WHAT IS AN ALIEN ARTIST TO DO?

Obtaining a visa to study fine art at an American university is easy. Staying on after graduation, however, is a different matter. All across America, thousands of freshly minted MFA students are scheming of ways to stay in the country after graduation. Authorities are reluctant to issue work permits to aliens when so many Americans are out of work, and it can take years to obtain a resident “green card.”

This can be a serious setback for fledgling artists who rely on networks of former professors and fellow students for everything from studio space to gallery referrals. Art can be extremely provincial and incestuous, and the first few years after graduation are often when connections matter most. A failure to obtain a visa can be tantamount to truncating a promising career.

But there is a loophole. Artists (and researchers, scientists, celebrities and occasionally models) are eligible for a special expedited visa status (O-1) that allows them to live and work in America, provided they can prove that their talent is “extraordinary”. Lacking an official method for judging the quality of art on offer, adjudicators rely instead on paperwork.

So what makes someone "extraordinary"? This is where it gets tricky. “To qualify as an individual of extraordinary ability a foreign national must show evidence of receipt of a major internationally recognised award, such as the Nobel Prize,” suggests Harvard’s International Office. (Go figure.) Failing that, "extraordinary" ability may be proved by showing a combination of at least three of the following things: “commanding a high salary” (tautological?); “receipt of lesser or regional awards” (but are they "extraordinary"?); “press clippings”; “letters from prominent colleagues”; and “evidence of employment in a critical or essential capacity for organizations and establishments that have a distinguished reputation.”

A cottage industry of immigration lawyers has evolved to streamline the process. (Writers are occasionally contracted from Craigslist to pen letters on behalf of busy sponsors and galleries.) Some 94% of O-1 applications are approved (9,014 were granted in 2008).

Recent graduates don't have to dive right into the process. Jaret Vadera, a Canadian citizen and recent MFA graduate from Yale's painting programme, is busily collecting as many "catalogues, interviews and shows" as possible. He figures he needs to build up his CV before he can demonstrate that he is an "extraordinary artist". An Optional Practical Training extension to his F-1 student visa will let him work in America for at least another year (though these tend to go to students with a degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. His interim strategy? "Staying until something happens."

~ JAMES MCGIRK

Picture credit: jesse edwards (via Flickr)