No not really. "US Visa Rules Deprive Stages of Performers", says the New York Times. Have they only just noticed this, or is it just a slow news day?
On the other hand, I never hear the bitter complaints about this in the opera world that one has been hearing in the trad/folkie/world world for the last decade, where the iron rules for presenters are a) insure your events and b) never, ever book the first date of a tour. Meanwhile you wonder how anyone can make a US tour pay given the extortion money they have to fork over just for the mere possibility that the damn paperwork might be dealt with in a timely fashion if, I dunno, the moon is in the house of the ram or something. Remember that incident back in the aughts where an INS contractor cleared their backlog by just shredding all the applications? Yeah. So do opera singers get a magical pass, or is it just down to iron-clad international management and big money?
I'd bet on international management and big money.
ReplyDeleteOur visa system is . . .insane. The whole thing about 'once someone with a name like yours is on the no-fly list good luck ever visiting the US ever again' just blows my mind.
Yeah, you'd think a little hard core research would get them past this problem, but I guess they can't be bothered. Snap deportations are fun, too, especially when it's one member of a band.
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