Research

Since 2015, Tamizdat’s staff of lawyers and law students has collected and analyzed data regarding thousands of U.S. visa cases where problems were encountered by the international performing arts community. This data provides the clearest available picture of the impact of U.S visa policy on the arts, and is used by both the immigration law community and the performing arts community to inform policy and advocacy.

White Paper

Starting in 2015, Tamizdat has published regular updates to The White Paper on Artist Mobility to the U.S., a data-driven legal analysis of the issues the international performing arts community encounters with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and Department of State. The White Paper provides analysis of more than 50 pervasive problems with the U.S. artist visa process, identifies the legal authority at the root of each problem, and provides recommended revisions to the regulations and manuals that are at the core of the problems. Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the White Paper provides the first comprehensive roadmap for improving the U.S. artist visa process, and has guided productive dialogue with both USCIS and DOS. The White Paper has been endorsed by a wide range of international GOs, NGOs, and organizations in the private sector. For a list of the endorsers, please click here.

Impact Litigation

Because the visa cases of performing artists are typically tied to a specific tour or event, when the government makes a bad decision the event or tour is typically cancelled, but because there is rarely time to seek to rectify the error, the Government is rarely held accountable for its failures. In response, in 2019 Tamizdat launched a series of “impact litigation” lawsuits in U.S. Federal Court, aimed at increasing the USCIS’s accountability.

Government Monitoring

USCIS, Department of State, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association all have facilities designed to collect information about problems visa applicants encounter when navigating the U.S. visa system. Unfortunately, few lawyers and even fewer laypeople are aware of the facilities, or are not able to effectively report problems. Starting in 2019, Tamizdat systematically reports processing problems to the USCIS Ombudsman, the Department of State Visa Office, and AILA’s CIS and DOS liaisons.

Tax Policy Advocacy

In the summer of 2018, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service announced that, starting October 1, 2018, eligibility for the Central Withholding Agreement program—an IRS program essential to the financial viability of hundreds of international artists’ U.S. tours every year—would no longer be available to artists grossing less than $10,000 in the U.S. per annum. This new rule effectively made the service inaccessible to the very artists who needed it most. In response, Tamizdat, in cooperation with the League of American Orchestras and CWA Management, drafted a “win-win” alternative rule designed to make the CWA more accessible, while simplifying the IRS’s process. With the assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts, the coalition met with IRS officials in November of 2018. We were pleased to find the IRS supportive, and it currently reports that it is “aggressively” working to implement our recommendations.