SAN DIEGO — The increasingly restrictive process for musicians seeking visas to tour in the United States has led to canceled concerts here by solo artist and bands from Canada, Australia and several European countries.

The Trump administration’s December imposition of a travel ban on visitors to the U.S. from 19 countries has made the situation even more daunting. The impact has been felt in San Diego venues of all sizes, from the Casbah and Belly Up to the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center and North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre.

Visa-related issues have forced Mexican regional-music stars Jorge Medina and Josi Cuen to reschedule their concert at the nearly 20,000-capacity North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre three times so far.

The two were originally scheduled to perform at the Chula Vista venue last June 25. That date was postponed until last Sept. 20, then pushed back again until next month. But the new March 14 date is no longer listed on the venue’s website and no new date has been announced.

Medina and Cuen are in good company.

Artists facing visa problems last year led to the cancellation of entire U.S. tours by everyone from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Cat Stevens to FKA Twigs. The Tijuana-bred band Grupo Firme, which performed at Petco Park in 2022, had to cancel its performance last June at Napa Valley’s La Onda festival because — the band charged — the Trump administration had suspended its visas.

Last summer also saw the Australian violin duo of Brett Yang and Eddy Chen, who perform as TwoSet Violin, cancel five concerts on the West Coast because the U.S. rejected Yang’s visa.

The canceled dates included a July 15 show at Jacobs Music Center, the home of the San Diego Symphony. The venue had been rented by an outside promoter who booked TwoSet Violin to perform here. The duo subsequently told a newspaper in Sydney that the cost of the visa applications, lawyers and lost revenue cost TwoSet Violin around $100,000.

Chamber music and jazz artists have also been affected, with La Jolla Music Society having one upcoming concert and two recent ones impacted by visa issues.

France’s Arod Quartet, which was scheduled to perform Feb. 14 at the society’s Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, had to cancel its entire 2026 U.S. winter tour and has now been replaced for its La Jolla performance by the Boston-based Balourdet Quartet.

Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva was booked to perform for the society last August at the 2025 edition of its annual SummerFest but was unable to obtain a visa in time. She subsequently performed a solo recital at the Baker-Baum on Nov. 20. Two German artists, cellist Philipp Schupelius and pianist Julius Asal, were unable to perform Dec. 14 as planned. They were replaced by Bennett Tsai and Rodolfo Leone, who are both based in Los Angeles.

“Obtaining visas to perform in the U.S. has become extremely challenging,” said La Jolla Music Society Artistic Director Leah Rosenthal. “It has become a universal issue that we are closely keeping our eyes on.”

Those sentiments are shared by Daniel Atkinson, the veteran jazz programming coordinator for La Jolla’s Athenaeum Music & Arts Library and Athenaeum Jazz at Scripps Institute concerts series. He is also a current board member and the immediate past president of the Western Jazz Presenters Network.

“This is an issue that has had an impact across the board, in all parts of the country and in all genres of music,” said Atkinson, who is the co-founder of the two-year-old San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival.

“There were two bands from Spain we had all but signed contracts with to play San Diego and four other West Coast cities. Because of visa issues, none of those dates happened. It was a matter of the financial burden involved to obtain visas and the length of the process to get them. That experience has led me to forgo any really creative programing with bands that do not have their visas in hand.

“We didn’t have any visa issues with the San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival, due to a great deal of planning and a conscious effort to find out the status of each musician. Especially with large ensembles, you may know the band leader has a visa but not necessarily if the drummer or trombonist do. So, you have to do a lot of information-gathering and be familiar with the constantly changing visa rules.”

A least two rock-music venues in San Diego, the Belly Up and Casbah, have also experienced the effects of visa issues.

“No artists have canceled but we have seen several who have delayed or abandoned plans to tour because of visa concerns,” said a Belly Up spokeswoman.

Casbah co-owner Tim Mays cited two instances last year in which acts had to cancel their performances at the intimate venue.

“Dead Bob, a Canadian band, had to cancel their tour last summer due to a lengthy visa process,” Mays said.

“And we had Messer Chups, a Russian band, slotted to play two nights supporting Rev. Horton Heat’s at the Casbah last September. They ended up pulling out of the dates because their visas were taking very long to get approved. In the end, they did get approved and they played a bunch of U.S. dates around that time. But they missed out on our shows because Rev. Horton Heat had added a different band for those two nights.”

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