diff --git a/offlineimap/imaplib2.py b/offlineimap/bundled_imaplib2.py
similarity index 100%
rename from offlineimap/imaplib2.py
rename to offlineimap/bundled_imaplib2.py
diff --git a/offlineimap/folder/IMAP.py b/offlineimap/folder/IMAP.py
index 7dac137..11a3a2a 100644
--- a/offlineimap/folder/IMAP.py
+++ b/offlineimap/folder/IMAP.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # IMAP folder support
-# Copyright (C) 2002-2012 John Goerzen & contributors
+# Copyright (C) 2002-2016 John Goerzen & contributors
 #
 #    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 #    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -20,14 +20,13 @@ import binascii
 import re
 import os
 import time
+import six
 from sys import exc_info
 
 from .Base import BaseFolder
 from offlineimap import imaputil, imaplibutil, emailutil, OfflineImapError
 from offlineimap import globals
-from offlineimap.imaplib2 import MonthNames
-
-import six
+from offlineimap.virtual_imaplib2 import MonthNames
 
 
 # Globals
diff --git a/offlineimap/imaplibutil.py b/offlineimap/imaplibutil.py
index 32448b7..4d6f64e 100644
--- a/offlineimap/imaplibutil.py
+++ b/offlineimap/imaplibutil.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # imaplib utilities
-# Copyright (C) 2002-2015 John Goerzen & contributors
+# Copyright (C) 2002-2016 John Goerzen & contributors
 #    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 #    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 #    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
@@ -23,12 +23,12 @@ import threading
 from hashlib import sha1
 import socket
 import errno
+import zlib
+import six
 
 from offlineimap.ui import getglobalui
 from offlineimap import OfflineImapError
-from offlineimap.imaplib2 import IMAP4, IMAP4_SSL, zlib, InternalDate, Mon2num
-
-import six
+from offlineimap.virtual_imaplib2 import IMAP4, IMAP4_SSL, InternalDate, Mon2num
 
 
 class UsefulIMAPMixIn(object):
diff --git a/offlineimap/init.py b/offlineimap/init.py
index c4dc611..88ef3aa 100644
--- a/offlineimap/init.py
+++ b/offlineimap/init.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # OfflineIMAP initialization code
-# Copyright (C) 2002-2015 John Goerzen & contributors
+# Copyright (C) 2002-2016 John Goerzen & contributors
 #
 #    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 #    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 import os
 import sys
 import threading
-import offlineimap.imaplib2 as imaplib
+import offlineimap.virtual_imaplib2 as imaplib
 import signal
 import socket
 import logging
diff --git a/offlineimap/virtual_imaplib2.py b/offlineimap/virtual_imaplib2.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..12a0093
--- /dev/null
+++ b/offlineimap/virtual_imaplib2.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2016-2016 Nicolas Sebrecht & contributors
+#
+#    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+#    (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#    GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+#    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
+
+"""
+
+The virtual imaplib2 takes care to import the correct imaplib2 library. Any
+internal use of imaplib2 everywhere else in offlineimap must be done through
+this virtual_imaplib2 or we might go into troubles.
+
+"""
+
+_SUPPORTED_RELEASE = 2
+_SUPPORTED_REVISION = 53
+
+try:
+    # Try any imaplib2 in PYTHONPATH first. This allows both maintainers of
+    # distributions and developers to not work with the bundled imaplib2.
+    from imaplib2 import *
+    import imaplib2 as imaplib
+
+    if (int(imaplib.__release__) < _SUPPORTED_RELEASE or
+            int(imaplib.__revision__) < _SUPPORTED_REVISION):
+        raise ImportError("The provided imaplib2 version '%s' is not supported"%
+            imaplib.__version__)
+except (ImportError, NameError) as e:
+    try:
+        from offlineimap.bundled_imaplib2 import *
+        import offlineimap.bundled_imaplib2 as imaplib
+    except:
+        print("Error while trying to import system imaplib2: %s"% e)
+        raise
+
+# We should really get those literals exposed by upstream. Same goes for
+# __version__, __release__ and __revision__.
+InternalDate = imaplib.InternalDate
+Mon2num = imaplib.Mon2num
+MonthNames = imaplib.MonthNames