Be careful about volunteering in PV

I have been watching for reactions to the meeting at IFC last Thursday, March 5 about volunteering. The meeting was conducted by three officers from the Mexican immigration service, who were introduced by Kelly Trainor, the American consul officer. The reason for the meeting was to explain the current interpretation of Mexican law concerning restrictions on foreigners who wish to work or volunteer.

It has always been the case that a foreigner who wants to work for pay must have that noted on his/her FM-3 or FM-2 visa. However, the chief Mexican officer at the meeting explained that any foreigner who wants to perform any volunteer activities of any kind must have that fact noted on their visa. This, he explained, applies also to officers of a condominium association.

The process for obtaining this notation involves 1)getting a letter from the sponsoring organization requesting that you perform volunteer services for them without pay (written in Spanish), 2) writing a letter to Mexican immigration informing them that you wish to perform volunteer activities without pay for the sponsoring organization (written in Spanish), 3) taking these letters (in duplicate?) to the immigration office along with your visa (and waiting in line), and the updated visa will be returned to you after 5 days.

Well, IMHO this is a lot of bother and hassle to go through to perform a service that benefits the community.

What if you are only here for a short visit of 1 or 2 weeks? You would never be able to complete the update process before it is time to leave.

What if you stop volunteering for that particular sponsor? Do you need to then go back to Immigration with another letter explaining that you no longer perform volunteer activities? What if you switch to a different sponsor, or volunteer for two or more sponsors?

Until this policy is clarified further, I will not volunteer for anything. This policy can only hurt the PV community and I do not understand why this is happening.

Yes, Kat, I did attend the meeting. But I am not fluent in Spanish, so I am reporting what I heard from the female immigration officer who did the interpretation into English. I did not wait until the very end of the meeting, but I stayed for the main presentation and about 15 minutes of Q&A. One of the gentlemen asked about his organization which builds churches around the world using unskilled labor from mission volunteers who work for a week or two before returning home. He asked if they were subject to these rules, and the answer from the Mexican immigration officer was \"yes\", if I understood him correctly.

If you have a different interpretation, it would be informative to read it. I did not stay until the very end of it all, and maybe they backtracked on some of what was presented, but I got the definite impression that the documentation rules would apply to ALL foreign visitors, even those on a tourist visa.

Also, I forgot to mention before, but the penalties for volunteering without proper documentation can be severe: fines of several hundred dollars (US$, not pesos) and/or deportation.

Anyway, the official reasons for the crackdown do not make much sense to me either.

Madcityguy,
Check your messages

Kat

Thanks, Kat. I seem to have missed some of what was presented, partly by not understanding Spanish, and partly for leaving before it was all finished. Mea culpa.

Thanks for pointing it out - there is a nice summary of the requirements here:

http://www.vallartascene.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12395