Wooden Ship offers visas preparation services for artists traveling to the US.

This includes preparation of the I-129 Application

Writing the Introductory Letter that accompanies the Application

Gathering of US support letters if necessary from experts in the field

Coordinating the material including contracts and itinerary in a a cohesive manner

If the petition is not approved within 3 weeks of your arrival in the US you need to be prepared to pay Premium Processing, which is an additional $1225. If this becomes necessary I will see the process through as well as answering any governmental inquiries for more information.

You need to give us at least 90 days to turn a visa around. even though the USCIS is trying to turn them around in 14 days, we need time for the preparation of the visa and the Union is taking longer. Folks from Europe also have to figure in the time to get to a Consulate and for them to send the passports back by Courier. These times vary from consulate to consulate. Canadians can pick their visas up at the Port of Entry so there is a bit more leeway time.

Your Responsibilities

The agreed upon fee in the bank at the time of the application Wooden Ship's fee is $750 with a discount for Folk Alliance and OCFF members. We will also be charging an extra fee if we do not get the material in a timely fashion and the visa needs to jump the line of visas we are working on.

$250 for the Union Consultation, the Union is enforcing the extra $50 if you want this expedited in less than a week,(unless members of the AF of M in Canada then there is no charge) and $325 for the I-129 Application. An extra fee of $26 per FedEx if you request the material be sent by FedEx to the Union, The Vermont Service Center and then the Approval sent Internationally. We are accepting PayPal with a surcharge of 2.3% which is what they charge us and $10 for a wire transfer.

1. A letter from the artist/ band giving Robyn Boyd of Wooden Ship Productions as the petitioner permission to do business for you as their US agent for matters relating to visa concerns.

2. Legible copies of the artist’s/band’s passports (scans are fine)

3 You should have letters from anyone in your country of residence who can attest to the fact that you are a representative of your own culture and therefore culturally unique if possible.

4. Itinerary which has to be in the form below* and  available contracts or email discussions around the gigs,

5. promo (not CDS or loads of pictures, keep it simple and impressive)

* Itinerary Form:

Date, Venue with address   fee

Contact person with phone and email if available

Please do not send incomplete information or Excel spread sheets

Before you start the process go to the artistsfromabroad.org web site and familiarize yourself with the process