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INTEREST: Anime Midwest Convention's Musical Guests Unable to Perform After Visa Issues


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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
We've never had this problem before, but it seems like visa processing has been taking longer and longer.


I can think of at least one possible reason for that...

Anyway, apparently Lia speaks (tweets?) fluent English, so that's pretty cool. Not many Japanese con-guests are fully bilingual.
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Heishi



Joined: 06 Mar 2016
Posts: 1346
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 1:31 pm Reply with quote
Even though I wasn’t planning on going, I’m sad that my muscle girl isn’t coming to America. Wish she came to my home state.
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ErikaD.D



Joined: 09 Jun 2019
Posts: 660
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 1:50 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
We've never had this problem before, but it seems like visa processing has been taking longer and longer.

It may sounds nonsense but I'm not sure if it's nothing to do with Trump, who apparently Trump administration restricts visas for foreigners in U.S. Hope it's not true.
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Triltaison



Joined: 03 Jul 2011
Posts: 792
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:17 pm Reply with quote
Wow, poor Lia. How strange to spend all that money on a guest and leave her off the schedule.
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Siegfriedl88



Joined: 22 Jun 2017
Posts: 354
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:20 pm Reply with quote
ErikaD.D wrote:
Quote:
We've never had this problem before, but it seems like visa processing has been taking longer and longer.

It may sounds nonsense but I'm not sure if it's nothing to do with Trump, who apparently Trump administration restricts visas for foreigners in U.S. Hope it's not true.


yea...and if there wasn't enough reasons too hate the man already...

too bad though, this event was pretty close too me but i lacked the $$$ too go >.>
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GhostStalkerSA



Joined: 17 May 2015
Posts: 425
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:28 pm Reply with quote
Triltaison wrote:
Wow, poor Lia. How strange to spend all that money on a guest and leave her off the schedule.

Well, this is a Kopf con (seriously look up the guy running it, he has a literal Encyclopedia Dramatica page), so stuff like this is unfortunately expected. Just hope he has it together for LCAC next month (even if he is PNG at the hotel it’s being held at in Times Square), but I’m expecting more of the same.

And yeah, visa problems are most likely due to the policies of the current administration.
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KabaKabaFruit



Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 1897
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:38 pm Reply with quote
GhostStalkerSA wrote:
And yeah, visa problems are most likely due to the policies of the current administration.

Remember, the current administration and its support base consider this an act of "National Security".

Something that will permeate well through and past the 2020 election.
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Marzan



Joined: 29 Mar 2009
Posts: 518
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 3:08 pm Reply with quote
It’s gotten stupendously difficult for us foreigners to go to the USA any more, even when we’re from visa waiver countries. The smallest mistake/oversight in your application and you get big no.
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Aura Ichadora



Joined: 25 Apr 2008
Posts: 2302
Location: In front of my computer
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:13 pm Reply with quote
Unfortunately, it was just a few of the issues with Anime Midwest this year. While the bits I did participate in I enjoyed, this was one of the worst ran versions of Anime Midwest I've attended (I think 2013 is still the worst on the personal scale). Several cancelled panels (hell, there was at least one panel that was actually taken over by another person because the person that was supposed to do it never showed up), lack of staff helping to control the autograph lines (I swear there was only 4 people trying to control them, as that's all I saw), Friday's registration lines were WAY insane that I know one person admittedly left the line just to try and attend the Hunter x Hunter meetup (which the meetups were also a bit of a bust), some of the panel rooms had NO ONE monitoring them so I'm fairly sure some panels were actually fire hazards due to no one capping them off or anything, among other things. So none of this is as surprising to me as it probably should've been.
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Crispy45



Joined: 23 Sep 2012
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:35 pm Reply with quote
ErikaD.D wrote:
It may sounds nonsense but I'm not sure if it's nothing to do with Trump, who apparently Trump administration restricts visas for foreigners in U.S. Hope it's not true.


Anime conventions have to drop guests due to last minute Visa issues every year. This has been happening long before the 2016 election.
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5577
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:48 pm Reply with quote
Heard rumors it was actually due to failures on Anime Midwest's end...

I found this part of the article a bit... nice? "programming error". It wasn't a "programming error". It was a human error. They forgot to enter the info entirely.


"Anime conventions have to drop guests due to last minute Visa issues every year. This has been happening long before the 2016 election.". I'd like examples of this. Been following this stuff for decades and while I know it HAS happened, the number of frequency in which it has happened seems to have skyrocketed recently...
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dragonmastr



Joined: 09 Feb 2012
Posts: 208
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:09 pm Reply with quote
I decided to travel to Anime Midwest this year just to attend Lia's concert. I almost had a proverbial heart attack sitting at the Opening Ceremonies when they dropped the bomb about all of the cancelled Japanese guests and had to let out a huge sigh of relief when they didn't mention Lia's name. But yeah, I don't know how you schedule a Q&A panel for one of your guests of honor and don't bother putting it on the schedule so that anyone would know about it. This convention as a whole was an absolute disaster in terms of organization and communication.

The thing about the visas though is that Anime Expo ran during the same weekend and they didn't seem to have any problems with their Japanese guests as far as I'm aware.

kotomikun wrote:
Anyway, apparently Lia speaks (tweets?) fluent English, so that's pretty cool. Not many Japanese con-guests are fully bilingual.


Lia actually attended college in the US and spent some time living here afterwards.
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gridsleep





PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:18 pm Reply with quote
The Trump Administration making sure that Anime conventions are appropriately white-washed?
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kpossibles



Joined: 01 Dec 2018
Posts: 148
Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:56 pm Reply with quote
Marzan wrote:
It’s gotten stupendously difficult for us foreigners to go to the USA any more, even when we’re from visa waiver countries. The smallest mistake/oversight in your application and you get big no.


I heard that somewhere amongst the official statements, they said that one of the visas DID get approved but the government offices were closed for the July 4th holiday and they wouldn't be able to get it until Monday after the con was over.

Something worth noting: this past weekend was a huge demand for performance visas for Japanese and Korean musicians. There was Anime Expo, Otaquest Live, and KCON NY. KCON is run by CJ E&M, which is a massive Korean entertainment corporation, and they probably expedited the visas for their artists. Otaquest Live also had more A-list acts amongst their performers such as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, capsule, and m-flo. So it could also be the case that the Japanese singers for Anime Midwest had the lowest priority on the approvals list or something else.
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Tenbyakugon



Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 797
Location: Ohio, United States
PostPosted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 8:52 pm Reply with quote
This has nothing to do with the Trump presidency (the Abe ministry threw the former a birthday party this year) and everything to do with the fact that if you don’t get every single detail in a row, down to spelling and legibility, when it comes to paperwork and processes with the federal government then whatever you’re trying to do is bound to be rejected. This has always been the case post-09/11, it hasn’t mattered who’s in office.
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