diff --git a/fs/nfs/dir.c b/fs/nfs/dir.c
index c4a0a93b24e4..854967857338 100644
--- a/fs/nfs/dir.c
+++ b/fs/nfs/dir.c
@@ -2323,6 +2323,13 @@ int nfs_atomic_open_v23(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry,
 	if (open_flags & O_CREAT) {
 		error = nfs_do_create(dir, dentry, mode, open_flags);
 		if (!error) {
+			/* With UNCHECKED mode, a server may return NFS3_OK for
+			 * a pre-existing non-regular file (e.g. a symlink).
+			 * Let the VFS handle it; calling finish_open() would
+			 * hit no_open() and return -ENXIO.
+			 */
+			if (!d_is_reg(dentry))
+				return finish_no_open(file, NULL);
 			file->f_mode |= FMODE_CREATED;
 			return finish_open(file, dentry, NULL);
 		} else if (error != -EEXIST || open_flags & O_EXCL)