diff --git a/nixos/modules/system/boot/binfmt.nix b/nixos/modules/system/boot/binfmt.nix
index cbdf581d73a7..2408ecc80d22 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/system/boot/binfmt.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/system/boot/binfmt.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 { config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
 let
-  inherit (lib) mkOption types optionalString;
+  inherit (lib) mkOption types optionalString stringAfter;
 
   cfg = config.boot.binfmt;
 
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ in {
 
     environment.etc."binfmt.d/nixos.conf".source = builtins.toFile "binfmt_nixos.conf"
       (lib.concatStringsSep "\n" (lib.mapAttrsToList makeBinfmtLine config.boot.binfmt.registrations));
-    system.activationScripts.binfmt = ''
+    system.activationScripts.binfmt = stringAfter [ "specialfs" ] ''
       mkdir -p -m 0755 /run/binfmt
       ${lib.concatStringsSep "\n" (lib.mapAttrsToList activationSnippet config.boot.binfmt.registrations)}
     '';