Originally Posted by
NickB
To be quite honest, as a European, the most obnoxious and pernickety immigration agents that I have had to deal with have for the most part been Canadian immigration officers. Not all of them are like that, of course, but some are really in a class of their own. On balance, my experiences have been more positive with US immigration officers than Canadian ones. But I am sure that others will have had different experiences too.
My experiences are actually exactly similar to yours. Although things have gone better for me of late, Canada and New Zealand have given me some of my least pleasant immigration experiences in the past. I have, however, always assumed that this was because I was fitting a profile (say, gender+age+nationality, and which I know is not very different in your case), which I supposed they considered at risk of (most likely) hidden migration. Indeed, I am sad to think that things might just be getting better for me because gaining a few years as made me leave that specific demographic!
I have typically also had much better experiences in the US although again, I am not certain if the fact that I both lived there (perfectly legally) for a while and also had visas at two different stages may explain those relative positive experiences (on the grounds that in the latter case, I was already thoroughly screened, including meeting with an FBI agent, on the former that if I chose to leave when in a position when it would have been easy to ask to stay, I am unlikely to try and "sneak in" illegally).