diff --git a/python/pyspark/testing/connectutils.py b/python/pyspark/testing/connectutils.py
index d895c1d8a26b1..302ae2a5751f7 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/testing/connectutils.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/testing/connectutils.py
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 import uuid
 import contextlib
 
-import pyspark.sql.connect.proto as pb2
 from pyspark import Row, SparkConf
 from pyspark.util import is_remote_only
 from pyspark.testing.utils import PySparkErrorTestUtils
@@ -53,6 +52,7 @@
     from pyspark.sql.connect.dataframe import DataFrame
     from pyspark.sql.connect.plan import Read, Range, SQL, LogicalPlan
     from pyspark.sql.connect.session import SparkSession
+    import pyspark.sql.connect.proto as pb2
 
 
 class MockRemoteSession: