diff --git a/src/node.cc b/src/node.cc
index deaed9ec3d74a9c..c2ae191bdc18a06 100644
--- a/src/node.cc
+++ b/src/node.cc
@@ -865,11 +865,9 @@ static ExitCode InitializeNodeWithArgsInternal(
 
   if (!file_paths.empty()) {
     CHECK(!per_process::v8_initialized);
-    auto cwd = Environment::GetCwd(Environment::GetExecPath(*argv));
 
     for (const auto& file_path : file_paths) {
-      std::string path = cwd + kPathSeparator + file_path;
-      auto path_exists = per_process::dotenv_file.ParsePath(path);
+      bool path_exists = per_process::dotenv_file.ParsePath(file_path);
 
       if (!path_exists) errors->push_back(file_path + ": not found");
     }
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-dotenv-edge-cases.js b/test/parallel/test-dotenv-edge-cases.js
index 9735a89618172c9..23e3e037418351f 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-dotenv-edge-cases.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-dotenv-edge-cases.js
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 const common = require('../common');
 const assert = require('node:assert');
+const path = require('node:path');
 const { describe, it } = require('node:test');
 
 const validEnvFilePath = '../fixtures/dotenv/valid.env';
@@ -25,6 +26,18 @@ describe('.env supports edge cases', () => {
     assert.strictEqual(child.code, 0);
   });
 
+  it('supports absolute paths', async () => {
+    const code = `
+      require('assert').strictEqual(process.env.BASIC, 'basic');
+    `.trim();
+    const child = await common.spawnPromisified(
+      process.execPath,
+      [ `--env-file=${path.resolve(__dirname, validEnvFilePath)}`, '--eval', code ],
+    );
+    assert.strictEqual(child.stderr, '');
+    assert.strictEqual(child.code, 0);
+  });
+
   it('should handle non-existent .env file', async () => {
     const code = `
       require('assert').strictEqual(1, 1)