diff --git a/src/main/java/com/amazon/ion/impl/IonReaderContinuableCoreBinary.java b/src/main/java/com/amazon/ion/impl/IonReaderContinuableCoreBinary.java
index b43bfe2071..71c4f9447e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/amazon/ion/impl/IonReaderContinuableCoreBinary.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/amazon/ion/impl/IonReaderContinuableCoreBinary.java
@@ -527,7 +527,7 @@ void prepareScalar() {
 
     @Override
     public IntegerSize getIntegerSize() {
-        if (valueTid.type != IonType.INT || valueTid.isNull) {
+        if (valueTid == null || valueTid.type != IonType.INT || valueTid.isNull) {
             return null;
         }
         prepareScalar();
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/amazon/ion/impl/IonReaderTextSystemX.java b/src/main/java/com/amazon/ion/impl/IonReaderTextSystemX.java
index 023288f03a..edf4431936 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/amazon/ion/impl/IonReaderTextSystemX.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/amazon/ion/impl/IonReaderTextSystemX.java
@@ -75,11 +75,11 @@ protected IonReaderTextSystemX(UnifiedInputStreamX iis)
     // into a base class (the *Value() methods also share a lot of similarity).
     public IntegerSize getIntegerSize()
     {
-        load_once();
         if (_value_type != IonType.INT || _v.isNull())
         {
             return null;
         }
+        load_once();
         return _Private_ScalarConversions.getIntegerSize(_v.getAuthoritativeType());
     }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/amazon/ion/streaming/ReaderIntegerSizeTest.java b/src/test/java/com/amazon/ion/streaming/ReaderIntegerSizeTest.java
index cc31a06cb3..ed5802b054 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/amazon/ion/streaming/ReaderIntegerSizeTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/amazon/ion/streaming/ReaderIntegerSizeTest.java
@@ -105,6 +105,7 @@ public void testGetIntegerSizeNull()
              + "[] "
              + "() "
             );
+        assertNull(in.getIntegerSize());
         while (in.next() != null)
         {
             assertNull(in.getIntegerSize());