diff --git a/app/controllers/projects/git_http_client_controller.rb b/app/controllers/projects/git_http_client_controller.rb
index 55d5fce9214..85628dd32d8 100644
--- a/app/controllers/projects/git_http_client_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/projects/git_http_client_controller.rb
@@ -98,10 +98,8 @@ class Projects::GitHttpClientController < Projects::ApplicationController
 
   def repo_type
     parse_repo_path unless defined?(@repo_type)
-    # When there a project did not exist, the parsed repo_type would be empty.
-    # In that case, we want to continue with a regular project repository. As we
-    # could create the project if the user pushing is allowed to do so.
-    @repo_type || Gitlab::GlRepository::PROJECT
+
+    @repo_type
   end
 
   def handle_basic_authentication(login, password)
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/gl_repository.rb b/lib/gitlab/gl_repository.rb
index c2be7f3d63a..a56ca1e39e7 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/gl_repository.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/gl_repository.rb
@@ -35,5 +35,9 @@ module Gitlab
 
       [project, type]
     end
+
+    def self.default_type
+      PROJECT
+    end
   end
 end
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/repo_path.rb b/lib/gitlab/repo_path.rb
index 207a80b7db2..b4f41b9cd9a 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/repo_path.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/repo_path.rb
@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@ module Gitlab
         return [project, type, redirected_path] if project
       end
 
-      nil
+      # When a project did not exist, the parsed repo_type would be empty.
+      # In that case, we want to continue with a regular project repository. As we
+      # could create the project if the user pushing is allowed to do so.
+      [nil, Gitlab::GlRepository.default_type, nil]
     end
 
     def self.find_project(project_path)
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/repo_path_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/repo_path_spec.rb
index 4c7ca4e2b57..8fbda929064 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/repo_path_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/repo_path_spec.rb
@@ -44,8 +44,10 @@ describe ::Gitlab::RepoPath do
       end
     end
 
-    it "returns nil for non existent paths" do
-      expect(described_class.parse("path/non-existent.git")).to eq(nil)
+    it "returns the default type for non existent paths" do
+      _project, type, _redirected = described_class.parse("path/non-existent.git")
+
+      expect(type).to eq(Gitlab::GlRepository.default_type)
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/spec/requests/api/internal_spec.rb b/spec/requests/api/internal_spec.rb
index 6640ce2b07e..0919540e4ba 100644
--- a/spec/requests/api/internal_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/api/internal_spec.rb
@@ -644,6 +644,22 @@ describe API::Internal do
         expect(response).to have_gitlab_http_status(404)
         expect(json_response["status"]).to be_falsey
       end
+
+      it 'returns a 200 response when using a project path that does not exist' do
+        post(
+          api("/internal/allowed"),
+          params: {
+            key_id: key.id,
+            project: 'project/does-not-exist.git',
+            action: 'git-upload-pack',
+            secret_token: secret_token,
+            protocol: 'ssh'
+          }
+        )
+
+        expect(response).to have_gitlab_http_status(404)
+        expect(json_response["status"]).to be_falsey
+      end
     end
 
     context 'user does not exist' do