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Hello,
I am planning to start a 10-day educational summer music festival, in partnership with a college. The festival will be split into two main programs; the first will be for younger students (10 and up, traveling with their parents), and the second will be for serious conservatory-level music students. The younger program will be more of a music festival / tourism hybrid, and will cater exclusively to Chinese students and their families. The upper-level program will be focused more intensively on music education, and will recruit domestically and internationally (this program will also have a large base of students from China). The college will issue an invitation letter that the students can bring to their visa interview.
My problem is that I cannot figure out what category of Visa is the most appropriate for these students. At first I thought B2 would work since the time period is so short. "Short courses of study" are included in the approved list of B2 activities, however the study is supposed to be "incidental" to the tourism part and not the main reason for the trip. This is not really true in the case of my program. The B2 visa also covers "conferences, conventions, and participation in social organizations", however I am not sure that this music festival would count as a conference or convention. On the other hand, issuing an F-1 visa for a 10-day program seems like overkill. Does anyone have any recommendations for what I should do in this situation? Any feedback would be much appreciated!
I am planning to start a 10-day educational summer music festival, in partnership with a college. The festival will be split into two main programs; the first will be for younger students (10 and up, traveling with their parents), and the second will be for serious conservatory-level music students. The younger program will be more of a music festival / tourism hybrid, and will cater exclusively to Chinese students and their families. The upper-level program will be focused more intensively on music education, and will recruit domestically and internationally (this program will also have a large base of students from China). The college will issue an invitation letter that the students can bring to their visa interview.
My problem is that I cannot figure out what category of Visa is the most appropriate for these students. At first I thought B2 would work since the time period is so short. "Short courses of study" are included in the approved list of B2 activities, however the study is supposed to be "incidental" to the tourism part and not the main reason for the trip. This is not really true in the case of my program. The B2 visa also covers "conferences, conventions, and participation in social organizations", however I am not sure that this music festival would count as a conference or convention. On the other hand, issuing an F-1 visa for a 10-day program seems like overkill. Does anyone have any recommendations for what I should do in this situation? Any feedback would be much appreciated!
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