diff --git a/base/initdefs.jl b/base/initdefs.jl
index 0846a47534886..d93590af4d63c 100644
--- a/base/initdefs.jl
+++ b/base/initdefs.jl
@@ -138,8 +138,9 @@ function init_load_path()
         unsafe_string(Base.JLOptions().project) :
         get(ENV, "JULIA_PROJECT", nothing))
     HOME_PROJECT[] =
+        project == nothing ? nothing :
         project == "" ? nothing :
-        project == "@." ? current_project() : project
+        project == "@." ? current_project() : abspath(project)
     append!(empty!(LOAD_PATH), paths)
 end
 
diff --git a/src/init.c b/src/init.c
index b293ab1a44b88..64a82792b685f 100644
--- a/src/init.c
+++ b/src/init.c
@@ -592,6 +592,8 @@ static void jl_resolve_sysimg_location(JL_IMAGE_SEARCH rel)
         jl_options.outputbc = abspath(jl_options.outputbc, 0);
     if (jl_options.machine_file)
         jl_options.machine_file = abspath(jl_options.machine_file, 0);
+    if (jl_options.project && strncmp(jl_options.project, "@.", strlen(jl_options.project)) != 0)
+        jl_options.project = abspath(jl_options.project, 0);
 
     const char **cmdp = jl_options.cmds;
     if (cmdp) {
diff --git a/test/loading.jl b/test/loading.jl
index 289c25e582b0a..259f55a87c999 100644
--- a/test/loading.jl
+++ b/test/loading.jl
@@ -547,6 +547,22 @@ finally
     popfirst!(LOAD_PATH)
 end
 
+@testset "--project and JULIA_PROJECT paths should be absolutified" begin
+    mktempdir() do dir; cd(dir) do
+        mkdir("foo")
+        script = """
+        using Test
+        old = Base.active_project()
+        cd("foo")
+        @test Base.active_project() == old
+        """
+        @test success(`$(Base.julia_cmd()) --project=foo -e $(script)`)
+        withenv("JULIA_PROJECT" => "foo") do
+            @test success(`$(Base.julia_cmd()) -e $(script)`)
+        end
+    end; end
+end
+
 ## cleanup after tests ##
 
 for env in keys(envs)