diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 5cdb05e795..4461c2762f 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -10127,10 +10127,6 @@ qemuBuildCommandLine(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
         qemuBuildVsockCommandLine(cmd, def, def->vsock, qemuCaps) < 0)
         return NULL;
 
-    /* In some situations, eg. VFIO passthrough, QEMU might need to lock a
-     * significant amount of memory, so we need to set the limit accordingly */
-    virCommandSetMaxMemLock(cmd, qemuDomainGetMemLockLimitBytes(def, false));
-
     if (virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_MSG_TIMESTAMP) &&
         cfg->logTimestamp)
         virCommandAddArgList(cmd, "-msg", "timestamp=on", NULL);
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
index cee2de2df1..6684065534 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
@@ -6916,6 +6916,7 @@ qemuProcessLaunch(virConnectPtr conn,
     g_autoptr(virQEMUDriverConfig) cfg = NULL;
     size_t nnicindexes = 0;
     g_autofree int *nicindexes = NULL;
+    unsigned long long maxMemLock = 0;
 
     VIR_DEBUG("conn=%p driver=%p vm=%p name=%s if=%d asyncJob=%d "
               "incoming.launchURI=%s incoming.deferredURI=%s "
@@ -7013,6 +7014,11 @@ qemuProcessLaunch(virConnectPtr conn,
 
     VIR_DEBUG("Setting up process limits");
 
+    /* In some situations, eg. VFIO passthrough, QEMU might need to lock a
+     * significant amount of memory, so we need to set the limit accordingly */
+    maxMemLock = qemuDomainGetMemLockLimitBytes(vm->def, false);
+
+    virCommandSetMaxMemLock(cmd, maxMemLock);
     virCommandSetMaxProcesses(cmd, cfg->maxProcesses);
     virCommandSetMaxFiles(cmd, cfg->maxFiles);
     virCommandSetMaxCoreSize(cmd, cfg->maxCore);