diff --git a/spec/support/test_env.rb b/spec/support/test_env.rb
index 290ded3ff7e..71b9deeabc3 100644
--- a/spec/support/test_env.rb
+++ b/spec/support/test_env.rb
@@ -176,6 +176,24 @@ module TestEnv
 
     spawn_script = Rails.root.join('scripts/gitaly-test-spawn').to_s
     @gitaly_pid = Bundler.with_original_env { IO.popen([spawn_script], &:read).to_i }
+    wait_gitaly
+  end
+
+  def wait_gitaly
+    sleep_time = 10
+    sleep_interval = 0.1
+    socket = Gitlab::GitalyClient.address('default').sub('unix:', '')
+
+    Integer(sleep_time / sleep_interval).times do
+      begin
+        Socket.unix(socket)
+        return
+      rescue
+        sleep sleep_interval
+      end
+    end
+
+    raise "could not connect to gitaly at #{socket.inspect} after #{sleep_time} seconds"
   end
 
   def stop_gitaly