diff --git a/contrib/check-py3-compat.py b/contrib/check-py3-compat.py
--- a/contrib/check-py3-compat.py
+++ b/contrib/check-py3-compat.py
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@
         # specified. When running as test-check-py3-compat.t, we technically
         # would import the correct paths, but it's cleaner to have both cases
         # use the same import logic.
-        sys.path.insert(0, '.')
+        sys.path.insert(0, os.getcwd())
         fn = check_compat_py3
 
     for f in sys.argv[1:]: