playing in usa

[black.rose1402]

Hello i'm a bass player from france and havea question I read your story , leaving england to go to usa. my question is how did you manage to work over there first because it's hard to have a green card!!? did you won the lottery or something else ? Iwant to go over there and play great music . i think a can play I read music , i play guitar piano and drums too but my main instrument is bass and it's where i'm the best!

a lot a bass player here in france want to play and live in the usa because the music is good!

so any advice for a bass friend like me???

thanks in advance

[janekbass]

Well I moved to the US to study in the beginning. I didn't have too many long term plans to stay, but that soon changed when I got here. After the first few weeks at Berklee I was convinced I wanted to move to NYC and live here for good. I was on a student visa when I first came here so I couldn't actually work which was frustrating. But when I quit Berklee and moved to NYC I had to get a lawyer and aply for an O-1 or "artist" visa. It's an expensive process, and they are the hardest visa for the US to get right now, but it can last up to three years. I'm currently at the end of my second O-1 and will have to be getting either a green card by process of application and not marriage, or a renewall on my artist visa again.

I couldn'y play the green card lottery because I'm from the UK, and we're exluded from playing.

Easy,

Janek