Performing in the United States for international artists became much more complicated.
On April 1, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services instituted a 250% increase in the visa fee for international musicians wishing to tour in the US.
Artists, advocacy groups and immigration lawyers worry it could have devastating effects on emerging talent around the world and on local music economies in the US.
If you are a musician from outside the United States who wants to perform in the country and submitted visa paperwork by April 1, the cost per application was $460.
After that date? $1,615 to $1,655.
Bands and ensembles pay per performer. A standard four-piece rock band went from paying $1,840 to about $6,460. And if you can’t wait a few months for approval, add $2,805 per application for expedited processing.
If the application is not accepted, that money is not refunded, in addition to losses from a canceled tour and the loss of “important, potentially career-changing opportunities,” says Jen Jacobsen, executive director of The Artist Rights Alliance.
If a musician has support staff, a backing band, or other employees to accompany the tour, these people also need visas.
“Even if you’re Capitol Records and you have all the money in the world to spend, you still can’t get rid of American bureaucracy,” says immigration attorney Gabriel Castro.
All international musicians require work authorization to perform in the U.S. There are few exemptions: They are reserved for “exhibitions” through the Visa Waiver Program, such as what is often used at South by Southwest, where artists International artists perform exclusively at official exhibitions, without payment. and for the exhibition.
Currently, there are few obstacles for American musicians seeking 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 tourism rules.
What is the impact on artists?
Gareth Paisey, singer of the seven-piece Welsh independent band Los Campesinos!, will tour the United States in June. The band made sure to apply for visas before the April 1 deadline, a difference between paying $3,220 or $11,305 in fees. Next time they have to get a visa, he says they’ll probably try to do two tours in one year (the length of their particular 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 notable people, often more famous musicians.
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“Nobody joins a band because they’re passionate about cash flow forecasting,” he says. “It’s unfair to expect people who are brilliant at writing songs to be brilliant at filling out a 20-page visa application.”
Post-Brexit, he says touring in Europe for UK artists has become more complicated, but the process in the US is by far the most complex, both in terms of paperwork and what it means for the future of music.
“This idea that you have to be a career musician to get a visa, and that visa fees are increasing, adds to the idea that music is a competition,” Paisey says. “And part of that competition is to make as much money as possible, as if that’s the only valid way to participate in the music industry.”
Why have rates increased so much?
Two reasons: They hadn’t done so for some time and because immigration officials are examining the process more closely.
The last increase was in 2016, when rates increased from $325 to $460.
The U.S. government is “placing more and more burden on the application process,” says Castro of BAL Sports and Entertainment Practice, which specializes in visas for musicians, artists and athletes.
He says that 20 years ago, applications were only two or three pages long. Now it’s 15 or 20 pages.
“And those are just the forms before the evidence to support them,” he says. “Now I’m filing 200 or 300 page documents just to explain why this band should travel all over the United States.”
Officials “could have done better to look at the inefficiencies in the system to save money,” he says.
Paisey says he’s heard that the increase will allow USCIS to “get rid of its backlog… But is that because it’s going to employ more staff or probably because it’s going to receive fewer applications?” She wonders, because it will benefit “the people who can afford to go, not the people who want to go or have the fan base to go.”
Why have applications changed over time?
Castro says part of this is to account for “abuses in the system, to make sure that people who come here for certain activities actually have them implemented,” but the increased scrutiny is a lingering effect of the U.S. immigration policies. Trump administration.
“The immigration process in general became more difficult for everyone. Whether you come across the border, whether you come here to perform at Madison Square Garden, whatever it is,” he says. “That has changed the culture of American immigration agencies.”
Independent and emerging talent, as well as ensembles and groups.
“Dua Lipa, the Rolling Stones, are going to pay these fees. It’s not even a rounding error. They could waste $1,200 in their budgets and not even realize it,” Castro says. “It’s indie rock bands, niche groups and jazz musicians in Japan that will be affected.”
“Every penny counts. They have very small margins,” he adds.
“We already have the problem of not enough musical acts advancing to the next level,” Paisey says. “And this will prevent them from having that opportunity in the United States.”
Touring in the United States is a pipe dream for many independent artists, he says, and is in danger of “not even being a dream.”
Jacobsen points out that there will also be domino effects: musicians, drivers, tour managers and others who would be hired to work with international talent will lose work, venues will lose fruitful bookings, festivals that focus on international talent will reduce their size. ticket costs could increase and so on.
She says these fee increases could affect American music culture: “the richness of the music ecosystem in terms of genre diversity.”
If lesser-known global genre artists are unable to perform in the United States, audiences will miss out on a critical cultural exchange. “We need to make the market friendly and accessible to all those different types of musicians,” she says.
“We will see a decrease in international acts coming to the United States,” Castro says. “And perhaps it is a decrease in frequency rather than a decrease in absolute number. We will see fewer and fewer emerging artists.
“The harder it is for them to come to the United States, the less you’ll see them here.”
Local economies will feel the result, too: “It won’t just be the mid-sized venue in Cleveland that will feel it, but the street parking, the restaurants and bars that people go to before and after.”
And there could be long-term consequences that remain to be seen. “There is absolutely a concern that there will be a reciprocal effect,” Jacobson says.
If the United States is making it increasingly difficult and expensive for musicians to come here, “Why wouldn’t other countries do the same for our artists?”
