Missed ApacheCon USA 2009 :(

19th October 2009, for me it was one of the worst days. I was standing outside of American embassy at 10AM. This time it was in Paris, yes that means I had been to American embassy before. I had strong hope.. this time I will make it. I was invited for ApacheCon USA 2009 in Oakland, CA. I was so excited to attend it, was so exited to meet several great people, was so excited to get involved in Apache projects, was excited to go to the USA. But, some over smart people sitting in embassy thought I am gonna stay in the USA and rejected my visa application again. Reason: same frustrating, I don't demonstrate the strong ties with the country. :( This time I was so sure because I received sponsorship from Apache which almost covered everything from air flight ticket to conference fee. I had a permanent job here in France... there were so many reasons to get the visa, perhaps there was a small doubt in officer's mind which made him to refuse it. He refused my visa without looking into my application. I was very disappointed that time as I worked hard to achieve such opportunity but it seems like visa officer(s) generally don't care about this.. He barely asked me 2-3 questions said I am sorry I can not grant you a visa :( He was emphasizing on the visa rejection (student visa) I had in early 2006.. seems like my previous visa refusal (F1 - student) hindered me to go through :(
Anyways, I am looking forward to attending ApacheCon Europe now...

Anyways I dropped my idea to visit US for sometime as I am tired with the embassy stuff... but I am not so depressed because somebody said it "if you have never failed, you never lived"...