Can I throw something else into the discussion? In January I went into New Orleans from a cruise ship. Admittedly, this was as a tourist not as someone seeking permission to work. But the authorities were able to process something like 1200 people in about an hour and a half and as far as we could see the only specialist equipment was a rubber stamp and inkpad for each official. They did not take our fingerprints or photographs, for example. It is quite possible that they were able to do some of this from information they had already - for example, the ship had photographed each of us as part of the initial boarding procedure and the authorities could have had our names and addresses for at least a month; on the other hand we had certainly not been fingerprinted.

The biggest single difference, I would suggest, is that New Orleans wants to do everything it can to encourage visitors to come back, whereas another hundred more or less doesn't make too much difference to many parts of the US.

I am sure 'something could be worked out' to get the orchestra into the US. I would much prefer it if this meant 'they could work something outtogether' rather than 'the orchestra could work something out on its own which fitted with the way the consulate had decided was absolute.'