Visa Delays Force Royal Canoe To Cancel US Dates

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Visa Delays Force Royal Canoe To Cancel US Dates

Postby Marsbar » Fri Nov 06, 2015 1:03 pm

By FYI Staff Fri, 11/06/2015

Juno-nominated band Royal Canoe has had to cancel a seven-date American tour with Wild Child because of US delays in processing their visa application, the band announced Thursday on Facebook.

Singer, guitarist and keyboardist Matt Peters said the cancellation represents thousands of dollars in lost earnings for the band, and he has no idea why processing the visa is taking so long.

"We did the application exactly the same way (as in years past), and I'm certain when they receive the application …(US authorities) will approve it," he said.

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"It has nothing to do with the actual application. It's just about the processing time."

The Winnipeg band was supposed to leave for the US on Tuesday with their first show in New England on Friday night. Royal Canoe thought they gave US Department of Homeland Security officials plenty of time to process their application.

The six-piece group sent off their visa application Sept. 1, member Bucky Driedger said. Their union, the American Federation of Musicians, recommends Canadian bands send in applications at least 50 days before a US tour; Royal Canoe sent theirs 63 days in advance of their departure.

"It's just money down the drain. It's very frustrating," said an exasperated Peters. "You put all of this time into promoting the tour ... you do everything you thought you needed to, and it still doesn't go through."

On the band Facebook page the ensemble collectively posted: "This totally sucks huge, but due to some unprecedented delays in the visa application process we will no longer be able to play any of our upcoming November US tour dates.

"We are especially disappointed to miss out accompanying our friends (we haven’t hung out much yet, but I assume we’d be friends?) in Wild Child on their amazing tour across the Eastern States. This is obviously super frustrating for us as we’ve been looking forward to heading back out East and playing for all of you beautiful people again. Booooo!!!! We’ve gone to extraordinary lengths in an attempt to expedite the process, but all of these efforts have been to no avail. We will return to you as soon as we can possibly can.

"Wild Child, good luck out there!! We will be following you vicariously on Twitter and Instagram imagining ourselves in all of the photos, sipping drinks and doing fun stuff. Until next time."

Reprinted from David Farrell's FYI Music News publication
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