Hi, Ferrara - yes, the performers who have been rejected have indeed followed all the guidelines and have an impressive track record of having been accepted before. Which is why we're concerned now. Grant works with Hilary Spencer - Hilary came over many, many times with Artisan, so she definitely knows the ropes. Les Barker and Andy Irvine have also been rejected on the same grounds of lack of cultural uniqueness, so we're forced to conclude somehow they've STOPPED being culturally unique.    Huh???

Incidentally in terms of time, there's a limit on how far ahead you CAN apply for a P3 visa, but it seems that the delay on processing applications is longer than this limit - you can see how that might be an additional problem.

Oh - and on the question of agents - many of us who have toured in the US up until now have tended to set up our own tours as there aren't too many agents who want to deal with overseas acts and deal with all the paperwork for smallish scale operators like us. However even the good guys who were prepared to submit applications on behalf of performers who might or might not be on their books formally (for a fee, of course) are now unwilling to do this because of the tougher attitude from the INS.

It does seem as if some of the goalposts/hurdles/masses of red tape have been shifted recently, hence the worry in both threads.

Anne