I wanted to share my story here in hopes that it helps raise awareness when interviewing at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

At the beginning of June, I had the opportunity to interview at AWS for a Systems Engineer position (working on the EU Sovereign Cloud project).

I was quite happy with how smoothly the process went—just two interview rounds. During the second loop interview, I had many great stories to share with the interviewers. That seemed to go well and eventually led to a call from the recruiter informing me that I would be offered the Systems Engineer Level 5 position at Amazon.

At the end of June, I received an initial offer email from the recruiter, outlining the total compensation package for the position. I politely asked if it would be possible to increase the base salary after reviewing the intended offer.

She proactively responded, saying she would try to accommodate the number I had mentioned.

After about seven working days, she reassured me not to worry. When I asked whether the offer had been approved, she confirmed that it had. I was really happy and began waiting for the final offer. This was around mid-July.

Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anything the following week. I emailed her again, and she replied saying she had been sick. I was understanding but couldn’t help feeling a bit concerned.

As we moved toward the end of July, I politely asked how she was doing and expressed that I was quite anxious about the status of the offer. She reassured me once again not to worry, and that the offer would be finalized soon. She also asked if I could request a paper background check from the police department (as this is a mandatory step for Amazon), and I did so accordingly

At that point, I truly believed the final offer was just around the corner. I had already received my background check certificate and expected everything to move forward. But after seven more days of silence, the recruiter finally gave me a call—and what she said completely caught me off guard.

1. She informed me that the position now strictly required the candidate to be an EU citizen (from any EU country), and that neither a visa nor permanent residency would suffice.

2. I was honestly speechless. I tried to stay calm and make sense of it all—why hadn’t this been clearly stated in the job description from the beginning? Why was this only coming up now?

3. She claimed this was a new requirement from the client, and that she herself had only found out that day. It felt strange—how could such a major requirement change so suddenly and without warning?

4. Then came what felt like an attempt to soften the blow. She said it was actually a good thing I hadn’t resigned from my current job yet. According to her, my offer would remain valid for up to six months for any similar position at Amazon that doesn’t require EU citizenship, as long as the skill set aligns.

She even turned on her camera, trying to show empathy as she delivered the bad news. She mentioned that there were 93 other candidates in the same situation as me—as if that was supposed to make it feel any better

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In the end of the day, I have not received any offer nor final email from Amazon due to this situation. I am an Asian immigrant that was living in Germany for 6 years, I certainly had not had the EU citizen :)