diff --git a/lib/internal/main/check_syntax.js b/lib/internal/main/check_syntax.js
index 5d98701132f0e8..392fadb99ff668 100644
--- a/lib/internal/main/check_syntax.js
+++ b/lib/internal/main/check_syntax.js
@@ -17,9 +17,6 @@ const {
   stripShebang, stripBOM
 } = require('internal/modules/cjs/helpers');
 
-// TODO(joyeecheung): not every one of these are necessary
-prepareMainThreadExecution();
-markBootstrapComplete();
 
 if (process.argv[1] && process.argv[1] !== '-') {
   // Expand process.argv[1] into a full path.
@@ -31,8 +28,16 @@ if (process.argv[1] && process.argv[1] !== '-') {
   const fs = require('fs');
   const source = fs.readFileSync(filename, 'utf-8');
 
+  // TODO(joyeecheung): not every one of these are necessary
+  prepareMainThreadExecution();
+  markBootstrapComplete();
+
   checkScriptSyntax(source, filename);
 } else {
+  // TODO(joyeecheung): not every one of these are necessary
+  prepareMainThreadExecution();
+  markBootstrapComplete();
+
   readStdin((code) => {
     checkScriptSyntax(code, '[stdin]');
   });
diff --git a/lib/internal/main/run_main_module.js b/lib/internal/main/run_main_module.js
index 97a4e33be2e629..634abe493ea60e 100644
--- a/lib/internal/main/run_main_module.js
+++ b/lib/internal/main/run_main_module.js
@@ -4,12 +4,12 @@ const {
   prepareMainThreadExecution
 } = require('internal/bootstrap/pre_execution');
 
-prepareMainThreadExecution();
-
 // Expand process.argv[1] into a full path.
 const path = require('path');
 process.argv[1] = path.resolve(process.argv[1]);
 
+prepareMainThreadExecution();
+
 const CJSModule = require('internal/modules/cjs/loader');
 
 markBootstrapComplete();
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-preload-print-process-argv.js b/test/parallel/test-preload-print-process-argv.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..ace20dfb3947c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-preload-print-process-argv.js
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+'use strict';
+
+// This tests that process.argv is the same in the preloaded module
+// and the user module.
+
+const common = require('../common');
+
+const tmpdir = require('../common/tmpdir');
+const assert = require('assert');
+const { spawnSync } = require('child_process');
+const fs = require('fs');
+
+if (!common.isMainThread) {
+  common.skip('Cannot chdir to the tmp directory in workers');
+}
+
+tmpdir.refresh();
+
+process.chdir(tmpdir.path);
+fs.writeFileSync(
+  'preload.js',
+  'console.log(JSON.stringify(process.argv));',
+  'utf-8');
+
+fs.writeFileSync(
+  'main.js',
+  'console.log(JSON.stringify(process.argv));',
+  'utf-8');
+
+const child = spawnSync(process.execPath, ['-r', './preload.js', 'main.js']);
+
+if (child.status !== 0) {
+  console.log(child.stderr.toString());
+  assert.strictEqual(child.status, 0);
+}
+
+const lines = child.stdout.toString().trim().split('\n');
+assert.deepStrictEqual(JSON.parse(lines[0]), JSON.parse(lines[1]));