Why is Jelly Roll's past convictions making it difficult to book a European tour? Immigration attorneys explain

Jelly Roll is undoubtedly on a hot streak. After toiling on the fringes of the industry for nearly a decade, his career has gone supernova over the past year thanks to his singles 'Son of a Sinner', 'Need a Favor' and 'Save Me', the latter of which won him a spot. Grammy nomination. He's rolling across the United States on his 44-city Backroad Baptism tour in 2023, has played a number of festivals this year and is set to hit a few more this summer, along with shows with Morgan Wallen and headlining this fall's Beautifully Broken tour with Warren Zeiders and Alexandra Kay.

But if you look at Jelly's road history, one thing you'll notice is that his concerts have kept him in the lower 48s, a situation he explained when talking to Jon Bon Jovi about Magazine Interview earlier this year. During the chat, the 39-year-old singer, born Jason DeFord, noted that his nefarious past has kept him grounded when it comes to playing concerts overseas.

“It's funny, America finally agreed to let me go and give me a passport, but some countries won't let me come because of my felonies,” he told Bon Jovi. “We are working on it. I think it will work in my favor.” Then, on Howard Stern's SiriusXM show Wednesday morning (June 12) after the host asked if Jelly's past misdeeds were still keeping him grounded, the singer said, “I actually got on the phone with a lawyer yesterday, We're working… he's fine , is starting to look promising. It didn't look good even just six months ago, but it's starting to look really promising.”

Jelly Roll has been open about his past run-ins with the law and his incarceration, including dozens of stints behind bars on drug charges dating back to when he was 14, as well as an arrest at 16 for robbery that led to a year in prison when tried as an adult. he faced a possible 20-year sentence in the case, although he served just over a year behind bars and seven years of probation. He also spoke about the time in 2008 when, aged 23, he was locked up for drug dealing when his daughter Bailee was born. Among the effects are the inability, until recently, to obtain a passport, as well as the inability to vote, volunteer at most for non-profit organizations, or own a firearm.

So what's stopping him from getting his first passport stamp? Advertising sign spoke to several prominent European immigration lawyers to find out what the hang-up is and whether Jelly could be rocking scenes abroad in the near future. (The experts agreed to speak in general terms about their country's immigration laws, but had no first-hand knowledge of Jelly Roll's case.)

First, the good news.

Under the rules for entry into the 26 European countries that allow unrestricted movement within their borders — known collectively as the Schengen Area, which includes Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden, among others — third-country nationals may be denied entry if they are considered a “threat in the public policy, internal security, public health or international relations of any EU or Schengen country'.

This is according to a prominent Italian immigration lawyer who asked not to be named Advertising sign that once you have legally entered a Schengen country, you are free to travel between countries with a valid passport, as long as you are not on INTERPOL's blacklist. The area does have a list of serious criminal offenses from the previous decade—or 20 years in the case of terrorist crimes—that an applicant for entry must cite before visiting. The list of prohibited offenses includes terrorism, human trafficking, child pornography, drug/arms trafficking, fraud, money laundering, environmental crimes, murder, extortion, arson, and nuclear material trafficking.

Based on this list, the originators of the Jelly Roll do not appear to rise to the level that would ban him from visiting the Schengen countries. The lawyer noted, however, that those rules are set to change in 2025, when third-country nationals who do not need a visa to travel to the Schengen area — a list that includes U.S. citizens — will have to apply for a travel permit through the ETIAS travel portal for short-term (90-180 days) stays. currently, if you have a valid passport and do not intend to stay for more than three months, a visa is not required to enter the region.

At press time, a representative for Jelly Roll had not been returned Advertising signhis request for comment on the status of Jelly's overseas tour plans.

The bad news, according to Matthew James of leading UK immigration law firm Bates Wells, is that the UK has so-called 'General Grounds for Refusal' laws which look at whether a person has previously overstayed their visa in the country as well as a criminal record. What falls under this rather broad umbrella are mandatory and discretionary grounds for refusal, which James says are somewhat “opaque”.

“If you've been jailed for more than 12 months, that should be a bar to you coming into the UK, so there's absolutely no chance you'll come if you've done 12 months,” he says, noting that if you've done less than 12 months but you are a 'persistent offender' with multiple drug offences, you can be refused as a 'persistent' offender. you may also be refused if the breach has caused serious harm.

However, for artists who want to visit for less than six months to put on a series of shows, there is an additional aspect that if they have been convicted within 12 months of their visit, their application will be refused, which should not be the case in Jelly Roll since his convictions occurred more than 20 years ago.

The UK's foreign secretary could also decide that a person's presence in the nation is “not conducive to the public good” because of their character or other reasons, with James pointing to Tyler, the Creator announcing that his lyrical content banned him from entering the UK for 3 to 5 years due to his then violent and misogynistic lyrics. At the time, the Home Office issued a statement saying: “Coming to the UK is a privilege and we expect those who come here to respect our shared values. The Home Secretary has the power to exclude a person if he or she considers that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good or if his or her exclusion is justified on grounds of public order.' Tyler was then invited to the nation without incident.

Snoop Dogg has opened up about how the late Queen Elizabeth II helped him avoid a traffic jam from England in 1994 when he was facing charges of first and second degree murder of which he was later acquitted. Ja Rule said he was “devastated” when his planned 2024 UK tour was canceled after he was denied entry due to his criminal record for weapons possession and tax evasion.

James says that, in general, American visitors – especially those coming for permitted paid engagements – can enter the UK for so-called 'permission-free' festivals such as Glastonbury without applying for a visa. In a receipt for the money, he added that absolute discretion rested with the secretary of state. “If you're Snoop Dogg and you're going to sell out Wembley Stadium for three nights and he's going to make a huge amount of money for the UK economy and he's done a lot of great work to rehabilitate other people and people who learn from his mistakes and never caused another problem since in 20-plus years,” says James, you could probably talk to someone higher up in the government and get some leeway on the rules, which, he notes, are primarily aimed at preventing known criminals from living in Country.

That said, those who have committed particularly heinous crimes face a different standard. R. Kelly — who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for child sexual abuse convictions — is unlikely to ever be allowed to appear in the UK again after his release.

Jelly Roll has spoken at length about the work he's done talking to youth about his law-breaking days and has visited facilities to share his story, including donating a recording studio to the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center, where he was incarcerated as a teenager, in 2023. .

James says that since Jelly Roll's arrests and incarcerations mostly happened when he was young, that he's clearly worked to rehabilitate himself and that he's on the rise in his career, it's always possible that “excessive discretion” could play a role. This allows officials not to apply the rules in the strictest way, particularly if an artist's concerts bring in significant income in the UK and the person is not a perceived risk. “They'll fly in on their private plane and play their set at Wembley and then leave,” he says. “They should show remorse and a redeemed character and the benefits to society they bring and the economic advantages they bring.”