Originally Posted by
Reindeerflame
No questions at all; no forms, no kiosks: nothing. The immigration inspector asked a few questions about our trip and our home community, but that’s all. No queries anywhere about goods being brought in or anything about prohibited items, like certain fruits or meats. In the customs area, everyone walked through an area of apparently unstaffed counters without interacting with any personnel.
Except it being at the airport, the above sounds a lot like what used to be the norm for my Canada-US road crossing trips around say Niagara Falls. Even without submitting a customs declaration form, border control authorities (CBP predecessor) still managed to search/question some people on a more targeted basis.
With regard to customs control, it seems like CBP is trying to move more in the direction of the EU countries in regard to how and where they direct resources for customs searches. Customs declaration forms aren’t a common submission for passengers entering the EU/Schengen zones, and yet there is flagging “behind the scenes” and targeting at the airports from time to time. The CBP is sort of headed in the same direction, but with way more resources per arrival passenger from beyond the customs zone than is the case in the EU/Schengen countries.