Am interested for Canada, but the US would likely have similar requirements, what with NAFTA, CAFTA etc.
When you guys bring up Brazilians to give seminars (hypothetically), do any of you actually get the paperwork so they can do it legally, or are they all coming up on tourist visas? (again, for research purposes only, hypothetically, allegedly).
I hear tales of relatively big names getting turned away at the border in England, for example. Would like to know how feasible it would be to do it legit here in North America and not have to worry about last-minute cancellations or worse, future visitation issues, due to immigration issues.
Any (hypothetical) advice or experience or tales to share?
Won't say names but at my old club we used to bring in guys under tourist visas. Works fine until they get caught and can't get a legit tourist visa when they want to.
But cheapest and easiest is tourist visa.
That seems to be the default. But like you said: they get caught, they get in the database. Thanks so much for the answer.
Anyone (ever) do it legit?
I used to travel a tonne as a professional musician and it's a MASSIVE danger in certain countries to not have the proper business visa. Canada is probably the worst I encountered. Next is the UK. Almost everywhere else, they couldn't have cared less.
Both in Canada and England, at immigration they have googled my name, asked the name of the acts I am playing with to see their tour schedule, promotional materials etc. Luckily, my name is extremely common and nothing could be found on me. This was especially obvious because I was carrying a guitar on me.
Once, I was doing a show with a buddy of mine, who is a DJ, and flew from USA to Vancouver - they googled his name and his name is unique - deported him! It was a fucking disaster. They let him stay half a day in Vancouver and had to leave and forever marked. He now refuses to go to Canada.
They are surprisingly good at sniffing this stuff out. If they notice cauli ears or ask employment, with minimal questioning they can deduce out the reason for the visit. It's just a precaution, it would suck to get deported back to Brazil from Canada!
Only getting a tourist visa whilst planning to run seminars in the UK is risky - Galvao & Bravo have found out the hard way