So I am in the process of getting my 01 visa which will allow me to go to the United States of America and work as an actor. Thanks to a very fab director, I have a letter of recommendation regarding several projects he is casting that he would love me to appear in.
The process of finding a reputable visa service began back at the start of the year. It was whilst I was on the set of Shakespeare’s ‘Pericles: Prince of tyre’ between scenes that I was chatting to my scene partner (the fabulous actress Joanna Howden) and she mentioned a company called KSN Associates (http://www.ksnassociates.co.uk/) out of Canary Wharf in London with an office in LA. They focus on the entertainment industry, so immediately they seemed interesting to me, especially as I heard they had an exceptionally high hit rate.
Naturally, once back in the UK I did some research into this company and saw that they had a few high-profile clients, which was a huge plus in my book and something that gave them more credibility.
Their fees put them firmly in the middle of the range I was given to expect when I first started looking into a visa and I scheduled a Skype call with one of the directors, Katy, who was in Los Angeles at that time.
She said that my credits and showreel were enough to get me the visa but the world has changed recently. In the light of the horrific Boston Marathon bombing, the rules have been tightened on visa applications yet further. Still, I stood a very good chance of getting the 01 visa I need to live and work in the Isa for three years apart from one stumbling block… reviews and interviews.
It seems that only a few of my projects have been reviewed. I’ve just completed one interview (my first ever) for the upcoming Judge Dredd fan film and through my voice coach, the incredibly gifted actress Kathleen Renish (http://www.kathleenrenish.com), I met a chap named Keith Keller from Melbourne Australia who specialises in Twitter marketing. After a 30 minute chat early tonight, I’ve increased my global reach to over 50,000 people (up from about 3,000) and increased my Twitter followers by over 50 people. Not bad for one initial chat.
It seems that I need to increase my global media presence enough to help me USA visa application go through so this is what I shall be focusing my time and attention on for the next few weeks. I need a boost on both Facebook and twitter to increase my followers count and page ‘likes.’
It’s an interesting experiment actually. Nowhere near as boring as it may seem as I have to target the right people for retweets and put out the right info on my Facebook page to increase the number of followers I have on each. I recommend connecting with Keith Keller (@keithkeller) if you are interested in marketing yourself on Twitter.
Damien Gerard 