diff --git a/pkg/build/nodeimage/buildcontext.go b/pkg/build/nodeimage/buildcontext.go
index f0eb09be36..60b048d8fd 100644
--- a/pkg/build/nodeimage/buildcontext.go
+++ b/pkg/build/nodeimage/buildcontext.go
@@ -284,6 +284,11 @@ func (c *buildContext) prePullImagesAndWriteManifests(bits kube.Bits, parsedVers
 			})
 		}
 	}
+	// Wait for containerd socket to be ready, which may take 1s when running under emulation
+	if err := importer.WaitForReady(); err != nil {
+		c.logger.Errorf("Image build failed, containerd did not become ready %v", err)
+		return nil, err
+	}
 	if err := errors.AggregateConcurrent(fns); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/build/nodeimage/imageimporter.go b/pkg/build/nodeimage/imageimporter.go
index 7839263fe7..c8ab1391c2 100644
--- a/pkg/build/nodeimage/imageimporter.go
+++ b/pkg/build/nodeimage/imageimporter.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package nodeimage
 import (
 	"io"
 
+	"sigs.k8s.io/kind/pkg/errors"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kind/pkg/exec"
 )
 
@@ -38,7 +39,28 @@ func (c *containerdImporter) Prepare() error {
 	).Run(); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	// TODO(bentheelder): some healthcheck?
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (c *containerdImporter) WaitForReady() error {
+	// ctr doesn't respect timeouts when the socket doesn't exist
+	// so we'll look for the socket to exist ourselves, THEN attempt ctr info
+	// TODO: we are assuming the socket path, and this is kind of hacky
+	if err := c.containerCmder.Command(
+		"bash", "-c", `set -e
+# wait for socket to exist
+for i in {0..5}; do
+  if [ -S /run/containerd/containerd.sock ]; then
+    break
+  fi
+  sleep "$i"
+done
+# check healthy
+ctr info
+`,
+	).Run(); err != nil {
+		return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to wait for containerd to become ready")
+	}
 	return nil
 }