NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 In New York City, spirited badge-holders and independent music fans wove in and out of 150-person capacity clubs filled with groups from around the globe.
A Japanese rock band opened for a German trio followed by an alternative group from New Zealand. And that was just day one at the New Colossus Festival, held last week.
The six-day event takes its name from the poem cast on the Statue of Liberty, viewed as a welcome message for new immigrants: 鈥淕ive me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses鈥.鈥
Now in its sixth year, 196 artists were scheduled to perform, more than half from outside the United States. But New Colossus may be an exception, not the rule, for international artists hoping to perform in the U.S. In the last few years, the process has grown much more arduous and expensive.
鈥淚t鈥檚 already at the maximum level of difficulty that we can rationalize,鈥 said Mischa Dempsey, frontperson for the thrilling Montreal band Knitting, who performed at New Colossus and described the process as 鈥渓abor intensive.鈥
鈥淚 can鈥檛 even think about it getting worse.鈥
How did we get here?
On April 1, 2024, introduced , raising the cost from $460 to over $1,615 per musician application, the first bump since 2016. According to the USCIS website, the increase allows the organization to 鈥渞ecover our operating costs more fully and support timely processing of new applications.鈥
Nearly a year later, 鈥渨e are seeing the opposite,鈥 immigration attorney Gabriel Castro said. 鈥淲e are seeing cases actually slow down.鈥
The USCIS did not respond to an email from the AP.
Visa processing times slow
Changes to the system have caused delays. , a nonprofit that advocates for international artist mobility, all visa petitions are now filed through a centralized service center in Texas and are randomly divvyed up to preexisting California and Vermont service centers.
The result has been slowed processing times. Matthew Covey, an immigration attorney and Tamizdat's executive director, says Vermont has gone from one month to three. In California, it previously took two to four months, but now, it's eight.
鈥淣obody鈥檚 filing petitions long enough in advance to sustain an eight-month delay,鈥 says Covey. 鈥淵ou got a 50/50 chance of it being done in a reasonable amount of time or having to pay an extra $2,800 to expedite it.鈥
Castro says small and mid-tier artists don鈥檛 have the luxury of spending nearly $3,000 on expedited processing or booking tour dates eight months in advance. 鈥淎nd you have to have those tour dates before you apply for the visa," he adds.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just more expensive than ever to try and do a tour in the U.S. And that鈥檚 a problem,鈥 says Jen Jacobsen, executive director at The Artist Rights Alliance. 鈥淎nd I wouldn鈥檛 say the fee change by itself has had the impact 鈥 it鈥檚 a combination of inefficiencies and delays.鈥
Are international artists avoiding the U.S.?
The headlines are frequent: The group KARD canceled its 2025 U.S. tour due to visa issues. So did the Canadian metal band Respire. The up-and-coming Swedish rapper Bladee delayed his 2024 tour for similar issues. In the film world, Iranian co-directors Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani for their animated short, 鈥淚n the Shadow of the Cypress鈥 鈥 after arriving in Los Angeles just hours before, due to visa delays.
All international musicians require work authorization to perform in the U.S. There are scarce exemptions available to only a few, like the Visa Waiver Program, which is often used at .
鈥淭he safest approach is always to get a ... visa,鈥 says Castro.
Jacobsen says 鈥渢here鈥檚 definitely a buzz about whether touring in the U.S. is still a good economic option鈥 for these artists.
鈥淚鈥檓 hearing more and more frequently from artists who are just like, 鈥業鈥檓 going to take a break from the U.S. for a while. It鈥檚 not a return on my investment. It鈥檚 not worth it,鈥欌 says Covey.
Who is most affected?
Delays and fee increases disproportionally affect 鈥渨orld music artists, jazz, indie bands who are developing,鈥 says Covey, as well as 鈥渁rtists outside of Europe who have government support 鈥 if they come in from , they generally are not going to have a lot of government funding to cover these kinds of costs.鈥
New Colossus' lineups have benefited from governments who support local artists. 鈥淐ountries like Germany, , France, Ireland and Wales have funding bodies that the bands apply for,鈥 says Steven Matrick, one of the New Colossus Festival founders. 鈥淭hey recognize our festival as a showcase festival. And the bands get funded to come here by those bodies.鈥
But still, that does not make them immune to last-minute cancellations. This year, artists from Ireland, Scotland and Italy canceled. A band from Paraguay was held up by visa delays; they arrived after their second scheduled performance straight from the airport. Hi莽amahi莽, a band from Istanbul, had to cancel entirely.
In a statement, Hi莽amahi莽 explained that two band members couldn鈥檛 get visa appointments in time, despite working with an intermediary agency. 鈥淭he U.S. is currently issuing standard visa interview dates for Turkish citizens nearly 1,000 days later, which feels like an elitist form of discrimination. We are deeply disappointed by this situation,鈥 they wrote. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 think we are any different from a citizen of the U.K. or Germany.鈥
Matrick says, 鈥淲e have probably 10 cancellations a year, with people that don鈥檛 get the funding to purchase visas,鈥 or their visas are not processed in time.
Castro reminds that the loss of international talent stateside is not just a cultural one, but economic. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a loss for the venues ... the bars, the parking lots,鈥 he lists.
Concerns under a new presidency
鈥淏ased on what we saw over the course of the four years were increasing problems with consular process,鈥 Covey says. 鈥淭he delay times increased. The number of errors increased. Obviously, the scrutiny ... increased."
鈥淲e鈥檙e expecting that we will probably start seeing increased delays in the visa processing at U.S. embassies," he adds. And 鈥測our indie rock band is really not priority.鈥
Castro said it is early to make predictions 鈥渙f what this is going to look like in the future ... But that doesn鈥檛 mean that changes in immigration, generally, can affect these visas tangentially. The slow-down in immigration processes is a slow down for everyone.鈥
鈥淪ome of the policies about clamping down on illegal immigration sometimes flow into areas 鈥 unintended areas, perhaps 鈥 but areas that can impact legal immigration,鈥 says Jacobsen. 鈥淚f we want a rich palette of artistry to be here, we have to make it a welcoming environment for them.鈥
There are other potential impacts: At the end of last month, the U.S. government ordered a visa ban on transgender athletes looking to enter the U.S. for sports events. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just talking about enforcing it on athletes, but it doesn鈥檛 take very much to imagine them enforcing that on anyone,鈥 says Covey. "I鈥檓 concerned that the political agendas of the current administration could impact which artists get visas and which don鈥檛.鈥
Dempsey, of the band Knitting, said: 鈥淭hree of us are gender nonconforming and I think more than anything, we're scared of what it鈥檚 going to be like in the States, what it鈥檚 going to be like to cross the border."
