Three-month-old Harvey Kenyon-Cairns was called into the US embassy in London for an interview after his grandfather mistakenly identified him as a terrorist on a visa form, according to The Guardian.

He had been due to fly to Orlando, Florida for his first overseas holiday, until his grandfather Paul Kenyon made the error on a visa waiver form.

The 62-year-old ticked "yes" instead of "no" to the question: “Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?” 

The child was summoned from his home in Poynton, Cheshire, to the embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, to be questioned by officials. The round trip took about 10 hours, longer than the nine-and-a-half-hour flight time from Manchester to Orlando.

“I couldn’t believe that they couldn't see it was a genuine mistake and that a three-month-old baby would be no harm to anyone,” said his grandfather.

“Baby Harvey was good as gold for the interview and never cried once. I thought about taking him along in an orange jumpsuit, but thought better of it,” said Kenyon. “They didn’t appear to have a sense of humour over it at all and couldn’t see the funny side.

I couldn’t believe that they couldn’t see it was a genuine mistake and that a three-month-old baby would be no harm to anyone.

“He’s obviously never engaged in genocide, or espionage, but he has sabotaged quite a few nappies in his time, though I didn’t tell them that at the US embassy.”

The misplaced tick cost Kenyon €3,540, due to the new visa's delayed arrival causing the original flights booked for the family holiday to be missed.

The 62-year-old, along with his wife Cathy and his granddaughter Ava, flew out on the scheduled date. However, Harvey and his parents, Faye Kenyon-Cairns and her partner John Cairns, were forced to fly out separately a few days later.

“It was a very expensive mistake, but I was hoping the US embassy would realise that it was just a simple error without us having to jump through all the hoops,” said Kenyon. He also questioned whether the officials expected those who posed a real threat to admit to them on a form. 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.