diff --git a/nova/tests/functional/notification_sample_tests/notification_sample_base.py b/nova/tests/functional/notification_sample_tests/notification_sample_base.py
index f82bb6490ae7..21e2ac5b4d00 100644
--- a/nova/tests/functional/notification_sample_tests/notification_sample_base.py
+++ b/nova/tests/functional/notification_sample_tests/notification_sample_base.py
@@ -188,3 +188,10 @@ class NotificationSampleTestBase(test.TestCase,
         return [notification for notification
                     in fake_notifier.VERSIONED_NOTIFICATIONS
                     if notification['event_type'] == event_type]
+
+    def _wait_for_notification(self, event_type, timeout=1.0):
+        received = fake_notifier.wait_for_versioned_notification(
+            event_type, timeout)
+        self.assertTrue(
+            received,
+            'notification %s hasn\'t been received' % event_type)
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/fake_notifier.py b/nova/tests/unit/fake_notifier.py
index f938496e1126..5f5979b33f59 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/fake_notifier.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/fake_notifier.py
@@ -14,12 +14,15 @@
 
 import collections
 import functools
+import threading
 
 import oslo_messaging as messaging
 from oslo_serialization import jsonutils
 
 from nova import rpc
 
+
+SUBSCRIBERS = collections.defaultdict(threading.Event)
 NOTIFICATIONS = []
 VERSIONED_NOTIFICATIONS = []
 
@@ -27,6 +30,7 @@ VERSIONED_NOTIFICATIONS = []
 def reset():
     del NOTIFICATIONS[:]
     del VERSIONED_NOTIFICATIONS[:]
+    SUBSCRIBERS.clear()
 
 
 FakeMessage = collections.namedtuple('Message',
@@ -69,10 +73,12 @@ class FakeNotifier(object):
 class FakeVersionedNotifier(FakeNotifier):
     def _notify(self, priority, ctxt, event_type, payload):
         payload = self._serializer.serialize_entity(ctxt, payload)
-        VERSIONED_NOTIFICATIONS.append({'publisher_id': self.publisher_id,
-                                        'priority': priority,
-                                        'event_type': event_type,
-                                        'payload': payload})
+        notification = {'publisher_id': self.publisher_id,
+                        'priority': priority,
+                        'event_type': event_type,
+                        'payload': payload}
+        VERSIONED_NOTIFICATIONS.append(notification)
+        _notify_subscribers(notification)
 
 
 def stub_notifier(test):
@@ -90,3 +96,16 @@ def stub_notifier(test):
                                     serializer=getattr(rpc.NOTIFIER,
                                                        '_serializer',
                                                        None)))
+
+
+def wait_for_versioned_notification(event_type, timeout=1.0):
+    # NOTE: The event stored in SUBSCRIBERS is not used for synchronizing
+    # the access to shared state as there is no parallel access to
+    # SUBSCRIBERS because the only parallelism is due to eventlet.
+    # The event is simply used to avoid polling the list of received
+    # notifications
+    return SUBSCRIBERS[event_type].wait(timeout)
+
+
+def _notify_subscribers(notification):
+    SUBSCRIBERS[notification['event_type']].set()