- Share via
- Visa fees and wait times have escalated for years, but now have become a significant hurdle for touring the U.S.
- With processing times up to nine months, artists must pay expensive expediting fees or risk their tours falling through.
- Stories of foreign nationals being detained and held in custody over visa issues are frightening marginalized or politically outspoken acts.
Last month, Alvin Gibbs, bassist of the British punk band U.K. Subs, said he was turned away at the border before his Los Angeles show.
He wrote on Facebook that when the band got to LAX, they were “detained in a cold holding pen, along with a group of Colombian, Chinese, and Mexican detainees. My luggage, phone, and passport were confiscated.” He and most of the band were sent back to the U.K., Gibbs said, for having an incorrect visa. But he wondered if other factors contributed.
“I can’t help but wonder whether my frequent, and less than flattering, public comments regarding their president and his administration played a role,” he wrote. “Or perhaps I’m simply succumbing to paranoia.”
Whatever happened with Gibbs’ visa, as Coachella season ramps up, international artists are triple-checking any possible snags before performing in the U.S.
It’s never been easy or cheap for global acts to tour here, but visa fees are up and wait times have risen substantially over the last year. Under the new Trump administration, anecdotal stories of foreign tourists, scientists and activists being denied entry or taken into federal custody have rattled outspoken acts.
U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled Tuesday that Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old lawful permanent resident, can’t be detained while she fights deportation.
It’s too soon to know how policy shifts may affect the live music market in the U.S. But behind the scenes, artists are calling their lawyers.
“We haven’t seen many problems just yet,” said Matthew Covey, the executive director of Tamizdat, a New York nonprofit that helps global artists secure performance and residence visas. “But it’s hard to say everything is fine, because it’s not. They have reason to worry. You take an already difficult touring atmosphere, add now a layer of political fear. There’s a risk of artists looking to other markets instead of the U.S.”
While the Trump administration has dominated headlines about the border, challenges with touring and residency visas escalated under the Biden administration too.
In January 2023, the government proposed large fee hikes for artists pursuing O and P visas to live or perform in the U.S. The fee increases were reduced for arts nonprofits and small businesses, but now cost between $510 and $2,805 per applicant, depending on the type and speed of the visa.
A bigger problem, insiders say, came in 2023 after the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rerouted all artist visa applications through a Texas central office, and onto facilities in either Vermont or California. According to USCIS, the Vermont facility processes most applications in two and a half months. Yet the California office takes around nine months — a huge obstacle requiring thousands in extra fees to expedite them.
“People going through that process look at that and say, ‘I don’t know if I have $6,000 for this,’” Covey said. “If your tour is already on a knife’s edge, you might decide it’s not worth it.”
A spokesperson for USCIS declined an interview request.
Will the Trump administration fix a backlogged visa approval process in time for fans from many countries to attend the World Cup and L.A. Olympics?
Other challenges for acts touring the States include inflation and — for now — a strong U.S. dollar. “There’s fatigue related to the significant increase in costs and expediting costs. Legal fees and government fees are just a slice of that,” Covey said. “The exchange rate is brutal for anyone not making a lot of money on tours. If you look at international bookings at major festivals, they’ve been declining. I fear that trend will increase substantially.”
Several top international acts at Coachella, and the booking agencies representing them, declined to talk about any visa concerns.
What to know about Coachella 2025, including how to get tickets, who’s performing, what to eat, the festival party scene and how to watch the livestream.
One executive at a prominent booking agency, who spoke on background for fear of retaliation, said that “the visa process for artists has always been a mess, and it’s gotten more messy recently. If the guy opening up your application is having a bad day, they can do whatever they want. If they look at a band on an artistic level and say, ‘This isn’t good,’ you can be denied. If two bands are identical in every regard, same label and promoter, same booking agency, making the same money and paying the same taxes, it’s a coin toss.
“I just did visas for a Coachella band and it was $8,000,” they continued. “It’s becoming a huge financial hurdle because it takes so long through regular channels, you have to go for the heavy-duty expediting.”
The U.S. remains one of the most important touring markets, especially for its internationally-renowned festivals like Coachella, which has a global fanbase and brings top acts from Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
“It’s still the biggest market in world. People don’t want to close the door to the U.S.,” said Lorraine D’Alessio, founder of the Beverly Hills firm D’Alessio Law, which specializes in immigration to the U.S. with an emphasis on the entertainment industry. “There’s a lot of money here, and the entertainment capitals haven’t changed. Hollywood, Atlanta and Nashville are pockets of incredible exposure.”
The booking executive agreed that “uncertainty hasn’t changed the ways we think about clients. We’re not going to not sign a group from Turkey because visas are annoying.”
However, recent high-profile incidents of foreign tourists, students and legal residents being taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities have frightened many in music, especially those who have criticized the Trump administration or supported Palestine.
The U.S. has revoked roughly 300 visas of international students, many who have supported campus pro-Palestinian encampments and protests. At major California campuses including UCLA and USC, foreign students are on alert.
Tamizdat said, in guidance to artists applying for visas, that President Trump’s executive order “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats” was “chilling,” and “could be used to deny entry to the U.S. based on alarmingly expansive, politicized, and subjective criteria. This could certainly be used to exclude artists that are perceived to be ‘dangerous.’”
Covey said that, so far, they see any politically-driven chill as more a worry than a reality just yet.“We’ve seen artists say lots of things on social media who got visas, trans artists getting visas without a problem,” he said. “But it’s not that agents and labels and artists don’t have a right to be concerned.”
“The fact that an artist hasn’t been disappeared yet is good,” Covey said, pausing with the gravity of that. “But I’m not going to tell artists they’re fine.”
The famously outspoken Neil Young wrote on his website recently, “When I go to play music in Europe, if I talk about Donald J. Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminum blanket. That is happening all the time now.” The influential U.K. trans electronic artist Aya told Pitchfork that “I’m not coming to the U.S. until anything changes ... I don’t want to chance paying eight or 10 grand for a visa and then get turned away at the border because my passport doesn’t line up with what they see.”
“There’s an uncertainty in the air,” the booking executive agreed. “So many artists are very outspoken online, and you’re putting yourself in a position where anything can happen. When you come to the border, they’re looking at your profiles. If any flags are raised, you could be in a dangerous position.”
What impacts could this have on this summer’s festival season and beyond?
This month, the State Department revoked visas for a Mexican band, Los Alegres del Barranco, for portraying “images glorifying drug kingpin ‘El Mencho’ — head of the grotesquely violent CJNG cartel,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X.
Last week, the British artist FKA Twigs, who hasn’t performed in the U.S. since 2019, canceled her much-anticipated North American tour just days before her Coachella dates. “I’m devastated to share the news that due to ongoing visa issues I am not able to see through any of my scheduled tour dates for the remainder of April across North America,” she said on Instagram. “I know this impacts so many of you that have already made plans and spent money in order to see these shows.”
The U.S. has revoked the visas of members of Los Alegres del Barranco, after the Mexican band flashed big-screen images of a reputed drug lord during a concert.
More artists like her might suddenly learn that what had been an expensive, time-consuming formality to get a visa is now an insurmountable obstacle for a long-planned tour. Global acts — especially emerging or politically outspoken artists — might decide it’s not worth the expense or risk. Others may cut back on dates to reduce border crossings.
“When we do North American routing for international acts, that often includes border crossings at Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal,” the booking executive said. “Right now I might say, ‘We don’t rock the boat, let’s not go to Toronto and Montreal.’ Even if you’re 100% aboveboard, this uncertainty is a piece we can’t control.”
Coachella is right around the corner. This is how these musicians, who were born and raised in the Southern California region, are getting ready.
Given the Canadian Independent Music Association’s boycott of the South by Southwest Film and TV Festival, other countries might decide the U.S. needs a taste of its own policies.
“We really have no idea what the context and climate is going to be mid-March, and it made it difficult for me to kind of want to step confidently forward,” CIMA Chief Executive Andrew Cash said in a February statement announcing the cancellation of its long-running Canada House showcase in Austin. “We don’t know what is coming down the chute.”
Others are skeptical of a boycott. “It’s too soon to say if there would be a larger, coordinated ‘we’re not going to the U.S.’ action,” the booking executive said. “The gears of capitalism are such that it’s unlikely. There are too many brass rings here in the music world, and when push comes to shove, people just deal with it.”
President Trump’s proposed travel bans or increased scrutiny on 40 countries may have some effect but are not yet in place. Covey said he didn’t expect other countries to retaliate against American artists touring abroad. “It’s hard to single out artists from one country for a retaliatory immigration code,” he said. “Most countries realize that punishing artists is not going to get them far.”
Any impacts on touring will probably be felt in an added pall on what looks to be a shaky summer tour climate, where acts as big as Beyoncé and Linkin Park have slashed ticket prices on stadium shows that have not yet sold out. Other major Los Angeles events like the upcoming Summer Olympics and World Cup could face similar challenges.
If Queen Bey can’t sell tickets, does it indicate oversaturation or an impending recession?
D’Alessio said that the process is still worth it. “We’ve been telling clients they need to get their stuff in order, and some need a kick in the pants to get their act together,” she said. “I’m an immigrant. We have to follow the rules, and they’re getting enforced now. But those who decide to close the door are not making the right call. The U.S. is still the epicenter of the music industry.”
The booking executive did have one grim piece of advice, though.
“I’m not posting anything,” they said. “In the outrage economy, even the most innocuous things can gather steam. You can’t risk it. If you get popped and your passport’s flagged, no one has any control on our end. You’re done.”
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
