diff --git a/bin/phase-helpers.sh b/bin/phase-helpers.sh
index 94f4f24f2..16b02d13b 100644
--- a/bin/phase-helpers.sh
+++ b/bin/phase-helpers.sh
@@ -1136,6 +1136,7 @@ if ___eapi_has_eapply_user; then
 		local tagfile=${T}/.portage_user_patches_applied
 		[[ -f ${tagfile} ]] && return
 		>> "${tagfile}"
+		[[ " ${FEATURES} " == *" userpatches "* ]] || return 0
 
 		local basedir=${PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT%/}/etc/portage/patches
 
diff --git a/cnf/make.globals b/cnf/make.globals
index b8bc90ae0..3441c65b0 100644
--- a/cnf/make.globals
+++ b/cnf/make.globals
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs
           preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps
           sandbox sfperms strict
           unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch
-          userpriv usersandbox usersync"
+          userpatches userpriv usersandbox usersync"
 
 # Ignore file collisions in /lib/modules since files inside this directory
 # are never unmerged, and therefore collisions must be ignored in order for
diff --git a/lib/portage/const.py b/lib/portage/const.py
index abe0ef6c6..1163cf6dc 100644
--- a/lib/portage/const.py
+++ b/lib/portage/const.py
@@ -207,6 +207,7 @@ SUPPORTED_FEATURES = frozenset(
         "unprivileged",
         "userfetch",
         "userpriv",
+        "userpatches",
         "usersandbox",
         "usersync",
         "webrsync-gpg",