Achi news desk-
Performing in the US for international artists just got a lot more complicated.
On April 1, USCIS announced a 250% increase in visa fees for global musicians hoping to tour the US
Artists, advocacy groups and immigration lawyers are concerned that this could have devastating effects on emerging talent around the world and local music economies in the US
If you’re a musician from outside the United States hoping to perform in the country and you submitted visa paperwork before April 1, the cost per application was $460.
After this date? $1,615 to $1,655.
Bands and ensemble groups pay per performance. A regular four-piece rock band went from paying $1,840 to around $6,460. And if you can’t wait a few months for approval, add $2,805 to each request for expedited treatment.
If the request isn’t granted, that money won’t be returned — in addition to losses from a canceled tour and missed “significant, potentially career-changing opportunities,” says Jen Jacobsen, executive director of The Artist Rights Alliance.
If the musician has a support team, backing band or other employees to bring on tour, these people also need visas.
“Even if you’re Capitol Records and you have all the money in the world to throw at it, you still can’t get rid of the American bureaucracy,” says immigration attorney Gabriel Castro.
All international musicians require a work permit to perform in the U.S. There are a few exemptions: those reserved for “showcases” through a visa waiver program—like what’s often used at South by Southwest, where international artists perform exclusively in official showcases, free of charge and exposure.
Currently, there are few obstacles for American musicians wishing to enter other countries for the specific purpose of making money through live performances. According to Castro, American artists can enter most countries without a visa and under an exception to the tourism rules.
What is the effect on artists?
Gareth Facey, lead singer of the independent seven-piece Welsh band Los Campesinos!, will tour the US this June. The band made sure to apply for visas before the April 1 deadline, a difference of $3,220 in fees or $11,305 in fees. Next time That they would have to get a visa, he says they would probably try to squeeze two tours into one year – the length of their specific visa – to offset the cost.
He says the application process requires providing a year-round itinerary and supporting evidence: press clippings to justify their status as “career musicians”, and testimonials from important people – often more famous musicians.
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“No one joins the band because they have a passion for making cash flow projections,” he says. “It’s not fair to expect people who are brilliant at writing songs to also be brilliant at filling out a 20-page visa application.”
Post-Brexit, he says touring Europe for UK shows has become more complicated, but the process in the US is by far the most complex – both in terms of paperwork and what it represents for progressive music.
“This idea that you have to be a career musician to get a visa, and visa fees go up, increases the idea that music is a competition,” says Pacey. “And part of that competition is to make as much money as possible — as if that’s the only proper way to participate in the music industry.”
Why did the fees jump so much?
Two reasons: it hasn’t happened in a while, and because immigration officials are taking a closer look at the process.
The last increase was in 2016, when fees increased from $325 to $460.
The US government is “putting more and more burden on the application process,” says Castro of the BAL Sports and Entertainment Practice, which specializes in visas for musicians, entertainers and athletes.
According to him, 20 years ago, the applications were only two or three pages long. Now, they are 15 or 20 pages.
“And these are just the forms before supporting evidence,” he says. “Now I’m submitting 200-page, 300-page documents just to explain why this band needs to tour the United States.”
Officials “might have done better to look at the inefficiencies in the system to save money,” he says.
Pacey says he’s heard the increase will allow USCIS to “get rid of the backlog … but is that because you’re going to hire more staff or is it probably because you’re going to get fewer applications?” He wonders, because it’s going to benefit “people who can afford to go rather than those who want to go or have the fan base to go.”
Why have the apps changed over time?
Castro says part of that is to account for “abuse of the system — to make sure that people who come here for certain activities actually have those activities,” but the increased scrutiny is a lingering effect of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“The immigration process overall has become more difficult for everybody. Whether you’re crossing the border, whether you’re coming here to perform at Madison Square Garden, whatever it is,” he says. “It changed the culture of American immigration agencies.”
Independent and emerging talent, as well as bands and groups.
“Dua Lipa, the Rolling Stones, they’re going to pay those fees. It’s not even a rounding error. They could lose $1,200 in their budgets and they didn’t even notice,” Castro says. “These are the indie rock bands, niche acts, jazz musicians from Japan that will be affected.”
“Every shekel counts. They have very small margins,” he adds.
“We already have a problem with not enough musical acts breaking through to the next level,” says Pacey. “And that would prevent them from getting that opportunity in the United States.”
A US tour is a pipe dream for many independent acts, he says, and is in danger of “not even being a dream”.
Jacobsen points out that there will also be ripple effects: musicians, drivers, show managers and beyond who are hired with international talent will lose their jobs, venues will lose prolific bookings, festivals that focus on international talent will shrink, ticket costs could rise and so on.
According to her, these fee increases could affect the music culture of the US – “the richness of the music system in terms of the variety of genres.”
If lesser-known global genre artists can’t perform in the U.S., audiences will miss out on critical cultural exchanges. “We need the market to be friendly and accessible to all those different types of musicians,” she says.
“You will see a decline in international operations coming to the United States,” Castro says. “And maybe it’s a decrease in frequency more than a decrease in the absolute number. We see less and less emerging artists.
“The harder you make it for them to come to the United States, the less you’ll see them here.”
The local economies will also feel the result: “Not only the average place in Cleveland will feel it, but the parking lot down the street, the restaurants and bars that people go to before and after.”
And there could be long-term consequences that have yet to be seen. “There is an absolute fear that there will be a reciprocal effect,” says Jacobson.
If the US is making it increasingly difficult and expensive for musicians to come here, “why shouldn’t other countries do the same for our artists?”
