Artists, cultural professionals, and live performance organisations often work across borders, especially in Europe. However, travelling and working in the European Union (EU) can be complicated for individuals coming from outside Europe. Each country may have its own rules for Third-Country Nationals (TCN), which can make things even more confusing.

This guide highlights the key challenges related to employment and immigration for Third-Country National artists in the EU. While the EU has some shared rules, there are no specific laws tailored to artists. In the first instance, and in line with the approach of this series of cookbooks, the focus of this publication is on the European rules related to third-country nationals working (temporarily) in the EU.

The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers: Third-Country National Artists Working in the EU is published within the framework of the project Revealing the Alliance – Step 1 2 3, which is the Creative Europe Network programme of the European Festivals Association (EFA) that runs from 2022 till 2024. The support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and doesn’t engage the responsibilty of the European Commission for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.