A year ago, attending AWS re:Invent felt impossible from where I stood. The cost of flights, accommodation in Las Vegas, and the conference pass itself added up to more than most engineers in Nepal earn in months. Today, I've walked the halls of re:Invent as an All Builders Welcome Grant recipient, and I'm writing this so that you can too.
This is the guide I wish I had when I applied: what the grant is, what AWS is actually looking for in each application question (with analysis from my own accepted application), and the practical steps that come after selection — including the part almost nobody talks about: the visa process.
My Journey: How I Got Here
I studied CSIT at St. Xavier's College in Kathmandu. Like many students, I didn't start with a clear picture of where I'd end up but I stayed active in my college IT club, showed up at events, and said yes to opportunities. One of those was an AWS Community Day, and it changed the direction of my career. Watching senior builders share what they'd built made cloud feel real and reachable, and it pushed me toward DevOps.
After graduation, I grew into a DevOps Engineer role, earned AWS certifications, and started giving back, founding AWS Cloud Club Nepal as an Educational and Technical Lead, mentoring a team of eight members to AWS certifications (five of us went on to become AWS Community Builders), speaking at events, and creating technical content on my YouTube channel.
But there was a ceiling I kept hitting: global events were financially out of reach. When I was granted an opportunity to attend AWS re:Inforce 2025, my U.S. visa application was denied and the visa fees were lost on top of everything else. Coming from a middle-class background in Nepal, that stung. It would have been easy to conclude these opportunities simply weren't for people like me.
Then I found the All Builders Welcome Grant. I applied, I was selected, and I attended AWS re:Invent on a full sponsorship.
If you take one thing from this post, let it be this: a setback is not a disqualification. My visa denial became part of my story and honestly answering the barriers question is part of why this grant exists.
What Is the All Builders Welcome Grant?
The All Builders Welcome Grant is AWS's program to make re:Invent accessible to builders from underrepresented and under-resourced communities. Its mission, in AWS's own words, is about building the next generation of technical leaders, creating pathways into cloud technology, and bringing together diverse perspectives that fuel innovation.
For recipients, the grant removes the biggest barriers to attending re:Invent — the conference pass and travel support — so that selection is based on your story, your work, and your potential impact, not your bank balance.
Because program details, eligibility criteria, and timelines can change from year to year, always verify the current requirements on the official AWS All Builders Welcome Grant page before applying. What doesn't change is what a strong application looks like — and that's what the rest of this guide is about.
Who should apply? If you're reading this thinking "this probably isn't for someone like me" — that is exactly who this grant is for. I thought the same thing. Apply anyway.
Decoding the Application: What AWS Is Actually Looking For
The application questions look straightforward, but each one is testing something specific. Here's my breakdown of every question, what's really being asked, and how to answer it, based on my own accepted application.
Question: Describe your cloud career goals and how attending re:Invent will help you achieve them
What they're really asking: Do you have a specific plan, or do you just want a free trip to Las Vegas?
Vague ambition ("I want to grow in cloud") tells reviewers nothing. What worked in my application was specificity at three levels.
First, a clear trajectory. I named my current role (Cloud Operations Engineer), my target (DevSecOps Engineer, eventually leading a team), and the bridge between them: helping organizations in Nepal that are still on traditional infrastructure modernize and adopt cloud.
Second, named sessions from the actual re:Invent catalog. I referenced the Hybrid/multicloud and migration/modernization tracks and a specific Cloud Operations session, and connected them to a real market need: financial institutions in Nepal must maintain on-premises servers, so hybrid architecture skills are in genuine demand where I work. Browse the session catalog before you write a single word — citing real tracks proves you've done your homework.
Third, a ripple effect. AWS wants their investment to multiply. Show them that what you learn flows outward — to your team, your clients, your country's tech community — not just into your own résumé.
One more thing that worked: I included a non-technical goal. As a community speaker, I struggle with presenting complex content simply, so I wrote that I wanted to observe how expert speakers deliver intricate topics. Self-awareness about growth areas reads as maturity.
The takeaway: Don't write what you hope to learn. Write what you'll do with it, and for whom.
Question: What is your experience with AWS products and services?
What they're really asking: Are you actually a builder? Show us evidence.
Anyone can list service names. EC2, S3, Lambda — that's a keyword dump, not experience. Describe systems, not services. In my application, I wrote about a microservice architecture with backend production workloads on Lambda and queues, frontend on ECS, data served via S3 and RDS, CI/CD through Jenkins and AWS pipelines. I described implementing AWS Control Tower across an Organization with centralized CloudTrail logging into a log-archive account, integrated with Splunk for observability.
Stakes matter too. Mentioning that my security work — GuardDuty, Inspector, WAF on ALB and CloudFront — supported ISO and HIPAA compliance signals real production responsibility, not weekend tutorials.
And here's the counterintuitive part: admit a gap. The question itself invites it ("what skills do you want to gain and how do you plan to develop them?"). I openly wrote that I'd discovered a knowledge gap in networking while working with clients running hybrid systems, and that I was preparing for the AWS Advanced Networking specialty certification. A named gap plus a concrete plan to close it is a strength, not a weakness.
The takeaway: Show systems you've built, problems you've solved with real stakes, and one gap you're actively closing.
Question: Tell us about an innovation or initiative you led
What they're really asking: Do you create impact beyond your own job description?
Read the question carefully — it names employees, customers, and communities. I structured my answer to cover every stakeholder they mentioned, plus one:
For employees, a secure EMR document processing platform using Storage Gateway, WorkSpaces, Managed Microsoft AD, and Network Firewall, so non-technical medical staff could upload sensitive records without console access. For customers, a site-to-site VPN solution for secure data ingestion. For community, founding Nepal's first AWS Cloud Club and organizing an AWS Community Day that drew over 700 attendees. For my team, mentoring eight members to AWS certification, five of whom became Community Builders.
Two things made this answer land. Numbers everywhere, 700 attendees, 8 certifications, 5 Community Builders, a top-five Cloud Club globally. Quantified impact separates "I'm involved in community" from evidence of it. And one human story — a young woman who told me after an event that my talk shifted her negative view of DevOps and opened her eyes to what was possible. One person's changed trajectory is more memorable to a reviewer than any statistic. Include a moment like this.
Question: Describe unique barriers or disadvantages you have faced
What they're really asking: This question is why the grant exists. It deserves honesty, not hedging.
Name the structural barrier , then give a concrete personal example. I opened with the systemic reality — coming from a middle-class background in Nepal, international opportunities carry prohibitive financial and logistical costs. Then the specific story: I was selected to attend AWS re:Inforce 2025, my U.S. visa was denied, I couldn't attend, and the visa fees were lost on top of the disappointment.
Don't perform victimhood, and don't minimize either. Facts, stated plainly, are powerful. And remember — the fact that you're applying again after setbacks is itself the resilience they're looking for.
Question: How would your participation advance the grant's mission?
What they're really asking: Will funding you multiply our mission?
This question literally hands you the scoring rubric. Read it again: building the next generation of technical leaders, creating pathways into cloud technology, bringing together diverse perspectives. Three pillars. Structure your answer around them with proof for each.
For next-generation leaders, I told the full-circle story: I was inspired by senior builders at the first AWS Community Day Nepal in 2022, that guidance shaped my DevOps career, and now I train and educate freshers the way I was once directed. For creating pathways, I pointed to free AWS training sessions delivered in-person at colleges and virtually for remote regions like Lumbini Province and Chitwan, ongoing guest lectures, and my YouTube channel making content accessible beyond Kathmandu valley. For diverse perspectives, I framed what I uniquely bring: a Nepali tech leader bridging local realities with global insight.
The takeaway — and honestly the single most important tip in this entire guide: echo the mission language back with evidence. Reviewers are very likely scoring against those exact criteria.
The Golden Thread Across Every Question
If you zoom out, all five questions are asking the same thing in different ways: AWS isn't looking for the most impressive resume, they're looking for the highest return on investment in community impact.
Every answer should demonstrate that helping you helps many. The engineer who will take what they learn back to a growing tech community, mentor others, speak, teach, and open doors — that's who this grant is built for. Write every answer with that lens being completely honest and geninune.
What I always like to say to anybody looking for advise is that. The actual preparation for the grant already started before the application was live.
You Got Selected. Now What? The Visa Process
Here's the part no blog post prepared me for. If you're applying from a country like Nepal, selection is only half the journey the U.S. visa is the other half, and it deserves your immediate attention.
I learned this the hard way. My visa denial for re:Inforce 2025 taught me lessons I applied successfully for re:Invent:
Start immediately. Visa appointment wait times at U.S. embassies can be long sometimes months. The moment you receive your grant confirmation, begin the visa process. Do not wait.
Prepare your documentation thoroughly. Your grant confirmation and conference invitation letter are central to your case they establish the purpose of travel and the sponsorship. Alongside them, prepare evidence of your ties to home: your employment, your community roles, your responsibilities, anything that demonstrates you have strong reasons to return.
Be clear and honest at the interview. You are a professional attending the world's largest cloud computing conference on a merit-based grant. Know your purpose, state it plainly, and let your genuine story do the work.
Understand that denial is possible — and it isn't the end. It costs money, it hurts, and it happened to me. But a previous denial doesn't bar you from future success. I was denied for re:Inforce and later attended re:Invent. If it happens, learn what you can, strengthen your case, and try again.
Final Words
Three years ago I was a student at a community event, watching speakers and wondering if that world was accessible to someone like me. Last year I stood inside re:Invent because a program existed to make sure the answer was yes — and because I filled out an application honestly and specifically.
The application takes effort. The visa process takes persistence. But the barrier that stops most people is neither of those — it's the voice that says "they won't pick someone like me." They picked me. They can pick you.
Verify the current cycle's details on the official AWS All Builders Welcome Grant page, block out an evening, and write your story. And if you're applying from Nepal or anywhere in South Asia and want a second pair of eyes on your application, reach out to me on LinkedIn, paying this forward is the whole point.
Good luck, builder. I hope to see you at re:Invent.
