A small insight into the musician visa process

[Yippee38]

/sorry for the rant It's your country, you make the rules there...

Nope. You are wrong. This is America where the government is "of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation." I think you have us confused with some democratic, free-market country.

 

[adaher]

In this case, it's at the behest of workers. It's mainly workers who call for protection to "save our jobs". And I don't think it's a coincidence that these visas started becoming harder to get when there was a change of administration. Supposedly, this is being done for American artists. What it is actually doing, like all protectionist measures, is hurting the paying customer.

 

[Pellaz]

That would make *some* sense (from an American government perspective), except that as an IT consultant, about 80% of the people with whom I work barely speak English, and are here on an H1-B visa from India, China, Korea, Pakistan, etc.

So I guess it's "protect the jobs of the American musicians" but "f*** the IT workers!!"

And yet, the American Federation of Musicians, who are the "union" in this story and who, theoretically, would be the workers who protectionism would be saving, are fine with bands coming over, accordingly to Karmakazi's excellent post. So, protectionism, at least at the behest of American musicians, doesn't seem to be the issue.

Nope. You are wrong. This is America where the government is "of the special interests, by the special interests, and for the special interests."

Fixed.

(Corporations are not always the problem...and they certainly aren't the problem here.)

In this case, it's at the behest of workers. It's mainly workers who call for protection to "save our jobs".

True, but see above regarding the American Federation of Musicians, who don't seem to have any problem with overseas bands coming into the States and performing.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that these visas started becoming harder to get when there was a change of administration. Supposedly, this is being done for American artists. What it is actually doing, like all protectionist measures, is hurting the paying customer.

I made the same obdervation regarding the timing, only half-seriously, in a different thread and promptly got my head chopped off by a Certain Previous Poster Who Has Elected To Leave. Curious.

I still don't see any overwhelming reason why a new adminstration would want to hamstring the US concert industry. Then again, President Obama has referred to working in the private sector as "being behind enemy lines" (in his first book), so who knows?

 

[Dead Winter]

Nope. You are wrong. This is America where the government is "of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation." I think you have us confused with some democratic, free-market country.

.

 

[Cheiron]

How many people who have posted here have written to their congresspersons? If you haven't stop posting on a forum, and start telling the people who can change the process.

 

[J-Man]

How many people who have posted here have written to their congresspersons? If you haven't stop posting on a forum, and start telling the people who can change the process.

I have numerous times, and have received no answer as of today. But you have to remember my congress-idiot is Sylveste Reyes, who by the way is against any illegal immigrant reform, he believes it is their right to seek a better life here, and to receive the perks that all US citizens get. This is the same man who was the Commander of the US Border Patrol District that extends from The Arizona border, across NM, into Texas, and the south from El Paso for over a Hundred miles, and north to Albuquerque and east to Pecos Texas.

 

[Cheiron]

Well you have 2 senators, and a congressperson.. so ..

As for responses, I'm surprised. I regularly get generic responses =p

 

[J-Man]

Well you have 2 senators, and a congressperson.. so ..

As for responses, I'm surprised. I regularly get generic responses =p

I have written Kay Bailey Hutchinson and got a very nice response, and she stated mine wasn't the first and she has had talks with the people in Immigration and Naturalization, and Homeland security about this problem.

 

[Cheiron]

I have written Kay Bailey Hutchinson and got a very nice response, and she stated mine wasn't the first and she has had talks with the people in Immigration and Naturalization, and Homeland security about this problem.

That's awesome.

 

[skyrefuge]

an Argentine band that fuses Jewish Klezmer music with tango

Whoa, I think I just found my new favorite band.

Except, after searching around, this description seems to be completely untrue. The only references I could find to Orquesta Kef and "tango" were on pages talking about this article. And that's borne out by listening to their music; they're just a regular old klezmer band, with no tango to be found.

So not to say the visa process isn't horribly broken, but it surely doesn't help if the promoter is fabricating information (or is simply confused) about the bands he's bringing over.

It's disheartening to know that some bands are going to be denied access to the states

Actually, given Karmakazi's descriptions of the rules, it seems like we should be thankful that *any* bands make it through at all. Because really, if I was given the job of interpreting those rules and applying them to bands, I don't think I'd let any of "our bands" through. They're neither famous enough nor culturally unique (well, maybe Orphaned Land!) So maybe the USCIS agents actually deserve thanks for doing what they can to bend the rules a bit?

So then I wonder, is there a "standard" path taken by euro-metal bands, P-1 vs. P-3 (maybe this was covered by Glenn in a previous thread)? At first, switching to P-1 for PPUSA seems to be a good idea, simply because P-3 doesn't make much sense. But then you realize P-1 doesn't really fit either.

Neil

 

[Pellaz]

What kinda amazes me is that there is no well-defined appeal route, or a set timeframe for CIS (or is it ICE now?) to respond to such an appeal.

As many of you know, I work full-time at a certain, generally-the-most-hated Federal three-letter-agency, and this sort of thing simply wouldn't be tolerated. If we deny a request or a claim, we HAVE to provide a reason, our contact information is provided, we have to provide appeal rights, and there are timeframes for such appeals. There is also a separate "chain of command" in place to handle hardship situations.

And people think WE're evil. We seem to be pikers compared to the Immigration folks. (!)

Writing to your Congresscritters is a good start, but a more effective approach might be for Glenn and other concert and tour promoters to form an organization -- it can be a loose affiliation, nothing 'binding' -- to send a combined message to Washington. After all, they are the ones whose efforts are being foiled, and the failure of tours and festivals negatively effects the economy as a whole.
Basically: "Hey, you have an arm of the Executive Branch that is running roughshod over our legitimate business interests, has no clear oversight, no clearly-defined rules or guidelines, and no accountability. It is becoming difficult or impossible to produce tours and festivals with this uncertainty present, and this is damaging the economic recovery." If such there actually be.

 

[Cheiron]

Classical music musicians/orchestras/etc. banded together to fight some of the issues. Part of their fight did lead to changes in the older process which was even harder. But the current visa costs are cost prohibitive for many organizations.