Lotus festival artists encounter visa problems

To attend Bloomington's Lotus Festival this September, all that international music fans will need to do is drop by the local box office. But many of the musicians they want to see will have a much more difficult time getting to the event this year.\nThe artists have run into problems in the last few months because of a new scrutiny of the type of visa they use to enter the U.S., said Lee Williams, executive director of the Lotus Festival. This latest difficulty has only worsened with the increasing difficulty of obtaining a U.S. visa following new restrictions and requirements by the government after 9-11, Williams said.\nThe artists who will fill the stages at this year's Festival might need to start applying for their visas now as a result of these problems, Williams said. \nInternational musicians usually enter the U.S. on P-3 cultural visas. To receive this particular type of visa, an artist must have someone in the U.S. send in an application proving he or she is 'culturally unique' -- meaning that no substitute for his or her particular talent exists in the U.S.\n"To get a P-3, you have to have someone who has extraordinary ability," said Kelly Shannon, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the U.S. State Department.\nLotus Festival usually does not apply for an artist's visa for its participants, though the organization has done so occasionally in the past. Booking agencies that bring the artists into the U.S. typically handle the application process, Williams said.\n"We're just a stop on a tour, some other entity (usually) applies for the visa," Williams said.\nBut no matter who fills out the paperwork, security fears have caused problems for P-3 applicants lately, Williams said.\n"There's a suspicion that terrorists will use P-3 applications to falsify a visa application because it's easier to get than other visas," Williams said.\nBut Shannon paints a different picture of the visa application environment. She says the biggest change in the visa process since 9-11 is merely the required fingerprinting of all applicants.\n"There really haven't been that many changes (in visa policy)," Shannon said. "There's actually been a large improvement…80-85 percent of visa applications are now returned within three weeks."\nWilliams disagrees, telling of how a recent attempt to bring in a few artists from the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan ended in complete failure. One of the artists had two different spellings for his name, one that he used publicly and one he used on his passport. The Lotus Festival invitation used the popular spelling; the discrepancy resulted in the rejection of the visa and a huge headache for Lotus when they had to cancel the artist's planned events.\n"No one expected problems, but the application didn't match perfectly, so it was rejected," Williams said. "We learned to take nothing for granted and be very careful about rules and regulations."\nBill Smith, talent agent for San Francisco-based international music agency Eye for Talent, spoke of similar problems with the current visa system. \nArtists cannot purchase cheaper tickets-in-advance for flights because they can't count on the visa application going through, Smith said. He also said when artists' visas are denied, their tours have to be canceled, resulting in great financial loss for the venues set to host them.\n"As a result, concert promoters hesitate to (bring in) foreign artists; there's a discrimination against (them)," said Smith.\nShannon says some applicants might have experienced problems because their country of residence is on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. The State Department recently took a tougher line on Cuban cultural visas, for example, because the Cuban government was using the P-3 visa type "to enrich itself," Shannon said.\nSrujana Kunapareddy, IU freshman and volunteer at last year's Festival, lamented the possibility that many international artists wouldn't be able to make it to Bloomington.\n"It would be a pity (to not have the international artists)," Kunapareddy said. "They give you such a nice perspective, even if you're not a music-loving person."\nFreshman and Lotus volunteer Daniel Samay agrees.\n"International artists make the festival special; (without them) it would be just like any other event," Samay said.\nBut the Lotus Festival staff has learned from its past experiences and will be ready for the visa headaches that will undoubtedly come this year to ensure the artists make it into the country, Williams said.\n"We have to do it early, we have to do it correctly," Williams said, "and we have to be ready to respond (to any problems that arise)."\n-- Contact staff writer Charlie Szrom at cszrom@indiana.edu.