What do musicians have to do to perform in the UK these day?
Well, the answer is not so straightforward but below is a simple summary to help you.
The Immigration rules for musicians to come and perform in the UK are different depending if you are from the EU or outside and if you are doing paid or unpaid performance.
For simplicity and time, here we’ll focus on musicians from EU and outside coming to the UK for paid performance as these rules are more complex and likely to cause trouble and impact small scale musician trying to make their name.
Firstly, there is a requirement to have some form of visa, formally referred to as Entry Clearance, to come to the UK to perform as a musician. In almost all case you will need to apply for this in advance of your visit except for EU musician wanting to stay for no longer than a month.
The category of visa is called Permitted Paid Engagement and it is a form of visit visa.
Some of the key requirements include the need to have an invitation from a UK based organisation or client. You must show that you intend of course to come and perform in the UK as a musician. The visa is for one month, cannot be extended and as in all visit visas there is no access to public funds.
You will need to have at least one certificate of sponsorship however more is needed if you are performing in more than one place from different organisers.
You will need to show you have funds to maintain yourself and pay for your trips. The organisers can do this for you in some cases.
There is a fee of £95 for this visa and the earliest you can apply is three months before you travel.
At LSS Legal we have a dedicated support package for musician wanting to come and perform in the UK either for paid or unpaid basis. Get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more.