Think this is accurate and at one point earlier in the year there were proposals to raise them even higher, think that one was backed off from.
In February Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins fame, and obviously others, who now runs Bella Union stated they were going to raise the cost of a visa from currently approximately $500 per person to $1650 so it would cost upwards of 10K just to get at four piece band to the States.
I believe there is a special lower cost limited visa bands/artists can use for shows at SXSW and showcases usually only LA or NYC.
Here's the tweet about where the proposed visa cost changes stand from Future of Music Coalition
https://twitter.com/future_of_music/status/1679899000990838811?s=20 Great news! Remember how in January we heard that Homeland Security was proposing to triple the visa fees for international artists, making it impossible for many artists to tour the US? Artists, venues, arts presenters, and fans all filed comments opposing the fee hike. Well…
DHS has announced that they are going to delay any final rulemaking on the visa fees until March 2024, and continue to review public feedback. That's an encouraging sign and an organizing victory worth celebrating!
more details in the thread
but yes fees and processing time is really causing issues for international touring artist in the US.
plus UK artists now have even more fees trying to go to EU.
