diff --git a/runtime/compiler/control/JITClientCompilationThread.cpp b/runtime/compiler/control/JITClientCompilationThread.cpp
index ea368fc1f5f..df2da6bc4d6 100644
--- a/runtime/compiler/control/JITClientCompilationThread.cpp
+++ b/runtime/compiler/control/JITClientCompilationThread.cpp
@@ -258,7 +258,9 @@ handleServerMessage(JITServer::ClientStream *client, TR_J9VM *fe, JITServer::Mes
          auto recv = client->getRecvData<std::string, bool>();
          const std::string name = std::get<0>(recv);
          bool isVettedForAOT = std::get<1>(recv);
-         client->write(response, fe->getSystemClassFromClassName(name.c_str(), name.length(), isVettedForAOT));
+         // Always need non-AOT front-end here, since class validation is done on the server
+         TR_J9VMBase *fej9 = TR_J9VMBase::get(vmThread->javaVM->jitConfig, vmThread);
+         client->write(response, fej9->getSystemClassFromClassName(name.c_str(), name.length(), isVettedForAOT));
          }
          break;
       case MessageType::VM_isMethodTracingEnabled:
diff --git a/runtime/compiler/z/codegen/J9TreeEvaluator.cpp b/runtime/compiler/z/codegen/J9TreeEvaluator.cpp
index 677e9801ff7..2eef77a0bf9 100644
--- a/runtime/compiler/z/codegen/J9TreeEvaluator.cpp
+++ b/runtime/compiler/z/codegen/J9TreeEvaluator.cpp
@@ -4002,10 +4002,10 @@ J9::Z::TreeEvaluator::generateTestAndReportFieldWatchInstructions(TR::CodeGenera
       if (isResolved)
          {
          fieldClassReg = cg->allocateRegister();
-         if (!(cg->needClassAndMethodPointerRelocations()))
+         J9Class *fieldClass = static_cast<TR::J9WatchedStaticFieldSnippet *>(dataSnippet)->getFieldClass();
+         if (!(cg->needClassAndMethodPointerRelocations()) && cg->canUseRelativeLongInstructions(reinterpret_cast<int64_t>(fieldClass)))
             {
             // For non-AOT (JIT and JITServer) compiles we don't need to use sideEffectRegister here as the class information is available to us at compile time.
-            J9Class *fieldClass = static_cast<TR::J9WatchedStaticFieldSnippet *>(dataSnippet)->getFieldClass();
             TR_ASSERT_FATAL(fieldClass != NULL, "A valid J9Class must be provided for direct rdbar/wrtbar opcodes %p\n", node);
             generateRILInstruction(cg, TR::InstOpCode::LARL, node, fieldClassReg, static_cast<void *>(fieldClass));
             }
@@ -4822,7 +4822,7 @@ VMarrayStoreCHKEvaluator(
    if (debugObj)
       debugObj->addInstructionComment(cursor, "Check if src.type == array.type");
 
-   intptr_t objectClass = (intptr_t) fej9->getSystemClassFromClassName("java/lang/Object", 16, !cg->comp()->isOutOfProcessCompilation());
+   intptr_t objectClass = (intptr_t) fej9->getSystemClassFromClassName("java/lang/Object", 16, true);
    /*
     * objectClass is used for Object arrays check optimization: when we are storing to Object arrays we can skip all other array store checks
     * However, TR_J9SharedCacheVM::getSystemClassFromClassName can return 0 when it's impossible to relocate j9class later for AOT loads