diff --git a/sdks/java/io/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/kafka/KafkaIOTest.java b/sdks/java/io/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/kafka/KafkaIOTest.java
index 96ffc9859a21..f766d73a4aee 100644
--- a/sdks/java/io/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/kafka/KafkaIOTest.java
+++ b/sdks/java/io/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/kafka/KafkaIOTest.java
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@
 import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
 import org.junit.runners.JUnit4;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -337,6 +338,16 @@ public Instant apply(KV<byte[], Long> input) {
     }
   }
 
+  // Kafka records are read in a separate thread inside the reader. As a result advance() might not
+  // read any records even from the mock consumer, especially for the first record.
+  // This is a helper method to loop until we read a record.
+  private static void advanceOnce(UnboundedReader<?> reader) throws IOException {
+    while (!reader.advance()) {
+      // very rarely will there be more than one attempts.
+      // in case of a bug we might end up looping forever, and test will fail with a timeout.
+    }
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testUnboundedSourceCheckpointMark() throws Exception {
     int numElements = 85; // 85 to make sure some partitions have more records than other.
@@ -350,16 +361,17 @@ public void testUnboundedSourceCheckpointMark() throws Exception {
 
     UnboundedReader<KafkaRecord<byte[], Long>> reader = source.createReader(null, null);
     final int numToSkip = 3;
-    // advance once:
-    assertTrue(reader.start());
 
-    // Advance the source numToSkip-1 elements and manually save state.
+    // advance numToSkip elements
+    if (!reader.start()) {
+      advanceOnce(reader);
+    }
+
     for (long l = 0; l < numToSkip - 1; ++l) {
-      assertTrue(reader.advance());
+      advanceOnce(reader);
     }
 
     // Confirm that we get the expected element in sequence before checkpointing.
-
     assertEquals(numToSkip - 1, (long) reader.getCurrent().getKV().getValue());
     assertEquals(numToSkip - 1, reader.getCurrentTimestamp().getMillis());
 
@@ -367,14 +379,20 @@ public void testUnboundedSourceCheckpointMark() throws Exception {
     KafkaCheckpointMark mark = CoderUtils.clone(
         source.getCheckpointMarkCoder(), (KafkaCheckpointMark) reader.getCheckpointMark());
     reader = source.createReader(null, mark);
-    assertTrue(reader.start());
 
     // Confirm that we get the next elements in sequence.
     // This also confirms that Reader interleaves records from each partitions by the reader.
+
+    if (!reader.start()) {
+      advanceOnce(reader);
+    }
+
     for (int i = numToSkip; i < numElements; i++) {
       assertEquals(i, (long) reader.getCurrent().getKV().getValue());
       assertEquals(i, reader.getCurrentTimestamp().getMillis());
-      reader.advance();
+      if ((i + 1) < numElements) {
+        advanceOnce(reader);
+      }
     }
   }
 }