That Explains it—Sort Of

My mother just got back from a trip of her own to the Russian consulate in San Francisco, and tells me that that guy who wrote a check for me is indeed on the up and up. Like me, she noticed several people sitting around carrying stacks of other peoples’ passports. I had assumed that these people were tour guides getting visas for clients, but my mom asked a few questions and discovered that most of them are actually professional visa expediters. They don’t make it happen any faster, but they will get the money order for you and stand in line for you if you’ve got a real job that prevents you from spending the morning at the consulate.

The free market may be slow to catch on in Russia itself, but it’s alive and well at the consulate.