Cochrane Blue and Ava Muir, both artists with their own past singing and song writing successes with earlier group and solo projects, are now collaborating together on new song and album releases. Their first album release has been met with great critical reviews and much commercial success (charting #1 in Canada, #4 in the U.S. and #5 in Europe and Australia) and now they are considering following up with a second collaboration.

Their first album, 'I-O-U', was a passion project for the two artist friends who met through Ava's husband and instantly felt a connection and wanted to work together. She invited Cochrane to L.A. to write one song or two and ended up writing eight songs together in one week. The duo then decided to finish the album. As it was initiated and produced by Blue and Muir, they considered releasing the music independently, however, in order to reach a large audience and for legal concerns the album was released through SBD records, a large American label.

They are now considering using a Canadian record company, Lone Dime Records, for their second project.

Given that Ava is American, they want to know if she will have any challenges working in Canada on this and future projects.

They have a number of questions for you, as follows:

a) In most cases, do foreign nationals in the entertainment business need to get an LMIA and/or a work permit in order towork in Canada? Explain.

b) Does it matter whether it is of short-term or long-term duration? Or whether it is for set engagements or ongoing employment?

c) Does it matter whether they are working with a Canadian or foreign employer in Canada?

d) Does it matter whether they are working for an employer or merely contracting with a company (independent contractor)?

e) Does the fact that they produce videos for each song make any difference to the process?

In general they would like to know what they need to consider in deciding whether to do thework in Canadaor not, whether to sign with a company or work independently, whether they should work on projects together or an indeterminate period or periodically go back to other projects.

They will be doing a number of tasks: recording music in a studio, contracting with a record company, promoting their new music through guest spots on Canadian TV and radio broadcasts, and performing their music live in Canada, either as guest artists with a Canadian group or on their own for a short or long duration (depending on your advice).

What advice would you give them?