diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/devices/vcpu.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/devices/vcpu.txt
index c04165868faf..02f50686c418 100644
--- a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/devices/vcpu.txt
+++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/devices/vcpu.txt
@@ -30,4 +30,6 @@ Returns: -ENODEV: PMUv3 not supported
                  attribute
          -EBUSY: PMUv3 already initialized
 
-Request the initialization of the PMUv3.
+Request the initialization of the PMUv3.  This must be done after creating the
+in-kernel irqchip.  Creating a PMU with a userspace irqchip is currently not
+supported.
diff --git a/virt/kvm/arm/pmu.c b/virt/kvm/arm/pmu.c
index a027569facfa..6e9c40eea208 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/arm/pmu.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/arm/pmu.c
@@ -423,6 +423,14 @@ static int kvm_arm_pmu_v3_init(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
 	if (!kvm_arm_support_pmu_v3())
 		return -ENODEV;
 
+	/*
+	 * We currently require an in-kernel VGIC to use the PMU emulation,
+	 * because we do not support forwarding PMU overflow interrupts to
+	 * userspace yet.
+	 */
+	if (!irqchip_in_kernel(vcpu->kvm) || !vgic_initialized(vcpu->kvm))
+		return -ENODEV;
+
 	if (!test_bit(KVM_ARM_VCPU_PMU_V3, vcpu->arch.features) ||
 	    !kvm_arm_pmu_irq_initialized(vcpu))
 		return -ENXIO;