The Jazz Musician's Visa
Nick Nason is a solicitor at Edgewater Legal who regularly provide advice to clients applying under the Global Talent immigration route. Nick outlines below how a jazz musician might qualify.
If you have been recognised as an exceptionally talented jazz musician, or if you show exceptional promise within jazz music, you may be eligible to apply for a UK visa.
To qualify, you need to have been professionally engaged in performing outstanding Jazz in at least 2 countries within the last 5 years, or show a developing track record in one country if you are at an early stage in your career.
Arts Council England also consider applications from individuals who contribute to the creation and delivery of jazz music, such as producers or engineers for recorded work, curators of live grassroots music events and festivals who are involved directly with artistic programming and selection of artists, or technical crew for live events.
Visa outline
Global Talent visas allow you to live and work in the UK for up to 5 years and are paths to settlement (and British citizenship thereafter).
To apply for the visa, you must first obtain endorsement from Arts Council England. To do this, you must complete an online form, and provide documents that demonstrate that you meet their criteria.
Once endorsed by Arts Council England, you can then apply for a visa.
If you are endorsed as someone with Exceptional Talent, you may be able to apply for settlement after 3 years, whereas those with Exceptional Promise are usually eligible after 5 years.
The main criteria
To show that you meet the criteria, you need 3 dated letters of recommendation. Two of these need to be from well-established organisations that you have worked with, recognised as leaders within jazz, with at least one based in the UK.
The third letter must also be from another leading organisation within the field, or alternatively an individual with whom you have worked, with recognised experience in the field.
If you are seeking endorsement as an Exceptional Talent, you will also need to provide evidence that you meet two of the following criteria:
- 2+ examples of significant media recognition (as an individual or contributing to a group) from 2+ countries
- Winning, or significantly contributing to winning, one or more international awards for excellence
- Proof of professional appearances and/or performances considered internationally significant within jazz, or evidence of extensive international distribution and sales for work as an individual or as a named member of a group or as a contributor
If you seek endorsement as someone with Exceptional Promise (i.e. you are at an early stage of your career), the bar is slightly lower, but you must still show that you meet two of the following
- Two examples of recent media recognition for your work as an individual, or as a named member of a group or as a contributor
- Winning, or significantly contributing to winning, or significantly contributing to being nominated or shortlisted for, or being nominated or shortlisted for, at least one international award for excellence
- Proof of professional appearances or performances within jazz, or evidence of international distribution and sales for your work as an individual, as a named member of a group or as a contributor.
You should also provide your CV setting out your career to date.
What is 'significant media recognition'?
Evidence should typically comprise detailed independent critiques, reviews or critical evaluations of your individual work from credible arts and culture critics in internationally recognised and well-established media outlets, in at least two countries.
This could be recognised media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio or websites. If you are relying on Exceptional Talent, evidence from blogs and social media is not acceptable.
For Exceptional Promise, blogs are acceptable, but they have to be written by credible arts and culture critics; they should be prominent and sufficiently well-established, and have a significant number of reviews available.
Media recognition must have been received within five years prior to the date of the application and must be for work that has taken place at the time of the article’s publication.
Additional guidance on what constitutes ‘significant media recognition’ is provided by Arts Council England, and you should review this before applying.
What counts as an international award?
The award (or nomination if applying under Exceptional Promise) should have been given in the last 5 years and provide significant recognition of your status as a leader (or emerging leader) within the field of jazz. There is no definitive list of qualifying awards.
If you have not won (or been nominated for) an award as an individual, you can provide proof that you made a significant contribution to an award win/nomination of another individual or group you worked with instead.
In this situation, you must include a document from the individual that won (or was nominated), or from a senior person that has responsibility for the group that won, detailing the significant contribution you made to the work that won the award.
What can be provided as proof of publication, performances and/or distribution?
If your work is performance based, evidence can include programmes, adverts, posters, or listings for past events in which you participated.
Photographs or videos can be provided, as long as you also submit supporting information verifying your participation, and when and where the engagement took place.
If your work is not performance based, distribution data related to your work can also be included within your evidence of proof of appearances. Distribution data must include a breakdown of the countries where your work has been sold, played/streamed or downloaded in within the last five years, along with the number of sales, plays/streams or downloads in each country.
The endorsing body will determine whether the sales figures are sufficient to demonstrate a substantial track record and demand for your work as a leader in the field.
Evidence must show the date and country where the engagement took place, as well as your name being credited, and details of what your role was.
Guidance provided by Arts Council England sets out the kind of evidence that can be used.
If you are looking for further information or assistance regarding this visa then please do not hesitate to contact us at Edgewater Legal.