Originally Posted by
Captain Schmidt
NZ is the only place in the world that I have ever been asked by immigration to show them a return ticket. He was perfectly pleasant about it, but I was 40 at the time and had just stepped off a biz class flight on SQ from London so was hardly some goatee sporting backpacker that was likely to abscond into the black economy and anyway, NZ is nice but it's not that nice....
I was only once asked for one entering the USA (on visa waiver) one time:
Agent "What is the purpose of your visit ?"
Me "Job interview"
Agent "What line of work are you in ?"
Me "I'm an engineer"
Agent "Can I see your return ticket ?"
Me - hands it over
Agent - stamps my passport, "good luck with the interview".
I have never, ever, experienced any rudeness (or even unreasonable questions) from US CBP agents; mostly they are friendly and polite, sometimes just seem bored.
IME this is not true of UK, and especially Canadian immigration; YMMV.