There's a hilarious post over on the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment blog about the paperwork the staff need to complete to perform in the US. There's been some talk lately about how horrible the UK is to travelling musicians trying to get their visas to perform here – but I wonder if it's that much worse than anywhere else. I'm personally in the middle of getting Indefinite Leave to Remain status here in the UK with my husband, as well as figuring out how to register our as-yet-unborn son registered as a Canadian citizen and a settled UK resident. Strangely, my son can have a UK passport before he's allowed a Canadian one, despite both my husband and I being Canadian citizens – his paperwork will take 18 months to go through, apparently.
I can only imagine the chaos of trying to get 38 musicians through this entire process as well, we're only dealing with three. I do remember, though, being on the receiving end of panicked phone calls from orchestra tour managers asking me to change the horn player and the harpist in the programme, because the visas didn't come through in time. I do not envy them, I tell you.
