diff --git a/git_upstream/lib/rebaseeditor.py b/git_upstream/lib/rebaseeditor.py
index ffef11e..44b0fab 100644
--- a/git_upstream/lib/rebaseeditor.py
+++ b/git_upstream/lib/rebaseeditor.py
@@ -205,11 +205,32 @@ class RebaseEditor(GitMixin, LogDedentMixin):
                 return subprocess.call(cmd), None, None
             finally:
                 self.cleanup()
-        elif mode == "1":
-            # run in test mode to avoid replacing the existing process
-            # to keep the majority of tests simple and only require special
-            # launching code for those tests written to check the rebase
-            # resume behaviour
+        elif not self._interactive:
+            # If in non-interactive mode use subprocess instead of exec
+            #
+            # This ensures that if no conflicts occur, that the calling
+            # git-upstream process will be able to switch the current
+            # branch after the git-rebase subprocess exits. This is not
+            # possible when using exec to have git-rebase replace the
+            # existing process. Since git-rebase performs checks once
+            # it is completed running the instructions (todo file),
+            # changing the current branch checked out in the git
+            # repository via the final instruction (calling
+            # `git-upstream import --finish ...`) results in git-rebase
+            # exiting with an exception.
+            #
+            # For interactive mode it is impossible to perform a rebase
+            # via subprocess and have it correctly attach an editor to
+            # the console for users to edit/reword commits. The
+            # consequence of using exec to support interactive usage
+            # prevents correctly switching final branch to anything other
+            # than the branch that git-rebase was started on (which will
+            # be the import branch).
+            #
+            # As interactive mode involves user intervention it seems a
+            # reasonable compromise to require manual switch of branches
+            # after being finished until such time that an alternative
+            # solution can be found.
             try:
                 return 0, subprocess.check_output(
                     cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, env=environ), None
diff --git a/git_upstream/tests/commands/import/test_import.py b/git_upstream/tests/commands/import/test_import.py
index 6366414..f317c48 100644
--- a/git_upstream/tests/commands/import/test_import.py
+++ b/git_upstream/tests/commands/import/test_import.py
@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@
 import inspect
 import os
 
-import mock
 from testscenarios import TestWithScenarios
 from testtools.content import text_content
 from testtools.matchers import Contains
 from testtools.matchers import Equals
+from testtools.matchers import Not
 
 from git_upstream.lib.pygitcompat import Commit
 from git_upstream import main
@@ -30,8 +30,6 @@ from git_upstream.tests.base import BaseTestCase
 from git_upstream.tests.base import get_scenarios
 
 
-@mock.patch.dict('os.environ',
-                 {'TEST_GIT_UPSTREAM_REBASE_EDITOR': '1'})
 class TestImportCommand(TestWithScenarios, BaseTestCase):
 
     scenarios = get_scenarios(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
@@ -56,6 +54,11 @@ class TestImportCommand(TestWithScenarios, BaseTestCase):
         self.assertThat(args.cmd.run(args), Equals(True),
                         "import command failed to complete successfully")
 
+        # assuming non-interactive we should *NOT* see the following message
+        # appear in the logged output.
+        self.assertThat(self.logger.output,
+                        Not(Contains("Successfully rebased and updated")))
+
         # perform sanity checks on results
         self._check_tree_state()
 
diff --git a/git_upstream/tests/commands/import/test_interactive.py b/git_upstream/tests/commands/import/test_interactive.py
index f044fde..d79994c 100644
--- a/git_upstream/tests/commands/import/test_interactive.py
+++ b/git_upstream/tests/commands/import/test_interactive.py
@@ -55,13 +55,14 @@ class TestImportInteractiveCommand(TestWithScenarios, BaseTestCase):
 
         cmdline = self.parser.get_default('script_cmdline') + self.parser_args
         try:
-            output = subprocess.check_output(cmdline, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+            self.output = subprocess.check_output(cmdline,
+                                                  stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
         except subprocess.CalledProcessError as cpe:
             self.addDetail('subprocess-output',
                            text_content(cpe.output.decode('utf-8')))
             raise
         self.addDetail('subprocess-output',
-                       text_content(output.decode('utf-8')))
+                       text_content(self.output.decode('utf-8')))
 
         expected = getattr(self, 'expect_rebased', [])
         if expected:
@@ -107,3 +108,8 @@ class TestImportInteractiveCommand(TestWithScenarios, BaseTestCase):
         extra_test_func = getattr(self, '_verify_%s' % self.name, None)
         if extra_test_func:
             extra_test_func()
+
+    def _verify_basic(self):
+        self.assertThat(
+            self.output.decode('utf-8'),
+            Contains("Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/import/"))