I have decided (following advice) to remove this post and the associated comments – people had been posting potentially libellous things concerning a situation I know little or nothing about.Â
Move along, there’s nothing to see…
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It’s actually not about protectionism. It’s about bureaucracy and short staffing at CIS (the successor organization to the benefits half of the old INS). That file is waiting its turn behind a bunch of other files.
Bureaucracy is also the problem behind the spousal visa. Most of the “processing time” is the time the application spends languishing in the queue.
Having had my own miserable dealings with the INS, I think the bureaucracy explanation is more likely than Machiavellian malice. Most INS employees are too stupid to spell “protectionism,” much less know what it means or try to enforce it.
Even if the _intent_ isn’t protectionist, the end result is the pretty much the same. Quite a few tours by British and European tours have collapsed in recent months because the band’s visas took too long to process. US bands don’t have to wait months for visas when touring Britain:
This article a few months back highlighted the problem:
http://www.maximummetal.com/columns/tales/55.asp
Given the freedom of movement immigration-wise between the two countries, maybe it would make more sense for them to just be permanent residents, and stop worrying about temporary visas.
I don’t know how you are going to take it, but this just isn’t an issue that I can get real worked up about. We’ve got a lot of bands over here, and a lot of people. Your island just isn’t a priority in the grand scheme of things.
I accept that you can’t always assume malice when simple stupidity can achieve the same result. But when a good friend is being held in jail for five months for the crime of marrying an American, it’s hard not to think bad things about them.
As for band’s getting visas, It probably doesn’t matter to you if the only music you care about is the mass-market pabulum pushed out the big media companies. The big losers are fans of anything non-mainstream, who have reduced chances of seeing many non-american bands performing live.
Phelps wrote “Your island just isn’t a priority in the grand scheme of things.” I don’t remember that being the case when the USA wanted British soldiers to die to protect their oil interests.