diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/multi-cluster-with-security/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/FollowIndexSecurityIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/multi-cluster-with-security/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/FollowIndexSecurityIT.java
index 43b16727aac..851a292ddae 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/multi-cluster-with-security/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/FollowIndexSecurityIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/multi-cluster-with-security/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/FollowIndexSecurityIT.java
@@ -243,6 +243,7 @@ public class FollowIndexSecurityIT extends ESRestTestCase {
         Request request = new Request("GET", "/_cluster/health/" + index);
         request.addParameter("wait_for_status", "yellow");
         request.addParameter("wait_for_no_relocating_shards", "true");
+        request.addParameter("wait_for_no_initializing_shards", "true");
         request.addParameter("timeout", "70s");
         request.addParameter("level", "shards");
         adminClient().performRequest(request);
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/multi-cluster/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/FollowIndexIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/multi-cluster/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/FollowIndexIT.java
index 5c1c3915044..c7ecbe184de 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/multi-cluster/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/FollowIndexIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ccr/qa/multi-cluster/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ccr/FollowIndexIT.java
@@ -204,6 +204,7 @@ public class FollowIndexIT extends ESRestTestCase {
         Request request = new Request("GET", "/_cluster/health/" + index);
         request.addParameter("wait_for_status", "yellow");
         request.addParameter("wait_for_no_relocating_shards", "true");
+        request.addParameter("wait_for_no_initializing_shards", "true");
         request.addParameter("timeout", "70s");
         request.addParameter("level", "shards");
         client().performRequest(request);