In 2022, when Viva La Visa last tackled this subject for TPi, touring was navigating a perfect storm of Brexit bureaucracy and post-Covid restart – and nobody had the full picture yet. The biggest change since 2022 is probably that the touring industry has stopped thinking of visas and work permits as a temporary “post-pandemic problem” and accepted them as part of the normal advance process. The panic has subsided a little, but the workload certainly hasn’t.
Back in 2022, everyone was dealing with the aftershocks of COVID, Brexit and the reopening of international borders. Tours were being reactivated almost overnight, embassies were overwhelmed, and people hoped the system would eventually “settle down”. In reality, touring has entered a new era where immigration compliance, lead times and budgeting have become permanent parts of production planning.
At Viva La Visa, we still work primarily across music, theatre, live events, fashion and film production, but the profile of our clients has broadened significantly in recent years. Increasingly, we are working directly with production suppliers, freight companies, technical vendors, sports organisations and corporate events companies who are now much more aware of the risks involved in international travel.
A few years ago, many production teams viewed visas as something that ‘the artist side’ dealt with. Now, production managers and suppliers are often leading the conversation because they understand that if crew, trucking or specialist personnel cannot move, the entire production is affected.
The biggest area of concern remains the United States. Demand for US touring visas has recovered strongly and in many sectors is now exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The US system itself, however, has become more expensive, more document-heavy and far less forgiving of mistakes or late planning.
For touring personnel, the O and P visa routes remain the standard work visa categories, but the supporting evidence required continues to increase. Petition preparation now often resembles a substantial legal submission rather than a straightforward administrative process.
Production and tour managers are having to supply increasingly detailed itineraries, contracts, deal memos and supporting information far earlier in the process than they once did. Premium processing while theoretically optional is now almost compulsory as the processing time for petitions on standard is now eight to ten months. For some productions, visa costs can now represent a significant line in the touring budget rather than an afterthought.
At the same time, we are seeing much greater scrutiny around previous immigration history and criminal issues. Matters which historically may have caused limited concern can now trigger delays, requests for additional information or, in some cases, the need for waivers. This is particularly relevant for crew travelling internationally on repeated tours over many years. The advice remains the same: try to identify potential issues early and deal with them way before flights are booked and rehearsals scheduled.
Another major development is that US authorities appear increasingly aware of ‘grey area’ activity. In the past, some productions would take a more relaxed view of crew travelling under visitor status where they felt activities were ‘only technical’ or ‘support based’. That approach is becoming much riskier. We are seeing more organisations deciding to regularise long-standing working practices rather than relying on assumptions or outdated industry folklore. Europe, meanwhile, remains complicated. Not necessarily because every country always requires visas, but because every country applies different rules, exemptions and interpretations. That has not changed since Brexit, but what has changed is enforcement and awareness.
In 2022, many touring parties were still learning the basics of post-Brexit travel. Now, most production managers understand the 90/180 Schengen rules, carnet requirements and the need to check work permissions country by country. The difficulty is that there is still no single EU-wide touring solution. A theatre production, exhibition crew, broadcast team and rock tour may all fall under entirely different rules even within the same country.
There is also continuing uncertainty surrounding the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) and ETIAS travel authorisation programme. Although implementation has been delayed several times, both systems will eventually affect how non-EU touring personnel enter and move around Europe.
For production teams already juggling logistics, carnets and scheduling, it represents yet another administrative layer. Some territories remain relatively workable for short-term touring activity, while others – Spain being the classic example – can still involve significant bureaucracy depending on the precise nature of the engagement. The challenge is often not simply the written law, but how it is interpreted locally by consulates, border officials and labour authorities.
One area of growing concern is cabotage and transport restrictions affecting trucking and logistics operations linked to touring. While not strictly a visa issue, it has become another operational headache for production teams trying to move equipment and personnel efficiently around Europe.
We are also seeing greater awareness of compliance from insurers, promoters and corporate clients. Increasingly, organisations want reassurance that touring personnel are correctly authorised to work in the countries they are entering. In some cases, companies are reviewing supplier contracts and insurance arrangements more carefully than they would have done a few years ago.
The practical advice for production teams now is fairly simple: start earlier, budget properly and treat immigration as part of core tour infrastructure rather than a last-minute admin task. The productions that tend to run smoothly are the ones where visas, carnets, transport and logistics are discussed at the very beginning of the advance process rather than a few days before travel. Immigration rules are no longer something that can always be solved with a few frantic phone calls the week before load-in.
That may sound gloomy, but there is another side to it. The touring industry has adapted remarkably quickly. Production managers and crews have become far more knowledgeable about international travel requirements, and touring itself has largely rebounded strongly across both the US and Europe.
Having spent years myself touring internationally as both an artist and production manager, I know how easy it is for visas to become something dealt with at two o’clock in the morning while trying to advance a show. But the reality now is that international mobility has become just as critical to a tour as freight, trucking or staging.
Visas may never be the glamorous side of touring and live shows, but they have undeniably moved much closer to the top of the production schedule.
