This message is relevant to everyone, but particularly the spaces, like mine, run by expats in foreign countries.
I have been a huge supporter of Coworking since I met Tony Bacigalupo a few months after he first opened his space in NYC so many years ago. I knew after seeing that space that I wanted to open a space as well. It took me many years, I did it. I live in San Miguel de Allende Mexico and I opened my space 3 years ago. Because my Spanish is poor, and because I knew community growth was key, I targeted membership to expats and English speaking visitors. Which is not say we limited it this way, only that the community I developed all seemed to speak English, so those were the members we attracted. We were successful - being the #1 rated city in the world by Travel + Leisure helped and lots of interesting folks popped in to work and often folks moved here permanently (with or without legal permission, many people come in on a tourist visa and stay for years). I am working on a plan for a much larger, more sophisticated space and I have concerns about expats and visitors who have no legal authorization to be "working" while in Mexico. Our laws are quite clear, you may not work in Mexico, online, in your home, etc., without authorization or without a permanent resident visa. I think all international coworking spaces are going to have to face this one. Do you ask your members if they have permission to work in your country? Do you feel you can protect your members when government officials come in and ask to see your members documents? Are you concerned about liability? I think this a valid concern and I'd like to hear from other space owners. I do not want to be a hunting ground for officials looking for people breaking the law - and who would want to work in a coworking space where they knew the government was going to come around and ask to see visas?! What do you do to make sure the people working in your space have the right to work there? Does it matter to you at all? Do you think it should matter? I was just in Austin for 3 months and coworked all over, no one ever asked. Not one coworking space ever asked if I had permission to work in the USA while I was there. If someone works out of your space and is not legally entiled to be working in your country, is that an issue you think about? Does this issue concern you? Thanks in advance for your feedback, Kimberly Kimberly Kubalek, Owner Espacio Coworking - San Miguel de Allende +52 415 150 1069 MEX Office +52 415 167 4566 MEX Cell +1 858 367 0102 USA Voicemail -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/coworking/b50c95ee-4fc8-46c9-b411-2e46777ff65b%40googlegroups.com.
