UK visa issues halt concert

23 Apr 2012 | Posted by Carl Thomas

A concert has had to be cancelled at the last minute due to UK visa issues, it has been revealed.

Singer Sonu Nigam was scheduled to perform at the O2 Arena in London but promoters were unable to obtain visas for the artist's entourage and stage hands.

A tweet from the star read: "Disappointed and enraged to inform everyone that I'm not coming to London. Hard to believe that except my visa, not a single visa for my group was done. Never happened in 20 years of overseas travel."

The performer's team released a further statement remarking that they don't want to mislead the fan base and those who made the effort to see the headline act and explaining that UK visa issues had occurred as the result of problems with connecting flights.

"Nigam and his entire troupe faced an ordeal on their way back from Australia when their connecting flight to Bombay got cancelled from Singapore and they had to fly to Delhi and then reach Mumbai," a press release from the Nigam's team explained.

There have been issues in the past with artists and performers struggling to obtain UK visas for short periods of work in Britain. The government often requires unrealistic time scales to be followed with regards to organising the paperwork and documents and some have accused those in power of discouraging performers from coming to the UK.

Whether this case was the result of difficulties within Nigam's team or the fault of the UK immigration powers is as yet unclear but it serves as a warning for other artists and visitors to organise their UK visas well in advance of travel.