diff --git a/src/core/manager.c b/src/core/manager.c
index 7536a9ca84de5..17ec9f1469c07 100644
--- a/src/core/manager.c
+++ b/src/core/manager.c
@@ -2284,6 +2284,32 @@ static int manager_dispatch_cgroups_agent_fd(sd_event_source *source, int fd, ui
         return 0;
 }
 
+static bool manager_process_barrier_fd(const char *buf, FDSet *fds) {
+        assert(buf);
+        assert(fds);
+
+        _cleanup_strv_free_ char **tags = NULL;
+
+        tags = strv_split(buf, NEWLINE);
+        if (!tags) {
+                log_oom();
+                return false;
+        }
+
+        if (strv_find(tags, "BARRIER=1")) {
+                /* when we process BARRIER=1, we process nothing else */
+                if (strv_length(tags) > 1)
+                        log_warning("Extra notification messages passed with BARRER=1, ignoring.");
+
+                if (fdset_size(fds) > 1)
+                        log_warning("Got extra fds with BARRIER=1, closing them.");
+
+                return true;
+        }
+
+        return false;
+}
+
 static void manager_invoke_notify_message(
                 Manager *m,
                 Unit *u,
@@ -2416,6 +2442,12 @@ static int manager_dispatch_notify_fd(sd_event_source *source, int fd, uint32_t
         /* Make sure it's NUL-terminated. */
         buf[n] = 0;
 
+        if (fds) {
+                /* possibly a barrier fd, let's see */
+                if (manager_process_barrier_fd(buf, fds))
+                        return 0;
+        }
+
         /* Increase the generation counter used for filtering out duplicate unit invocations. */
         m->notifygen++;
 
diff --git a/src/libsystemd/sd-daemon/sd-daemon.c b/src/libsystemd/sd-daemon/sd-daemon.c
index 4cd71cb2d3a02..92560a356ff08 100644
--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-daemon/sd-daemon.c
+++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-daemon/sd-daemon.c
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include <limits.h>
 #include <mqueue.h>
 #include <netinet/in.h>
+#include <poll.h>
 #include <stdarg.h>
 #include <stddef.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
@@ -551,6 +552,41 @@ _public_ int sd_pid_notify_with_fds(
         return r;
 }
 
+_public_ int sd_notify_barrier(int unset_environment, uint64_t timeout) {
+        _cleanup_close_pair_ int pipe_fd[2] = { -1, -1 };
+        int r;
+
+        if (pipe2(pipe_fd, O_CLOEXEC) < 0) {
+                r = -errno;
+                goto finish;
+        }
+
+        struct pollfd pfd = {
+                .fd = pipe_fd[0],
+                /* POLLHUP is implicit */
+                .events = 0,
+        };
+
+        r = sd_pid_notify_with_fds(0, unset_environment, "BARRIER=1", &pipe_fd[1], 1);
+        if (r <= 0)
+                goto finish;
+
+        pipe_fd[1] = safe_close(pipe_fd[1]);
+
+        /* roughly convert to milliseconds, then clamp down */
+        timeout = timeout/1000 < INT_MAX ? timeout/1000 : INT_MAX;
+
+        if (poll(&pfd, 1, (int) timeout) >= 0) {
+                r = 1;
+                goto finish;
+        }
+
+        r = -errno;
+
+finish:
+        return r;
+}
+
 _public_ int sd_pid_notify(pid_t pid, int unset_environment, const char *state) {
         return sd_pid_notify_with_fds(pid, unset_environment, state, NULL, 0);
 }
diff --git a/src/notify/notify.c b/src/notify/notify.c
index a76f3376951f8..05b3fdd14c01b 100644
--- a/src/notify/notify.c
+++ b/src/notify/notify.c
@@ -213,6 +213,15 @@ static int run(int argc, char* argv[]) {
         if (r == 0)
                 return log_error_errno(SYNTHETIC_ERRNO(EOPNOTSUPP),
                                        "No status data could be sent: $NOTIFY_SOCKET was not set");
+
+        /* 5,000,000 µs is 5s */
+        r = sd_notify_barrier(0, 5000000);
+        if (r < 0)
+                return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to create barrier: %m");
+        if (r == 0)
+                return log_error_errno(SYNTHETIC_ERRNO(EOPNOTSUPP),
+                                       "No status data could be sent: $NOTIFY_SOCKET was not set");
+
         return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/systemd/sd-daemon.h b/src/systemd/sd-daemon.h
index 62b0f723c7a1a..63999f9703c01 100644
--- a/src/systemd/sd-daemon.h
+++ b/src/systemd/sd-daemon.h
@@ -286,6 +286,19 @@ int sd_pid_notifyf(pid_t pid, int unset_environment, const char *format, ...) _s
 */
 int sd_pid_notify_with_fds(pid_t pid, int unset_environment, const char *state, const int *fds, unsigned n_fds);
 
+/*
+  Returns > 0 if synchronization with systemd succeeded.  Returns < 0
+  on error. Returns 0 if $NOTIFY_SOCKET was not set.  Note that the
+  timeout parameter of this function call takes the timeout in µs, and
+  will be passed to poll(2), hence the behaviour will be similar to
+  poll(2).  This function can be called after sending a status message
+  to systemd, if one needs to synchronize against reception of the
+  status messages sent before this call is made. Therefore, this
+  cannot be used to know if the status message was processed
+  successfully, but to only synchronize against its consumption.
+*/
+int sd_notify_barrier(int unset_environment, uint64_t timeout);
+
 /*
   Returns > 0 if the system was booted with systemd. Returns < 0 on
   error. Returns 0 if the system was not booted with systemd. Note