diff --git a/src/MigrateBatchExecutable.php b/src/MigrateBatchExecutable.php
index 2f82639..de268a2 100644
--- a/src/MigrateBatchExecutable.php
+++ b/src/MigrateBatchExecutable.php
@@ -279,6 +279,11 @@ public function processBatch(&$context) {
 
     try {
       $context['finished'] = $sandbox['current'] / $sandbox['total'];
+      // call hasTime() once at the begining to start the timer and set the timer threshold.
+      // If we don't then it won't get called until after the first record is processed and the
+      // algorithm won't consider the time it spent on the first record.  Large file ingests
+      // will hit a php max exec timeout then.
+      static::hasTime();
       while ($context['finished'] < 1) {
         $item = $this->queue->claimItem();
         if (!$item) {