Like any normal nine-year-old, meeting Mickey Mouse and friends at Disneyland would have turned Micah Strachan's birthday into the fairytale he had only ever dreamed of. But a surprise trip, arranged by his grandparents, was cruelly dashed when U.S. immigration officials turned him away - because they claimed he was a flight risk. Kathy and Edward Francis spent months planning every detail of the 'holiday of a lifetime' to Florida to celebrate grandson Micah's tenth birthday.

The civil servants, originally from South Africa, had even shelled out £1,500 on flights and weren't going to tell him until they got to the airport on February 19. But last week cold-hearted immigration chiefs in America denied the schoolboy entry into the U.S. quoting Section 214 (b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Incredibly, they said there was a risk he would not leave the country at the end of his stay. His grandmother Kathy, from Brixton, South London, has vowed to fight the decision. She said: 'It was going to be a total surprise. He would have loved it.

'We feel so deflated by the whole experience. 'I want to know why he would be deprived of the holiday of a lifetime. 'It's crazy to think that he wouldn't leave the country. This is causing severe stress on the family. I am going to fight this.'

Micah was born in Britain and has lived in Middlesex all his life with his mother Claudia Lewis. But he holds a South African passport because that's what his grandparents, who moved to the UK in 1990, got him at birth. The even added a letter from Micah's primary school to his visa application.

But the US Embassy's rejection letter to Micah said: 'Because you either did not demonstrate strong ties outside the United States or were not able to demonstrate that your intended activities in the US would be consistent with the visa status, you are ineligible.'

Tessa Jowell, Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, has hit back at the U.S. authorities, saying: 'I was very concerned to learn about the situation facing my constituents and of course understand the distress the decision has caused. 'I have asked the American authorities to look again at this and very much hope they will feel able to reconsider their decision.'

The family have now written to U.S. president Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pleading with them to overturn the decision. A spokesperson for U.S. immigration refused to comment on individual cases.