Visa fees for the U.S. are going up April 1, and touring music artists from overseas are bracing for the impact of higher costs.
To do all this legally, she learned, required getting a temporary work visa costing $460 plus another $2,800 for faster processing. Hiring a lawyer or immigration specialist to file the application would have added another thousand dollars minimum to the bill. “It’s just too risky,” she says. “You have to reject a hell of a lot of things, which is really frustrating.”
There are, however, reduced rates for visa applications backed by a promoter, agency, festival or record company with less than 25 full-time employees. For those companies, the new fee is capped at $830 . For non-profit petitioners, the total fee is capped at $530. . It’s cold comfort for international acts — especially those starting their live careers — who fear those costs will ultimately be passed on to them, making it too expensive for all but established artists to play U.S. dates. “It’s going to have a chilling effect,” says, a Los Angeles-based immigration attorney who represents many international acts. “I’m certainly hearing a lot of displeasure from my clients for these higher fees.
The new fees being introduced April 1 are nominally lower than the non-tiered rises first proposed by USCIS, but still represent “a significant extra burden for touring U.K. bands and artists, particularly for emerging acts that operate on the tightest of margins,” says UK Music interim chief executiveThose margins are being squeezed tighter by the majority of international artists needing to pay out for “premium” visa processing, says, owner of U.K.
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