Daniel Radcliffe turned away by US immigration after visa problems

 
Well suited: Daniel Radcliffe and girlfriend Erin Darke
The Weekender

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It's nothing that a broomstick or invisibility cloak wouldn’t have solved for Harry Potter.

But for Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who brought the boy wizard to life, getting out of Canada and into the U.S. today wasn’t proving so simple.

The star has been denied entry to America after failing to upgrade his visa properly.

Radcliffe had celebrated his 25th birthday north of the border on Wednesday and appeared at the premiere for his film What If with co-star Zoe Kazan. But when he tried to get back to the US from Toronto to attend the Comic-Con conference in San Diego, he was reportedly turned away by immigration officers.

According to the New York Post, Radcliffe is in the process of upgrading his P-2 visa — designated for foreign actors and entertainers — to an O-1 visa for “the individual who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics”. An O-1 grants the holder a three-year stay in the US, while the P-2 only gives a performer residency for the time they are working on a project, not to exceed a year.

Radcliffe finished a run of The Cripple Of Inishmaan on Broadway on Sunday, and the Post claimed he had been approved to upgrade to the O-1. He needed a “stamp from the US embassy” in Toronto to travel back to the US but “their computer system was down”.

In order to get his visa he had to prove that no American performer could act in the role as well as him.

His brilliant reviews from the London version of The Cripple Of Inishmaan had helped persuade US officials of his suitability for living in America. The actor was planning to travel to San Diego to publicise his film, Horns, in which he plays a character who wakes up with horns and fears he has killed his girlfriend. It was still unclear early today whether he would make the appearance.

It comes as the star, who is in a relationship with American actress Erin Darke, denied reports that they are engaged. “We’re very happy but we’re not engaged,” he told The London Magazine.

He also denied reports that Harry Potter co-star Rupert Grint is set to be his best man, adding: “And we’re not flying to Paris to choose a ring, either.”

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