diff --git a/src/intel/vulkan/anv_device.c b/src/intel/vulkan/anv_device.c
index 1e09efd12bf..6a8b1ff35cf 100644
--- a/src/intel/vulkan/anv_device.c
+++ b/src/intel/vulkan/anv_device.c
@@ -3805,9 +3805,12 @@ VkResult anv_AllocateMemory(
    if (mem->vk.alloc_flags & VK_MEMORY_ALLOCATE_DEVICE_ADDRESS_BIT)
       alloc_flags |= ANV_BO_ALLOC_CLIENT_VISIBLE_ADDRESS;
 
-   /* Anything imported or exported is EXTERNAL */
+   /* Anything imported or exported is EXTERNAL. Apply implicit sync to be
+    * compatible with clients relying on implicit fencing. This matches the
+    * behavior in iris i915_batch_submit. An example client is VA-API.
+    */
    if (mem->vk.export_handle_types || mem->vk.import_handle_type)
-      alloc_flags |= ANV_BO_ALLOC_EXTERNAL;
+      alloc_flags |= (ANV_BO_ALLOC_EXTERNAL | ANV_BO_ALLOC_IMPLICIT_SYNC);
 
    if (mem->vk.ahardware_buffer) {
       result = anv_import_ahw_memory(_device, mem);