I hear all the comments about providing time for the process to take place (and we're not immune to bumbling paperwork over here either), but I'm not hearing an explanation for this Cultural Uniqueness schick. I'd like to know what it means, who initiated it and crucially why, how it could apply to Les for years than suddenly not do so any longer, etc. Why should cultrual uniqueness be important anyway? Do business-people coming over to trade have to be culturally unique? Sports people?

To answer the last questions first, no, and no. There are different visas (meaning completely different sets of forms to fill out) for business people and for professional athletes. They do not have to be culturally unique because they're not coming over here to share culture.

I cannot speak to the Les Barker situation without seeing the paperwork that denied him a visa. But for Folklore's many artists for whom I obtain visas (among them Martin Carthy and Waterson:Carthy, Karan Casey, Dervish, Lunasa and John Renbourn, to name a few) the cultural uniqueness is definitely an issue.

I do not speak for anyone but myself when I say that I *think* that part of it comes from the old idea that "if an American can do the job, then we don't need a foreigner to come in and do it." In other words, if there is a skilled carpenter living and working in Ithaca, NY, then why should the INS grant a visa to a skilled carpenter from, say, Ireland to come over here and take a job away from a U.S. citizen? What we have to prove to them is that the musician or band(in this case) for whom we are applying cannot be found by the dozen in any coffeehouse in Iowa on open mike night. There must be something so culturally unique about the artist that we don't grow them on trees right here in the U.S. Therefore, although we DO have opera singers by the gallon, Lucioano Pavarotti is so unique that he is always allowed a visa to come over here and wave his hanky at us. A pop sensibility seems to have taken over, in his case.

Now, to the issue of how to *prove* cultural uniqueness. There are lots of ways, but the best is to send along a barrage of printed matter. Bios, concert reviews, and letters of support from peer groups like Folk Alliance are vital, including the all-important letter of consultation from the American Federation of Musicians, which in itself tells the INS that the Union feels that these musicians will not be taking away work that U.S. musicians could perform just as well. List names of places where these musicians have performed, both in their own countries and here. If I can say on the visa application that Martin Carthy has performed at The Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, AND has been given an MBE by the Queen of England specifically for his contributions to English folk music, then that marks him as pretty unique in anybody's book, even that of the INS who quite frankly don't know or care that his guitar style has influenced two generations of younger players.

The same system applies to all our artists. We send along documentation that they have been performing for many years (decades, in most cases) and that their music is unique to their native country, and that while some U.S. musicians can imitate it, these folks are the originators.

But again, TIME is of the essence. Start four or five months before the tour to get your paperwork ducks in a row. Allow time for the musicians to miss their scheduled personal interviews at the embassy(strangle them now, or later?), allow time for the entire batch of paperwork to get lost in the mail (one soon learns that FedEx is your friend, despite the cost, so that the documents don't ALL have to be redone), allow time for the Union to be swamped with requests for consultations, allow time for one of the artists in a band of six to have an old parking ticket kick them, and the band with them, out of the system. Leave plenty of TIME.