Most countries have officials that can have a good day or bad day. Australia is better than most limited (sample size of 4 in my case). One officer remarked that her father lived very near where I came from when I passed through.
The trouble with US officials is that they are too robotic. Doubtless the training. 'Have you ever had a visa revoked?' Answer in my case 'yes without prejudice' as it was over ten years old so I tick the box. I assume that 'without prejudice' means that I had done nothing wrong. The guy at Newark (surely the worst airport for border inspection) promptly marches me off to Secondary. Luckily an intelligent agent with common sense clears me in five minutes (so I'll partially take back my comment). That said I've found charming staff at SFO & HNL. YVR preclearance was OK.
Japan has some of the most courteous people on earth but their border control can be officious.
I wonder if there is a correlation between how polite a country's people are and how polite their immigration & customs staff are?
As an aside, the Economist magazine is right. We shouldn't have a sign at airports saying UK Border but sating Welcome to the UK (or London or whatever). I think that was an idea of Gordon Brown but its unfair to single out a single politician - they are all as bad as each other. I much preferred it when immigration staff didn't have uniforms. It didn't make them any less effective.
Last edited by Peter47; 22nd Aug 2015 at 20:10.