diff --git a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
index 5c360347a1e9..7f9ee2929cfe 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
@@ -2889,10 +2889,10 @@ static int kvm_ioctl_create_device(struct kvm *kvm,
 
 	ret = anon_inode_getfd(ops->name, &kvm_device_fops, dev, O_RDWR | O_CLOEXEC);
 	if (ret < 0) {
-		ops->destroy(dev);
 		mutex_lock(&kvm->lock);
 		list_del(&dev->vm_node);
 		mutex_unlock(&kvm->lock);
+		ops->destroy(dev);
 		return ret;
 	}