diff --git a/lib/fs.js b/lib/fs.js
index 9e74beee285f2d..56421924fd287a 100644
--- a/lib/fs.js
+++ b/lib/fs.js
@@ -221,11 +221,14 @@ Object.defineProperty(exists, internalUtil.promisify.custom, {
 // TODO(joyeecheung): deprecate the never-throw-on-invalid-arguments behavior
 function existsSync(path) {
   try {
-    fs.accessSync(path, F_OK);
-    return true;
+    path = toPathIfFileURL(path);
+    validatePath(path);
   } catch (e) {
     return false;
   }
+  const ctx = { path };
+  binding.access(pathModule.toNamespacedPath(path), F_OK, undefined, ctx);
+  return ctx.errno === undefined;
 }
 
 function readFileAfterOpen(err, fd) {