diff --git a/kernel/audit.c b/kernel/audit.c
index bcbb0ba33c842e..d37a3a045230d8 100644
--- a/kernel/audit.c
+++ b/kernel/audit.c
@@ -644,8 +644,14 @@ static long wait_for_kauditd(long stime)
 
 	prepare_to_wait_exclusive(&audit_backlog_wait, &wait,
 				  TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE);
-	rtime = schedule_timeout(stime);
-	atomic_add(stime - rtime, &audit_backlog_wait_time_actual);
+
+	/* need to check if the queue is full again because kauditd might have
+	 * flushed the queue and went to sleep after prepare_to_wait_exclusive()
+	 */
+	if (audit_queue_full(&audit_queue)) {
+		rtime = schedule_timeout(stime);
+		atomic_add(stime - rtime, &audit_backlog_wait_time_actual);
+	}
 	finish_wait(&audit_backlog_wait, &wait);
 
 	return rtime;