The US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) is planning to lift touring visa charges for overseas acts by greater than 250 per cent.
DHS has written in its proposal that purposes for a P visa, which is for acts arriving within the US to carry out quickly, would improve from the present charge of $460 (£375.23) to $1,615 (£1,317).
The O visa, which is a long run work visa, would bounce from $460 (£375.23) to $1,655 (£1,349).
Each will increase embrace a $600 (£489) surcharge to fund the US authorities’s asylum program.
The proposed hike for the O visa places it at a 260 per cent bounce. The charge for P visa, in the meantime, marks a 251 per cent improve.
In keeping with the DHS, the will increase are wanted because of excessive demand and inadequate workers on the Citizenship and Immigration division.
Some Canadian acts have spoken out in opposition to the proposed adjustments, citing it being “an enormous hardship to pay such excessive visa charges”.
The Climate Station‘s Tamara Lindeman mentioned on Twitter: “If you’re a US citizen or Organisation, please make an official touch upon this – directions beneath – For context we already spend hundreds of {dollars} simply on visas to enter the US; it’s the one nation we tour to with these prohibitive visa prices.”
If you’re a US citizen or Group, please make an official touch upon this – directions beneath –
For context we already spend hundreds of {dollars} simply on visas to enter the US; it is the one nation we tour to with these prohibitive visa prices. https://t.co/m5AASHEctJ— The Climate Station (@TheWeatherStn) February 2, 2023
Lindeman wrote in a subsequent tweet: “It’s an enormous hardship to pay such excessive visa charges, along with a 30% withholding tax after we play within the US. It’s laborious sufficient to earn cash on tour as it’s.”
In an e-mail to Stereogum, Tom McGreevy of Geese Ltd. mentioned: “This can be a fairly huge deal for bands from different international locations, because it’s a major burden on newer bands particularly, however can also be one thing that may impression American audiences in a major manner, because it’s going to discourage an terrible lot of bands from touring and taking the primary steps in constructing an viewers right here.”
Moreover, DHS recommends limiting every visa utility to a most of 25 people. If the variety of individuals in a gaggle exceed that quantity, a separate utility will likely be required.
Elsewhere within the paperwork, DHS mentioned that longer timeframes for premium processing must be thought-about. The service, priced at $2,500 (£2,039), at present takes 15 calendar days however a suggestion has been made for it to be decreased to fifteen enterprise days.
In 2020, DHS proposed rising charges by 50 per cent and different measures however these adjustments by no means went into impact. The final time artist visa charges rose was in 2016.
US residents who want to touch upon the proposed adjustments can achieve this through the Federal Registry right here.
