diff --git a/hapi-fhir-jpaserver-base/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/jpa/interceptor/SearchPreferHandlingInterceptorJpaTest.java b/hapi-fhir-jpaserver-base/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/jpa/interceptor/SearchPreferHandlingInterceptorJpaTest.java
index 071641fe3a2..925783d07da 100644
--- a/hapi-fhir-jpaserver-base/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/jpa/interceptor/SearchPreferHandlingInterceptorJpaTest.java
+++ b/hapi-fhir-jpaserver-base/src/test/java/ca/uhn/fhir/jpa/interceptor/SearchPreferHandlingInterceptorJpaTest.java
@@ -122,5 +122,52 @@ public class SearchPreferHandlingInterceptorJpaTest extends BaseResourceProvider
 		assertEquals(ourServerBase + "/Patient?_format=json&_pretty=true&identifier=BLAH", outcome.getLink(Constants.LINK_SELF).getUrl());
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testSearchWithChain_Invalid() {
+		try {
+			myClient
+				.search()
+				.forResource(Patient.class)
+				.where(new StringClientParam("foo.bar").matches().value("bar"))
+				.withAdditionalHeader(Constants.HEADER_PREFER, Constants.HEADER_PREFER_HANDLING + "=" + Constants.HEADER_PREFER_HANDLING_STRICT)
+				.prettyPrint()
+				.returnBundle(Bundle.class)
+				.encodedJson()
+				.execute();
+			fail();
+		} catch (InvalidRequestException e) {
+			assertThat(e.getMessage(), containsString("Unknown search parameter \"foo\" for resource type \"Patient\". Valid search parameters for this search are: [_id, _language, active, address, address-city, address-country, address-postalcode, address-state, address-use, birthdate, death-date, deceased, email, family, gender, general-practitioner, given, identifier, language, link, name, organization, phone, phonetic, telecom]"));
+		}
+
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testSearchWithChain_Valid() {
+		Bundle outcome = myClient
+			.search()
+			.forResource(Patient.class)
+			.where(new StringClientParam("organization.name").matches().value("bar"))
+			.withAdditionalHeader(Constants.HEADER_PREFER, Constants.HEADER_PREFER_HANDLING + "=" + Constants.HEADER_PREFER_HANDLING_STRICT)
+			.prettyPrint()
+			.returnBundle(Bundle.class)
+			.encodedJson()
+			.execute();
+		assertEquals(0, outcome.getTotal());
+	}
+
+
+	@Test
+	public void testSearchWithModifier_Valid() {
+		Bundle outcome = myClient
+			.search()
+			.forResource(Patient.class)
+			.where(new StringClientParam("name").matchesExactly().value("bar"))
+			.withAdditionalHeader(Constants.HEADER_PREFER, Constants.HEADER_PREFER_HANDLING + "=" + Constants.HEADER_PREFER_HANDLING_STRICT)
+			.prettyPrint()
+			.returnBundle(Bundle.class)
+			.encodedJson()
+			.execute();
+		assertEquals(0, outcome.getTotal());
+	}
 
 }
diff --git a/hapi-fhir-server/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/server/interceptor/SearchPreferHandlingInterceptor.java b/hapi-fhir-server/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/server/interceptor/SearchPreferHandlingInterceptor.java
index d3192c91d8f..cee31ba18a5 100644
--- a/hapi-fhir-server/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/server/interceptor/SearchPreferHandlingInterceptor.java
+++ b/hapi-fhir-server/src/main/java/ca/uhn/fhir/rest/server/interceptor/SearchPreferHandlingInterceptor.java
@@ -117,6 +117,15 @@ public class SearchPreferHandlingInterceptor {
 				continue;
 			}
 
+			// Strip modifiers and chains
+			for (int i = 0; i < paramName.length(); i++) {
+				char nextChar = paramName.charAt(i);
+				if (nextChar == '.' || nextChar == ':') {
+					paramName = paramName.substring(0, i);
+					break;
+				}
+			}
+
 			RuntimeSearchParam activeSearchParam = searchParamRetriever.getActiveSearchParam(resourceName, paramName);
 			if (activeSearchParam == null) {