diff --git a/django/test/client.py b/django/test/client.py
index 94cfada725..2196805c4c 100644
--- a/django/test/client.py
+++ b/django/test/client.py
@@ -335,7 +335,6 @@ class RequestFactory(object):
         data = force_bytes(data, settings.DEFAULT_CHARSET)
         r = {
             'PATH_INFO':      self._get_path(parsed),
-            'QUERY_STRING':   force_str(parsed[4]),
             'REQUEST_METHOD': str(method),
         }
         if data:
@@ -345,8 +344,16 @@ class RequestFactory(object):
                 'wsgi.input':     FakePayload(data),
             })
         r.update(extra)
+        # If QUERY_STRING is absent or empty, we want to extract it from the URL.
+        if not r.get('QUERY_STRING'):
+            query_string = force_bytes(parsed[4])
+            # WSGI requires latin-1 encoded strings. See get_path_info().
+            if six.PY3:
+                query_string = query_string.decode('iso-8859-1')
+            r['QUERY_STRING'] = query_string
         return self.request(**r)
 
+
 class Client(RequestFactory):
     """
     A class that can act as a client for testing purposes.