Slightly OT - Visa Bureaucracy

In light of the post with regards to "WORKINIG without a VISA" I thought I'd share an e-mail I just received from a friend who recently moved to France. He's an opera singer, and living in the EU will provide him with far more work opportunities. However, the bureaucracy makes the US and USVI look simplistic. I apologize for the length.

Before I left NYC the Consulate there recommended a certain type visa for me (Artist visa). When I arrived in Paris and pressed to get my visa (so I could work) the visa app from NYC had been quashed by a Paris bureaucrat who had just taken the post in Paris in Sept. Her view was that I had applied for the wrong visa and should apply for a free-lancer's visa (Visa Independent). It turns out she was correct, given the nature of the biz and me really being a free-lance artist. This meant I didn't have a visa, but more importantly, pissed off the men who had been over-ruled in NYC. They stalled and stalled, brought in their allies within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to dispute her. I was stuck in the middle without a visa. I had to go and educate workers in the ministry showing job postings for singers (which illustrated that I needed the Visa Independent), past US tax documents, contracts, bank accounts, etc. etc. Hence I need the documentation that I am "highly trained" and it is desirable for the me to be in the EU (not just in France) and competing for jobs. Just before Christmas I had to fly back to NYC for a 5 minute interview at the Consulate to finalize my dossier for approval for the Visa Independent. The dossier was sent to officers in Paris and Nantes, FR (where another big Foreign Affairs office is) and finally approved. Then the dossier was sent to the visa service in London (so I wouldn't have to make another trip to NYC) so they could issue the visa. This Monday I went to London to pick up my visa and the bureaucrat there decided that I really should be issued the Artist Visa (where I need a sponsoring company, which costs them money, and I can only work for that one company), even though NYC, Paris, Nantes had reviewed my dossier and ruled for the Visa Independent. So she issued me an Artist Visa. When I took this visa to get my Carte de sejour (identity card - issued by the police, technically part of the Interior Ministry and verifying that I'm not a security risk, and the REAL document I need to have in order to get paid in the EU). They could not issue me a Carte de sejour which allows me to work. They called her in London, she insisted that she really believed I should be an Artist visa (I didn't go through the dog & pony show with her about why I'm a free-lancer) and refused to change. So I now have this dossier from the highest levels of the Foreign Ministry saying I'm a Visa Independent and the issuing agent refusing to issue it. Now I have to meet with the highest levels of the Interior Ministry (I have an appointment on March 16!) to prove to them that the dossier was correctly approved by the Foreign Ministry. This latest official for the carte de sejour thinks the Visa Independent is correct and I should easily be approved by the Interior Ministry for the carte that will allow me to work as a freelancer. The approval process takes about 2 weeks after the meeting and 2-3 months to get the actual carte de sejour! The upshot it that about 1 year after I started the process in NYC I should finally be able to legally work as a freelance musician in the EU (star artists who come and work a production here and there are classified as salaried artists and therefore get an artist visa for each production).

So, for now, I have to work illegally. And find partners who are willing to pay me illegally which, while there appear to be plenty of them, is not fun. I always get underpaid, there's always the danger that they will renege or back out, among other things.