Spectrum NewsAmerican visa blues for U.K. artists
Published Date: November 11, 2007
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Artists with criminal records have always had difficulty entering the United States, but Britain's Musicians' Union claims up-and-coming acts are being excluded from America despite staying on the right side of the law. Singer/songwriter Lily Allen, veteran political rockers New Model Army and breakthrough acts the Pipettes and Klaxons were blocked from entering the United States this year. And the union suggests the smokescreen of anti-terrorism security is masking stricter implementation of U.S. visa reg
ulations."As far as I am aware," says union assistant general secretary Horace Trubridge, "there is no connection between rock stars behaving badly and terrorism." A spokesperson for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services did not return calls for comment, but former U.S. Department of State foreign service officer Stephen Pattison, now a partner at London-based lawyers Magrath & Co., confirms the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act has been applied more strictly post-Sept. 11.

Immigration officials, he notes, can now access non-U.S. citizens' police records, "even if charges were dropped." In June, U.K. police briefly detained Allen following a scuffle with London photographers; in August, her work visa was revoked when entering the United States to appear on the MTV Video Music Awards. Allen claims that, despite not actually being arrested for the incident, immigration officials cited it as the reason for the revocation. She canceled six U.S. shows as a result. In the wake of
the visa problem, Allen announced she was splitting with London-based Empire Management. Her personal manager there, Adrian Jolly, estimates the gross loss of the canceled shows at around $120,000. Subsequently, he says Empire had been "as cooperative as possible to get Lily into the U.S., but she hasn't been back.

Speaking to other people, it seems it's de rigueur now to make it hard for U.K. artists to get in there." In April, British band the View canceled a 10-date North American tour after a Scottish court fined vocalist Kyle Falconer for cocaine possession. Agent Steve Ferguson, who represents the View, Klaxons and the Pipettes at New York-based Paradigm, reports, "Klaxons and the Pipettes are now back, but not the View. It's harder if you've an arrest record." Ferguson adds that acts must allocate more time t
o visa preparation in the current climate. British chanteuse Amy Winehouse's substance abuse issues have filled U.K. tabloids this year, and her Oct. 19 arrest and EUR500 ($720) fine for possession of cannabis in Bergen, Norway, inevitably invited speculation about its U.S. career implications. While noting that Winehouse "hasn't had a problem yet," Jeffrey Gabel, chief counsel at New York-based visa specialist Traffic Control Group, cautions that overseas acts courting media controversy will increasingly
have to deal with the fallout at U.S. immigration. "Because they're all over the media," he points out, immigration knows who they are.

Union official Trubridge adds that bad behavior isn't the only reason for the recent rejections. He says authorities felt Klaxons and the Pipettes' didn't meet visa criteria as "internationally recognized for a sustained and substantial amount of time." That reflects a "cultural divide," Trubridge argues. U.S authorities, he claims, "haven't picked up on how quickly acts here are launching themselves through MySpace and YouTube." Trubridge says the Musicians' Union has been working with U.S. organizations
like the Performing Arts Visa Task Force to lobby regulators. However, Traffic Control director of client relations David King insists the Brits are overreacting."I don't see what the MU is bitching about," he declares. "Anybody with a criminal record is banned from the U.S. - you can't even bring your family to Disneyland!"-Reuters