diff --git a/sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/bigquery/BatchLoads.java b/sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/bigquery/BatchLoads.java
index dd1d831f1950..252e55d34c07 100644
--- a/sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/bigquery/BatchLoads.java
+++ b/sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/bigquery/BatchLoads.java
@@ -285,14 +285,17 @@ public void validate(@Nullable PipelineOptions maybeOptions) {
     PipelineOptions options = Preconditions.checkArgumentNotNull(maybeOptions);
     // We will use a BigQuery load job -- validate the temp location.
     String tempLocation;
-    if (customGcsTempLocation == null || customGcsTempLocation.get() == null) {
+    if (customGcsTempLocation == null) {
       tempLocation = options.getTempLocation();
     } else {
       if (!customGcsTempLocation.isAccessible()) {
         // Can't perform verification in this case.
         return;
+      } else if (Strings.isNullOrEmpty(customGcsTempLocation.get())) {
+        tempLocation = options.getTempLocation();
+      } else {
+        tempLocation = customGcsTempLocation.get();
       }
-      tempLocation = customGcsTempLocation.get();
     }
     checkArgument(
         !Strings.isNullOrEmpty(tempLocation),
diff --git a/sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryIOWriteTest.java b/sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryIOWriteTest.java
index 89059634631f..f943b60118d2 100644
--- a/sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryIOWriteTest.java
+++ b/sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryIOWriteTest.java
@@ -4444,6 +4444,8 @@ public void testUpsertAndDeleteBeamRows() throws Exception {
 
   @Test
   public void testCustomGcsTempLocationNull() throws Exception {
+    assumeTrue(!useStreaming);
+    assumeTrue(!useStorageApi);
     BigQueryIO.Write<TableRow> write =
         BigQueryIO.writeTableRows()
             .to("dataset-id.table-id")