection, and in a broad sense, work means a performance that represents a creation of value. The value creation can be both material and non-material. Little is needed for a performance to be considered work,” she added.

The American citizen has been expelled from Norway and given a ban from the whole Schengen Area for two years.

She has appealed the decision, however, and believes that her tasks did not constitute work and that she was on the farm for learning purposes, which included some hands-on responsibilities in addition to theoretical education.

NRK reports that Norway’s economic crime unit, Økokrim, said that the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic could be used for illegal work in 2022.

However, people who hail from the Schengen area are able to volunteer for the organisation under the Freedom of Movement rules.

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