diff --git a/lib/pleroma/web/mastodon_api/mastodon_api_controller.ex b/lib/pleroma/web/mastodon_api/mastodon_api_controller.ex
index fcc87d414..c231ff7f8 100644
--- a/lib/pleroma/web/mastodon_api/mastodon_api_controller.ex
+++ b/lib/pleroma/web/mastodon_api/mastodon_api_controller.ex
@@ -287,7 +287,11 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.MastodonAPI.MastodonAPIController do
     end
   end
 
-  def search(%{assigns: %{user: user}} = conn, %{"q" => query}) do
+  def search(%{assigns: %{user: user}} = conn, %{"q" => query} = params) do
+    if params["resolve"] == "true" do
+      User.get_or_fetch_by_nickname(query)
+    end
+
     q = from u in User,
       where: fragment("(to_tsvector('english', ?) || to_tsvector('english', ?)) @@ plainto_tsquery('english', ?)", u.nickname, u.name, ^query),
       limit: 20
diff --git a/test/web/mastodon_api/mastodon_api_controller_test.exs b/test/web/mastodon_api/mastodon_api_controller_test.exs
index 1bef1a1fd..4261ac6b1 100644
--- a/test/web/mastodon_api/mastodon_api_controller_test.exs
+++ b/test/web/mastodon_api/mastodon_api_controller_test.exs
@@ -332,4 +332,13 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.MastodonAPI.MastodonAPIControllerTest do
     [status] = results["statuses"]
     assert status["id"] == activity.id
   end
+
+  test "search fetches remote accounts", %{conn: conn} do
+    conn = conn
+    |> get("/api/v1/search", %{"q" => "shp@social.heldscal.la", "resolve" => "true"})
+
+    assert results = json_response(conn, 200)
+    [account] = results["accounts"]
+    assert account["acct"] == "shp@social.heldscal.la"
+  end
 end