[Dixielandjazz] US Visa Rules for Foreign Performers

[Stephen G Barbone]

This situation needs to be fixed.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


April 11, 2012 - NY TIMES - By Larry Richter
U.S. Visa Rules Deprive Stages of Performers

Everything seemed set for the American debut last month of Pitingo,  
the rising young flamenco singing star: the Grand Ballroom at  
Manhattan Center had been booked, tickets and program prepared, a  
publicity budget spent, nonrefundable airline tickets purchased. But  
when he went to the United States Embassy in Madrid to pick up his  
visa, he learned that his name was on the “no fly” list.

Embassy officials knew that Pitingo, whose real name is Antonio Manuel  
Álvarez Vélez, is not a terrorist, and that the real target was  
someone else who shared his very common name. But procedures are  
procedures, and by the time the confusion was sorted out it was too  
late for Pitingo to fly to New York, and his concert had to be  
canceled. His management and the concert promoters incurred losses of  
nearly $25,000.

The case of Mr. Álvarez is not an isolated one. In the decade since  
the attacks on the twin towers, American visa procedures for foreign  
artists and performers have grown increasingly labyrinthine, expensive  
and arbitrary, arts presenters and immigration lawyers say, making the  
system a serious impediment to cultural exchanges with the rest of the  
world.

Some foreign performers and ensembles, like the Hallé orchestra from  
Britain, have decided that it is no longer worth their while to play  
in the United States. Others have been turned down flat, including a  
pair of bands invited to perform at the South by Southwest festival in  
Austin, Tex., last month, or have ended up canceling performances  
because of processing delays, as was the case last month with the  
Tantehorse theater troupe from the Czech Republic, which was booked to  
perform in suburban Washington.

Overall, according to Homeland Security Department records, requests  
for the standard foreign performer’s visa declined by almost 25  
percent between 2006 and 2010, the most recent fiscal year for which  
statistics are available. During the same period the number of these  
visa petitions rejected, though small in absolute numbers, rose by  
more than two-thirds.

“Everything is much more difficult,” said Palma R. Yanni, a former  
president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association who also  
handles artists’ visas. “I didn’t think it could get worse than it was  
after 9/11, but the last couple of years have been terrible. It just  
seems like you have to fight for everything across the board, even for  
artists of renown. The standards have not changed, but the agency just  
keeps narrowing the criteria, raising the bar without notice or  
comment, reinterpreting things and just making everything more  
restrictive. We call it the culture of no.”

A foreign artist seeking authorization to perform in the United States  
must navigate a system that involves a pair of government departments.  
Homeland Security, created in 2003, evaluates the initial application  
and then, if approval is granted, the State Department, assuming it is  
satisfied with the results of an in-person interview with the  
performer, issues a visa at an embassy abroad.

Congress requires the process to be financially self-sustaining,  
rather than depend on taxpayer support, which in practice means that  
fees are typically higher than those of other countries. Homeland  
Security even offers an expedited “premium processing fee” of $1,225  
per application — over and above the standard $325 filing fee — that  
is supposed to guarantee a response within two weeks, but arts  
administrators complain  that the agency sometimes fails to meet its  
own deadline.

As part of the process the arts group sponsoring performances in the  
United States must also submit written proof of the artist’s  
qualifications, all duly translated into English. Even then there is  
no guarantee of timely approval of a visa request, since there are  
often additional “requests for evidence” of a performer’s artistic  
worth or personal background. The government advises performers and  
ensembles to submit paperwork at least 90 days before they hope to  
receive a visa, but arts administrators say that delays of up to six  
months are not unusual.

“There’s no two matters that play out in the same way,” said Jonathan  
Ginsburg, a Washington-based immigration lawyer whose firm, Fettman,  
Tolchin & Majors, represents the North American Performing Arts  
Managers and Agents association and other arts groups. “You can’t for  
a moment let your guard down, or something nasty is going to happen.”

Complicating matters even more are American rules for foreign  
performers that do not allow for applications before tour contracts  
are signed. “If you get stuck in a six-month security delay, that’s  
the end of the road, and you pretty much miss your show,” said Matthew  
Covey of Tamizdat, a Brooklyn company that last year filed more than  
800 visa applications for foreign arts organizations.

Government agencies say that the enhanced procedures they have adopted  
are needed to safeguard American citizens. “We want to facilitate  
legitimate travel to the U.S., but we need to keep security as our  
highest priority,” said a State Department spokesman, who invoked  
department rules that do not allow him to be identified by name.

In many cases foreign troupes must also pay a “consultation” fee of up  
to $500 to an American union to certify that its performances will not  
adversely affect the interests of American artists. “It’s a revenue  
stream for the unions, with no cap in sight,” Mr. Ginsburg said.

As a result, some large ensembles are now simply avoiding the United  
States. In 2006, for example, the Hallé orchestra of Manchester,  
England, canceled an American tour that was to include a performance  
at Lincoln Center after orchestra administrators calculated that  
complying with visa regulations for a group of more than 100 musicians  
and staff members was going to cost them more than $70,000.

“This palaver of getting visas is mind blowing,” John Summers, the  
orchestra’s chief executive, said at the time.

In many cases delays in obtaining visas, arts administrators and  
immigration lawyers say, are simply the result of a slow and  
cumbersome bureaucracy. But they point to other cases, especially  
those involving artists with recognizably Arab or Muslim names.  
European diplomats and arts administrators say that when they submit  
visa requests for their orchestras or theater and dance ensembles, any  
performer with such a name is almost automatically subjected to what  
is known as “additional administrative processing.”

“It seems to be a question of the names, of anything that sounds like  
it could belong to a bad guy,” Mr. Ginsburg said. “Ostensibly it is  
not U.S. policy to profile. But they are looking for other words to  
describe the same thing.”

Government agencies deny that any such discriminatory policy exists.  
Homeland Security “strictly adheres to a zero tolerance policy that  
prohibits profiling on the basis of religion, race or ethnicity,” said  
Chris Bentley, a spokesman for United States Citizenship and  
Immigration Services at the department. “Every case is decided  
individually based on the facts and the law.”

Problems emerged last summer when the British theater director Tim  
Supple brought a pan-Arab ensemble to Toronto to perform the much- 
acclaimed new version of the “One Thousand and One Nights,” a version  
revised to reflect the events of the Arab Spring. The company had no  
difficulty obtaining visas for Canada and Britain, but an engagement  
at the Chicago Shakespeare Festival had to be canceled when 9 of the  
troupe’s 40 members were subjected to the additional scrutiny and time  
ran out.

“One has to respect everyone’s right to protect their own security,  
but it’s a growing problem that needs to be addressed,” said Roy  
Luxford, the show’s producer, based in Britain. “Everyone got Canadian  
visas in two weeks and British visas in 8 to 10 days.

“It has become overly onerous and a real barrier to undertaking any  
sort of normal tour” if you try to combine American dates with  
appearances in other countries, Mr. Luxford continued. “If all the  
rhetoric about open societies and cultural exchange is to be believed,  
then the agencies involved in that process need to own up to that.”