A 29-year-old cancer patient, Mandie Stevenson had to postpone a bucket list trip to New York after she accidentally labelled herself a ‘terrorist’ on her visa waiver form.
The online application asked if she was seeking to or had ever engaged in terrorist activities or genocide. Mandie, who was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer in 2015, mistakenly answered “yes” and realised her error when her application was rejected, reports BBC.
Mandie had to make an emergency trip to the US embassy in London to persuade officials that she was not a security threat. After a couple of intense interviews, a full visa was granted – but the US authorities could not guarantee it would arrive in time for her flight.
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Further, Mandie was advised to rebook her trip, which she was taking with her boyfriend Ross, for a later date. It cost her more than £800 to rearrange the trip for next month and said, “At first I thought it was a bad dream and then I realised what I had done.”
ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) is an online form, which UK citizens can use to waive their need for a full US visa. One of the questions reads, “Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?”
Mandie said that she first attempted to fill in the form on her tablet, but it had crashed – so she tried again at work the next day, adding, “I believe I ticked ‘no’ and then when I have scrolled down to click confirm, I think it has nudged and moved. That’s the story I’m sticking to. A lot of people have said ‘how on earth could you do that?’ but to me I’ve done it really easily.”
However, the American embassy in London told her it was “the worst box you could have ticked”.
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Mandie, who had to go to London and pay £320 for an appointment to get a full visa, after a couple of interviews her application was accepted, but she was told it would take three to five days to be granted. She even told them she would miss her flight but the officials advised her to change her plans.
“I pleaded but they just said ‘change your holiday’. Live in 12-weekly cycles because I get scanned every 12 weeks. I book my holidays in very specific times and this New York trip was going to be before I get another set of scan results, so I was really looking forward to it. It was stress that I didn’t need. I thought because it was a genuine error it would be quite an easy fix but I was quite wrong,” Mandie added.