recently i gave 2 guest lectures at dartington college of arts; in order to be paid, i had to fill out numerous forms (including one to opt out of a pension scheme) and there were many emails back & forth about my alien status & how my payment could be authorised. when i expressed surprise at this - surely visiting international guest lecturers are not such a rarity? - it was explained to me that recent changes in uk immigration laws are forcing universities and arts organisations to comply with stricter regulations that are making it difficult, and in some situations, impossible, to pay international visitors.

i'm on a new zealand passport, but luckily i also have right of abode to live and work in the UK (my mother was born in london - if it had been my father, i'd be entitled to a UK passport ... ). however in a couple of weeks i'll be giving a lecture in the usa, & it's the same thing there - only worse: they can't actually pay alien visitors at all. it hasn't always been like this, but a few years and a few wars have happened since i last got paid to lecture in the usa.

these new regulations are penalising the students who miss out on interesting visitors; embarrassing their lecturers who want to invite the visitors but can't pay them; driving crazy the administrators who have to enforce the regulations; pissing off artists who earn so little anyway that the guest lecture fee a small but important income source - and what's more it completely flies in the face of the way the working world is going, as information technologies make it possible to work from anywhere in the world. as long as we're paying tax somewhere, what's the problem? what if a uk university wanted to pay me to give a lecture via the internet, from new zealand? what regulations would apply then?

there's a petition here: http://www.manifestoclub.com/visitingartists