diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/ansible_freeipa_module.py b/plugins/module_utils/ansible_freeipa_module.py
index 247f6e748b3a861ca1e75201dba5fd4144d1f67d..b71c78c98a4bc03b41770dae89e8197931844c70 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/ansible_freeipa_module.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/ansible_freeipa_module.py
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ __all__ = ["gssapi", "netaddr", "api", "ipalib_errors", "Env",
            "load_pem_x509_certificate", "DNSName", "getargspec"]
 
 import os
+# ansible-freeipa requires locale to be C, IPA requires utf-8.
+os.environ["LANGUAGE"] = "C"
+
 import sys
 import operator
 import tempfile
@@ -154,9 +157,6 @@ else:
     ANSIBLE_FREEIPA_MODULE_IMPORT_ERROR = None
 
 
-# ansible-freeipa requires locale to be C, IPA requires utf-8.
-os.environ["LANGUAGE"] = "C"
-
 if six.PY3:
     unicode = str