Disclaimer: Past experience is not a guarantee for future success.* Your treatment may depend on the level of privilege your passport implicitly conveys (Western vs. non-Western). Use at your own risk.
The way a country sets up and runs its immigration booths at entry points says much more than many officials seem to realize or care about.
U.S. immigration, for example, is the stuff of legend, with lines that rarely deserve the neat, mathematically pure interpretation of the term line as the shortest distance between point A and point B.
The only fleeting smile on the face of a DHS man the blogster has ever witnessed was in reaction to a fatigued child asking his parents "why do we have to get off in America?"
Another example, the UK, has queues that vary in appearance between cattle herding and the emptiness of interstellar space punctuated by terminals still running Windows XP (a few years ago, hopefully not today).
In some countries, there are lines by gender for men and women. We cannot report on how a transgender person gets through but have a feeling that policies vary between strict enforcement and don't ask, don't tell.
An un-German absence of forms to fill out can confuse Americans heading for German immigration booths.
Even more surprising is the fact that Germans don't enforce the "EU passports" signage at their entry points. Or they don't since automatic gates for EU citizens have taken almost all traffic away from the humans.
Whatever the reason, the idle EU passports officer waved at the short line waiting for the non-EU booths and happily volunteered the following information:
1. If you hold a non-EU passport and have any kind of EU residence permit, simply go to the EU passports line.
2. If the "EU passports" officials have a short or no line, waltz over and get in line. Just be friendly. If the official tells you that this is technically not your line, say sorry, and all will be fine.
* This applies to all areas of life.
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