diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 0250b4a23c0..410863d3f99 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ v 7.4.0
   - Do not delete tmp/repositories itself during clean-up, only its contents
   - Support for backup uploads to remote storage
   - Prevent notes polling when there are not notes
+  - Internal ForkService: Prepare support for fork to a given namespace
   - API: Add support for forking a project via the API (Bernhard Kaindl)
   - API: filter project issues by milestone (Julien Bianchi)
   - Fail harder in the backup script
diff --git a/app/services/projects/fork_service.rb b/app/services/projects/fork_service.rb
index a59311bf942..c4f2d08efe9 100644
--- a/app/services/projects/fork_service.rb
+++ b/app/services/projects/fork_service.rb
@@ -2,11 +2,9 @@ module Projects
   class ForkService < BaseService
     include Gitlab::ShellAdapter
 
-    def initialize(project, user)
-      @from_project, @current_user = project, user
-    end
-
     def execute
+      @from_project = @project
+
       project_params = {
         visibility_level: @from_project.visibility_level,
         description: @from_project.description,
@@ -15,8 +13,15 @@ module Projects
       project = Project.new(project_params)
       project.name = @from_project.name
       project.path = @from_project.path
-      project.namespace = current_user.namespace
-      project.creator = current_user
+      project.namespace = @current_user.namespace
+      if namespace = @params[:namespace]
+        project.namespace = namespace
+      end
+      project.creator = @current_user
+      unless @current_user.can?(:create_projects, project.namespace)
+        project.errors.add(:namespace, 'insufficient access rights')
+        return project
+      end
 
       # If the project cannot save, we do not want to trigger the project destroy
       # as this can have the side effect of deleting a repo attached to an existing
@@ -27,7 +32,7 @@ module Projects
             #First save the DB entries as they can be rolled back if the repo fork fails
             project.build_forked_project_link(forked_to_project_id: project.id, forked_from_project_id: @from_project.id)
             if project.save
-              project.team << [current_user, :master]
+              project.team << [@current_user, :master]
             end
             #Now fork the repo
             unless gitlab_shell.fork_repository(@from_project.path_with_namespace, project.namespace.path)
diff --git a/spec/services/projects/fork_service_spec.rb b/spec/services/projects/fork_service_spec.rb
index 0edc3a8e807..5c80345c2b3 100644
--- a/spec/services/projects/fork_service_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/services/projects/fork_service_spec.rb
@@ -42,10 +42,54 @@ describe Projects::ForkService do
     end
   end
 
-  def fork_project(from_project, user, fork_success = true)
-    context = Projects::ForkService.new(from_project, user)
-    shell = double("gitlab_shell")
-    shell.stub(fork_repository: fork_success)
+  describe :fork_to_namespace do
+    before do
+      @group_owner = create(:user)
+      @developer   = create(:user)
+      @project     = create(:project, creator_id: @group_owner.id,
+                                      star_count: 777,
+                                      description: 'Wow, such a cool project!')
+      @group = create(:group)
+      @group.add_user(@group_owner, GroupMember::OWNER)
+      @group.add_user(@developer,   GroupMember::DEVELOPER)
+      @opts = { namespace: @group }
+    end
+
+    context 'fork project for group' do
+      it 'group owner successfully forks project into the group' do
+        to_project = fork_project(@project, @group_owner, true, @opts)
+        to_project.owner.should       == @group
+        to_project.namespace.should   == @group
+        to_project.name.should        == @project.name
+        to_project.path.should        == @project.path
+        to_project.description.should == @project.description
+        to_project.star_count.should     be_zero
+      end
+    end
+
+    context 'fork project for group when user not owner' do
+      it 'group developer should fail to fork project into the group' do
+        to_project = fork_project(@project, @developer, true, @opts)
+        to_project.errors[:namespace].should == ['insufficient access rights']
+      end
+    end
+
+    context 'project already exists in group' do
+      it 'should fail due to validation, not transaction failure' do
+        existing_project = create(:project, name: @project.name,
+                                            namespace: @group)
+        to_project = fork_project(@project, @group_owner, true, @opts)
+        existing_project.persisted?.should be_true
+        to_project.errors[:base].should == ['Invalid fork destination']
+        to_project.errors[:name].should == ['has already been taken']
+        to_project.errors[:path].should == ['has already been taken']
+      end
+    end
+  end
+
+  def fork_project(from_project, user, fork_success = true, params = {})
+    context = Projects::ForkService.new(from_project, user, params)
+    shell = double('gitlab_shell').stub(fork_repository: fork_success)
     context.stub(gitlab_shell: shell)
     context.execute
   end