On October 10, 2019, I received an email from Project Alloy, notifying me that I was selected for power grant to attent AWS re:Invent 2019, a conference being hosted in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the greatest AWS event, and Project Alloy would cover my flight, my hotel room and my entry to the conference during all days of the conference.
Naturally, this was the greatest piece of news I had ever received. I told every single member of my family and all my close friends, and obviously, to my boss. I've been using AWS for a year now for every project at work, and this was a huge opportunity to learn and create connections with people who work on the same thing. All my years of coding and hard work were finally paying off and I was ready to boost my career, or so I thought.
Project Alloy paid for my flight to Las Vegas from Punta Cana, where I live, booked my hotel room and gave me access to the platform for attendees, where I was able to select the keynotes I wanted to attend. I spent hours trying to choose the sessions, because re:Invent happens at multiple hotels, and each hotel has multiple session types every hour.
So I had everything ready to go. The only thing I needed to attend re:Invent was a US visa.
In order to get one, I had to pay a fee of about 166.70 USD, collect as much evidence about myself as possible: bank statements, proof that I'm a student, letter of invitation from AWS, employment letter from the company I work for, and fill a form with a lot of information about myself, including social media details. I did all of that carefully, as I was taking this seriously and there was no other way.
The last thing I had to do is an interview with a US consulate officer. I was so anxious I didn't sleep throughout the entire night before the interview, but at the moment of the interview I was pretty confident, looking at the officer's eyes and replying very quick.
The answer was a sad "maybe when you graduate". Yes, she said no. She didn't ask for the evidence I brought, and seemed ready to say no from the beginning. Most questions were questions about me (who do you live with, what do you work on, when did you graduate), and not about the event, why I wanted to assist and whether or not I could afford to go or who's paying.
The decision could not be appealed, and the conference was 1 week ahead. There was nothing that could be done, not even re-applying.
That was not in my plans, but wasn't totally unexpected.
I did get tremendously depressed. My motivation to work and my motivation to continue with my projects and continue to learn was down to zero. Why work hard, why learn a bunch of stuff if I'm always going to be limited by my nationality, which is something I can't change?
Many people have told me they see me as an example as I've been actively coding since 2012, when I was 13. However, none of that seemed to matter because I had the audacity to be born in the wrong country.
I can't attend conferences in the US, Canada or Europe without going through the same visa process for each one of those countries, no matter if they're inviting me.
I had no plans to stay in the US and I was ready to present as much evidence as I could but none of it was asked.
I did end up reflecting, and thinking that maybe I should just work harder and use this to "boost" my motivation, so I can prove I'm not an "illegal alien" but someone who genuinely wants to learn and contribute in technology.
I notified the team at re:Invent and Project Alloy and they did tell me to re-apply next year, and I want to really thank them again for the opportunity. Even though I couldn't assist, they did as much as they possibly could, and they continue to work to improve diversity in tech. You should check them out.
I will apply next year, maybe I'll have better luck. In the meantime I'll continue to work hard and learn as much as I can. You might probably see more posts from me here :)
Thank you for reading! I don't usually write, but I wanted to let this one out.
Top comments (13)
Don't ever believe you were born in the wrong country because of our policies here in the US. It's sad that they denied your Visa. Keep trying, keep working hard and you'll eventually make a difference, the kind you want.
Don't ever believe that you are in wrong place, bad things happens. Surely, there will be other opportunities to learn and to create a networking.
I'm sorry for this situation. And totally with you. I'm from Ukraine, and I'm always forced to prove to authorities that I'm not a donkey. And that bothered me too.
But then I read an blog post that compares us to game characters. The place of birth is only one of parameters of your avatar. And your goal is to use your strength to find your way to the top.
Do you know that any location gives you a lot of hidden gems, if you will think about that under right angle? For example in Ukraine MS exams costs twice cheaper than in rest of the world. Or maybe technical books are cheaper in your location. Or your native language is also used in some markets, which you could target.
So please be positive. Fight your way to your goal. And return to these conferences as a valuable speaker, not as an regular attendee.
Visa screening never works. All it does it prevent people (like yourself) from further development. People who really want to get in will get in even though the country does not wont them. It is remarkably easy to game the “system”.
How do I know this? Well because I am a student who went through college and visa process that took at Months to complete and there are student in my own class with far worse grades who got in in weeks just by paying.
Don’t let yourself down or think you were born in wrong country or be demotivated by this. You have amazing opportunities to work on your betterment and to work on interesting projects everywhere. And so what if US denied your visa this time? You’ve got more countries out there!
This happened to me two times, first AWS denied me the certification exam and second u.s denied my visa for this event, yet never have I ever thought I was born in the wrong country. All you have gone through so far has made you what you are today and you are amazing.
Don't give up I don't think you were born in wrong country but you did apply for visa for the wrong country. US visas are probably the harderst to get by I believe. Visa application for European countries should be easier to get by.
Keep on trying, focus on your craft the next time around you will get there.
Oh man, I know what you feel, I hate the barriers of the world, that's so frustrating!
Keep trying man. My mom got her US Visa after 20 years of applying and getting denied. You'll get that Visa soon.
EU will welcome you, I am pretty sure of that. USA is becoming a closed country.
Same as the other devs here, i don't believe that your country is the problem. Policies are.
And hey! You were selected to participate in such a great event! You can always try again, and again, and again, until things happen the way you want. Never give up!