“Since the era of Beatlemania, the goal of young British musicians has been to conquer America, but that dream is being snuffed out,” dreads The Guardian. The British daily is one of the first to react to the announcement that the United States could soon increase the price of visas for foreign artists by 250%.
The cost of category O and P visas, required among other things for artists and athletes who come to perform on American soil, would drop from 460 to 1,615 dollars (from 435 to 1,529 euros). The announcement was made in early February by the United States Department of Homeland Security, precise NME, a British site specializing in music news. It would be a question of increasing the financing available to the American immigration services. The decision is under advisement until March 6, adds The Guardian.
The news is stiff for British musicians, whose tours of Europe have already been complicated by Brexit. After being prevented, like their foreign counterparts, from performing on stage due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they are also now suffering from inflation, which is driving up the cost of tours, reports The Guardian. In the UK, the campaign #LetTheMusicMove (“Let the music travel”), which had been put in place after Brexit, was relaunched to make the arguments of the sector heard.
Multiple repercussions
But British musicians are not the only ones concerned. It is artists from all over the world who are targeted by the increase in the price of O and P visas. And this will also have an impact on American cultural institutions. February 25, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette split from an editorial to denounce the proposed measure:
“This increase in the price of visas will hit cultural organizations hard [américaines]they who are already chasing every dollar.”
The daily from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is particularly concerned about the local dance troupe: with seven foreign dancers in its ranks, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater could have to pay an additional 8,000 dollars (7,575 euros) to the American immigration services. to continue to operate.
