Despite her suffering, He hoped to be in Bountiful next week to sing the traditional songs of her Qiang culture at the International Organization of Folk Art's first youth conference. She is one of just 80,000 people who speak her native language.

Her dream was dashed when the U.S. State Department refused to give her a visa to travel to the United States - she didn't have the family ties and job to convince officials she would return to China.

He is among scores of artists and experts on native cultures around the globe who have encountered similar problems.

Organizers say 300 had hoped to attend the festival, but - despite repeated efforts, including letters from Sen. Orrin Hatch - just 65 have been approved to travel to the United States. "The story I hear consistently from the people that go in to get their visas . . . they say, 'Why are we treated so rudely when we go in and why does the interviewer not look at the documents we have taken in with us?' " said George Frandsen, North America's regional executive secretary of the International Organization of Folk Art.

David Donahue, spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department, said the department recognizes the importance of cultural exchanges and tries to facilitate the visas.

"We know the benefit to America when they come to share their culture with us, and we issue visas to thousands of folk artists, musicians, people coming here to share little bits of their culture with us every year," Donahue said. "But, in the end, the office is going to have to make the decision, from the information each applicant provides them: 'Will this particular applicant, at the end of the conference or cultural event, return to their home country?' "

U.S. law makes a presumption that an applicant will not return to his or her homeland, and the individual seeking the visa has to convince the screener otherwise.

The International Organization of Folk Art was created to preserve native cultures and languages, forming ties over time with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

This year, the group planned its first-ever youth conference and Frandsen, a former Utahn now living in Washington state, thought it would be ideal to hold it in conjunction with the 20th Annual Bountiful-Davis Summerfest International.

But Frandsen had no idea the bureaucratic nightmare he would encounter.

Mohammed Kazouz, for example, is a professor specializing in traditional Algerian dance.

Twice, he and two performers made the 1,000-mile round trip by train to the capital of Algiers to get their visas. Each time, Kazouz says he was treated rudely and accused of being paid to help his fellow artists defect.

"I don't want to start again another life in America," wrote Kazouz, who has taught for 30 years in Algeria.

"I believed as artist and teacher that I have a value in the spirit of America, the United States, who always have fought for the rights of man and the blooming of education and culture," he wrote. "In spite of our preparation for almost six months for this congress, where we wanted to teach of our Algerian culture . . . our dream was broken in a few instant."

"It was this man's dream, really, to come to the country," Frandsen said. "I hear the same story repeatedly from different people in different parts of the world."

A group from Bahrain was declined, as was the Tunisian delegation.

Thirty people from Ghana, many of whom had once performed in Boston, were denied. Five Armenians applied, including the director of a dance troupe that had performed in Bountiful, but they were all declined.

Frandsen said he encouraged the leader of the Armenian group to re-apply. "She absolutely refused: 'I am not going back to the U.S. Embassy. If I didn't know better, I would've thought they were KGB.' "

Hatch said he has been helping the Bountiful festival bring international dance troupes to Utah for years and sponsored a bill in 2007 to allow performers to get visas more quickly.

"Increasing demand for these visas and the heightened sensitivity to immigration issues has made it more and more difficult to secure the visas needed for this event," Hatch said. "However, I continue to work with the appropriate embassies to secure the necessary visas."

Jayanti Koirala, organizer of the annual International Folk Festival-Nepal and director of the Everest Nepal Cultural Group, which has performed around the world, was deeply disappointed and angry her visa was rejected.

"I thought always your embassy give visa for genuine person who have very well status in Nepal. But I am wrong," Koirala wrote in a letter to the U.S. consulate. "My intention is not to stay in your country. . . . I never trust U.S. Embassy in my life."

gehrke@sltrib.com

Breakdown of visa denials

Nearly 80 percent of 300 artists and experts who applied for visas to attend the International Organization of Folk Art's youth conference next week in Bountiful were denied. Below are the 2007 visa-refusal rates for all applicants from selected countries:

Afghanistan: 38.4 percent

Armenia: 61.4 percent

China: 20.7 percent

Cuba: 53.1 percent

Guyana: 62.3 percent

Iraq: 44.9 percent

Iran: 44.6 percent

Laos: 72.9 percent

North Korea: 14.3 percent

Source: U.S. State Department