diff --git a/src/services/preProcess.ts b/src/services/preProcess.ts
index d5c384e9161cc..8c92cd2134f33 100644
--- a/src/services/preProcess.ts
+++ b/src/services/preProcess.ts
@@ -376,7 +376,9 @@ namespace ts {
                                 }
                                 break;
                         }
-                        token = scanner.scan();
+                        if (length(stack)) {
+                            token = scanner.scan();
+                        }
                     }
                     nextToken();
                 }
diff --git a/src/testRunner/unittests/services/preProcessFile.ts b/src/testRunner/unittests/services/preProcessFile.ts
index a6369d6e4d4cf..a0ff91a26b1b4 100644
--- a/src/testRunner/unittests/services/preProcessFile.ts
+++ b/src/testRunner/unittests/services/preProcessFile.ts
@@ -205,6 +205,22 @@ describe("unittests:: services:: PreProcessFile:", () => {
             /* eslint-enable no-template-curly-in-string */
         });
 
+        it("Ignores imports in template strings", () => {
+            /* eslint-disable no-template-curly-in-string */
+            test("a ? `&${a}` : `#${b}`;\n\n `import(\"${moduleSpecifier}\").${id}`;",
+            /*readImportFile*/ true,
+            /*detectJavaScriptImports*/ true,
+            {
+                referencedFiles: [],
+                typeReferenceDirectives: [],
+                libReferenceDirectives: [],
+                importedFiles: [],
+                ambientExternalModules: undefined,
+                isLibFile: false
+            });
+            /* eslint-enable no-template-curly-in-string */
+        });
+
         it("Correctly returns imports after a template expression", () => {
             /* eslint-disable no-template-curly-in-string */
             test("`${foo}`; import \"./foo\";",