New Bill May Speed U.S. Visas for Artists
Published: April 3, 2008
But as the House of Representatives voted this
week to speed up the visa approval process for some foreign artists and
entertainers, the heads of arts organization said attention was finally being
paid to the real problem: the time, money and complexity involved in getting
visas for lower-profile artists, including dancers, singers, musicians and
actors.
“It has become a huge burden,” said Nigel Redden, director of the Lincoln Center Festival,
the renowned arts showcase that this summer will bring together 57 performances
and events from nine countries.
“We hire someone in January whose only job is to do visas,” he said. Once,
when the festival sought to bring in a cast of Chinese acrobats and soloists, a
“visa wrangler” in
“We’re turning the
Now, those seeking entry must run a bureaucratic gantlet that can include
having to establish their artistic credentials, hire a lawyer, pay visa fees
and visit a
All of that requires money and time, said Jonathan Ginsburg, an immigration lawyer in
Once the application is made, the Homeland Security
Department is supposed to act within two weeks, but recently it almost never
has; in the worst cases, getting an answer takes as long as six months, arts
organizations said. So-called premium processing is available to expedite an
application, at a cost of $1,000 for each petitioner.
The House bill, approved on Tuesday, extends the processing time to 30 days
from two weeks. If the deadline is not met, the department is required to
provide free expedited processing. The bill, which applies only to visa
applications made by nonprofit arts groups, still needs the Senate’s approval.
Heather Noonan, the vice president for advocacy for the League of American
Orchestras, called the bill an important step.
“We’re very pleased to see Congress support opportunities for international
cultural exchange this way and particularly happy to see such broad bipartisan
support for the measure,” Ms. Noonan said.
Sandra Gibson, the president and chief executive of the Association of
Performing Arts Presenters, said: “We’ve been watching this issue for 10 years.
The premium-processing fee meant the nonprofit community would not be served.”
A task force on visas was formed in 2001, she said, when premium processing
began. But the Sept. 11 attacks slowed everything down. “There were delays in
interviews, inability to get interviews,” Ms. Gibson said. On applications,
problems like inverted birth dates and misspelled last names made problems
snowball. Around the world, the embassies and consulates that were part of the
process were staffed at different levels. “In
With the value of the dollar waning, more and more artists have decided to
stay home, Ms. Gibson said, echoing other officials. And fewer of the
presenters, she said, are willing to go through the contortions of bringing in
foreign artists.
Cyril M. Ferenchak, a spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the
State Department, said in an e-mail message that the government had worked hard
to make the visa application easier and more efficient.
“Over 570 new consular positions have been created to handle a growing visa
demand and the added security measure in our visa adjudication process,” Mr.
Ferenchak wrote, adding that embassy Web sites provide information on things
like required documents to demystify the visa process.
Matthew Covey, executive director of Tamizdat, a nonprofit group that helps
artists get visas, said the House bill was a step in the right direction.
Emerging artists without much money or the organizational skills to get
together a visa application are the ones especially hurt by the visa labyrinth.
“An awful lot of musicians don’t make a lot of money,” he said. “They are
looking to break even, to promote their work. Most musicians need to expedite
their visas because many clubs book six to eight weeks in advance.”
And American audiences may never know what they are missing.