diff --git a/controlplane/controllers/kthreescontrolplane_controller.go b/controlplane/controllers/kthreescontrolplane_controller.go
index 07506b92..d74ddccf 100644
--- a/controlplane/controllers/kthreescontrolplane_controller.go
+++ b/controlplane/controllers/kthreescontrolplane_controller.go
@@ -397,9 +397,12 @@ func (r *KThreesControlPlaneReconciler) updateStatus(ctx context.Context, kcp *c
 	kcp.Status.ReadyReplicas = status.ReadyNodes
 	kcp.Status.UnavailableReplicas = replicas - status.ReadyNodes
 
+	if status.HasK3sServingSecret {
+		kcp.Status.Initialized = true
+	}
+
 	if kcp.Status.ReadyReplicas > 0 {
 		kcp.Status.Ready = true
-		kcp.Status.Initialized = true
 		conditions.MarkTrue(kcp, controlplanev1.AvailableCondition)
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/k3s/workload_cluster.go b/pkg/k3s/workload_cluster.go
index 804e938d..1c438d11 100644
--- a/pkg/k3s/workload_cluster.go
+++ b/pkg/k3s/workload_cluster.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"sigs.k8s.io/cluster-api/util/collections"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/cluster-api/util/conditions"
 	ctrlclient "sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client"
+	"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/log"
 
 	controlplanev1 "github.com/k3s-io/cluster-api-k3s/controlplane/api/v1beta2"
 	"github.com/k3s-io/cluster-api-k3s/pkg/etcd"
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ import (
 const (
 	kubeProxyKey              = "kube-proxy"
 	labelNodeRoleControlPlane = "node-role.kubernetes.io/master"
+	k3sServingSecretKey       = "k3s-serving"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -74,6 +76,8 @@ type ClusterStatus struct {
 	Nodes int32
 	// ReadyNodes are the count of nodes that are reporting ready
 	ReadyNodes int32
+	// HasK3sServingSecret will be true if the k3s-serving secret has been uploaded, false otherwise.
+	HasK3sServingSecret bool
 }
 
 func (w *Workload) getControlPlaneNodes(ctx context.Context) (*corev1.NodeList, error) {
@@ -105,6 +109,21 @@ func (w *Workload) ClusterStatus(ctx context.Context) (ClusterStatus, error) {
 		}
 	}
 
+	// find the k3s-serving secret
+	key := ctrlclient.ObjectKey{
+		Name:      k3sServingSecretKey,
+		Namespace: metav1.NamespaceSystem,
+	}
+
+	err = w.Client.Get(ctx, key, &corev1.Secret{})
+	// In case of error we do assume the control plane is not initialized yet.
+	if err != nil {
+		logger := log.FromContext(ctx)
+		logger.Info("Control Plane does not seem to be initialized yet.", "reason", err.Error())
+	}
+
+	status.HasK3sServingSecret = err == nil
+
 	return status, nil
 }