Requirements For Getting P-2 Visa As An individual or as a Group

The P-2 visa can be used various artists that are coming to perform in the United States individually or as a group.

To bring artist or any other entertainers under the P-2 visa, an entertaining company must first establish or participate in a reciprocal exchange program with a US based organization. This is not an easy requirement to meet.  Practically speaking, there should be a large number of musicians travel back and forth to perform in order to justify the establishment of such program. The US Entertaining companies can use the programs that are already in place.  When there are such public programs, the petitioning company must provide the name of the program and any other relevant documents. 

The advisory opinion will be also required for a P-2 visa application from a labor organization or a peer group that signed the reciprocal exchange agreement.

The artists must have the skill comparable to those of the U.S. musicians that go to the given country under the reciprocal program.

In terms of the qualifications of the artists, the requirement is much lower than the requirements the P-1 and P-3 visa applicants must meet (International fame of the P-1 Groups or Culturally unique skills of the P-3 Entertainers).  The reciprocal exchange program must be in place and the labor union must sign off of it. That’s it.

A reciprocal exchange program is a program negotiated between an organization in the US and an organization in a given country. The only public programs are signed between the US and Canada, Australia, New Zealand. The programs strive to sustain similarity of employment terms and the level of artists exchanged, and numbers. A labor organization must have been involved in negotiating the program, or at least did not object to the establishment.

The P-2 visa can be granted for up to 1 year. P-2 visa allow also the essential support personnel to enter along with the group (make up artists, sound engineers, tailors, hairdressers, movers, etc. ) The artists’ family member may enter the US and stay as long as the P-2 entertainers themselves. The family members are not allowed to work, though.

There are could be situations when additional performances need to be added to the itinerary or, in opposite, some events have been cancelled. There is no need to do anything about it as far as the USCIS’ concern, as long as the performances remain in the same time frame (the time of the visa validity).  If more time is needed to take the artists to a few more performances, an extension of status petition must be filed to reflect that change and request USCIS to approve the longer stay. If an extension is not filed, the artists may have problems entering America in the future.

Please contact us at info@ilexlaw.com and visit out website ilexlaw.com to learn more.