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Trouble with visiting instructors to Canada??
Hi Veeners!
Recently, there have been a couple of workshops I was super excited for that wound up being cancelled. A week ago, one visiting instructor wasn’t allowed into Canada and got turned away at the airport. And another one was supposed to come in early January but I just heard that she is cancelling too. And I remember the same thing happening a couple of years ago for another big instructor. I keep hearing that it’s related to work visas, but it really surprises me that Canada would be difficult to come into for something like this… Seems funny that some visiting instructors come and it doesn’t seem to be a problem, but for others it is.
I’m just curious to know if anyone knows why this happens and what the story is? Why is it difficult for some visiting pole instructors to come to Canada and not for others? What do visiting instructors need to do to come into Canada and how far in advance do they have to plan this?
I don’t own a studio or anything myself, but I’m just wondering!
Thanks! 🙂 -
3 Replies
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Okay, I actually have some insight into this. I remember a few years ago driving Amber to Canada for some workshops and there was an issue. My bf is Canadian so crossing into Canada isn’t new to me and neither is the scary border guards. It’s always important when traveling to be honest with your answers so I told the guard I was taking Amber to the train station and she would be headed to London to teach some classes. This presented a big problem because you must have a work visa in Canada (and US) to make money. Anyway, Amber nearly missed her train being detained and questioned, I forget the resolve, something about her being a performer or something and that granted her access – I forget.
I assume those using air travel probably were honest about their reasons going to CA and that’s why they were denied entry or in the least someone suspected they were going there to work. Same goes in the US – you must be legal to work here and if you don’t have the appropriate paper work you aren’t allowed in.
As much as it sucks we really all need to be careful with this kind of stuff there are very heavy penalties for working illegally not just to the instructor but to the business too.
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And they’d probably have to apply for a work visa about 6 months ahead of time. I am not sure how it works or how expensive they are. I think there are temp visas that are good for about 6 months – 1 year. I imagine ones who don’t get turned away either filed the appropriate paperwork or just said they were visiting family/friends or something.
Plus when crossing, so you can randomly be detained for no reason. I’ve been pulled into customs more than a few times and had them search my car – why? no clue. sometimes they question you too, so if someone were detained at customs for any reason the truth likely comes out.
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I’m wondering if this is related to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program changes that have had the small-venue music scene up in arms lately. From what I can gather, it looks like a dance workshop tour would fall under the same rules as a small band tour — a $425 permit required for each and ever person on the tour for each and every location they stop at. I can see how that would make a workshop tour financially unfeasible.
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