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Under the new guidelines established by the Bush administration, all visa applicants must undergo a deep background check and have a face-to-face interview at the nearest US consulate before a visa can be issued. For artists, applications can’t be made until six months before the performing dates are set to begin, and contracts for all the dates must be presented at the time of application. This creates a morass of paperwork for both performers and promoters. "It isn’t so bad for larger promoters who might set their schedule a year in advance," says Isabelle Soffer, associate director of the World Music Institute in New York City, "but for clubs, which work on smaller profit margins and are the places where developing international acts are nurtured, it makes doing business much more difficult." One result of these new security measures is that the clearance process for visas, which used to take a month or less before these rules were in place, now routinely takes four to six months — unless you pay that $1000 special-processing fee. "Consider the Peking Acrobats, who have 30 persons in their group," says Mervon Mehta, vice-president of programming and education for the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

A Kimmel Center concert by classical pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque was cancelled when one of their accompanists was turned back at an airport border. The rest of the group was told to move on while the accompanist was detained. The Labèques didn’t even find out he’d been sent back to Switzerland until they’d waited for him to be released at the airport for several hours. The Kimmel Center had to swallow its advertising and promotion costs and refund ticket money. Similarly, when N’Golan artist Bonga Kwenda and his band left the States mid tour for a Canadian date last week and were denied readmission at the Canadian border (apparently because of a paperwork snafu), a date at Joe’s Pub in New York City — as well as the rest of the tour — was cancelled and Kwenda and his players were compelled to return home to Lisbon. "We lost a lot of ticket sales," says Bill Braghan, the director at Joe’s Pub. "We’d rented a back line of equipment and had spent a lot of money on that." What’s more, Kwenda incurred thousands of dollars in unexpected air-travel costs.

"In the past, problems like this could be cleared up with a phone call to the appropriate consulate," says Soffer. "But they don’t have that kind of flexibility anymore." Not even in the case of Kwenda, who is considered a superstar in Europe and Africa and has 21 albums, several films and videos, and a biography on his 28-year résumé as a performer. Such incidents give clubs like Scullers and Joe’s Pub, which typically make a marginal profit on musicians like Cubanismo and Kwenda, little incentive to take further risks. And for artists who can command significant fees abroad, why tour an unwelcoming nation? Even for Canadians, playing US dates makes less sense. Jazz singer/pianist Holly Cole cancelled a June 12 show at Joe’s Pub after she was advised she wouldn’t get a visa on time without paying the special-processing fee for her trio.

"This is almost a form of extortion," Fred Taylor says of the special fee. "It’s akin to what it used to be like trying to enter a corrupt Third World country. ‘You’d better grease our palms or we won’t let you in.’ "

But that’s not the only hardship for artists from abroad. "We just presented a flamenco festival, which we do annually, with many of the artists coming from Seville," explains Maure Aronson of Cambridge’s World Music. "In order to obtain a visa, they have to go for an interview and fill out an application at the American consulate’s office in Madrid. This means 254 people have to get on a train or plane or into a car and travel there from Seville" — roughly 200 miles. "So imagine if you’re in Mali or India and have to travel a thousand miles to the consulate or embassy to apply for your visa."

There’s also the issue of plain unfriendly treatment of artists at our borders — musicians who have toured here extensively and who, it’s clear, have no terrorist connections. Habib Koité, the Malian guitarist and griot, was recently subjected to a three-hour interrogation at Washington’s Reagan International Airport before being allowed to enter the country.

"I’m not saying we should loosen our security standards," Aronson maintains, "but we have to implement a plan in which visas are not an economic or political impediment to touring the US. You would think the intensive approval process could prevent a well-established artist from being detained and questioned for hours after they’ve been to the consulate for an interview.

"What concerns me as a presenter of international artists is what is the long-term impact. If every artist we promote has to go through this process, will they eventually go, ‘Is it worth it to be treated upon entry like a criminal or suspect?’ If artists from abroad start figuring that and the additional costs into their decisions about where they’ll tour, is the United State going to be able to compete in this global marketplace?"