diff --git a/cpp/ycm/PythonSupport.cpp b/cpp/ycm/PythonSupport.cpp
index 635ae5ed..7b94a7a3 100644
--- a/cpp/ycm/PythonSupport.cpp
+++ b/cpp/ycm/PythonSupport.cpp
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 using boost::algorithm::any_of;
 using boost::algorithm::is_upper;
 using boost::python::len;
+using boost::python::str;
 using boost::python::extract;
 using boost::python::object;
 typedef boost::python::list pylist;
@@ -35,6 +36,13 @@ namespace YouCompleteMe {
 
 namespace {
 
+std::string GetUtf8String( const boost::python::object &string_or_unicode ) {
+  extract< std::string > to_string( string_or_unicode );
+  if ( to_string.check() )
+    return to_string();
+  return extract< std::string >( str( string_or_unicode ).encode( "utf8" ) );
+}
+
 std::vector< const Candidate * > CandidatesFromObjectList(
   const pylist &candidates,
   const std::string &candidate_property ) {
@@ -44,10 +52,10 @@ std::vector< const Candidate * > CandidatesFromObjectList(
 
   for ( int i = 0; i < num_candidates; ++i ) {
     if ( candidate_property.empty() ) {
-      candidate_strings.push_back( extract< std::string >( candidates[ i ] ) );
+      candidate_strings.push_back( GetUtf8String( candidates[ i ] ) );
     } else {
       object holder = extract< object >( candidates[ i ] );
-      candidate_strings.push_back( extract< std::string >(
+      candidate_strings.push_back( GetUtf8String(
                                      holder[ candidate_property.c_str() ] ) );
     }
   }
diff --git a/python/ycm/completers/completer.py b/python/ycm/completers/completer.py
index 6e2f1486..ec5732e5 100644
--- a/python/ycm/completers/completer.py
+++ b/python/ycm/completers/completer.py
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ class Completer( object ):
       self.completions_cache.filtered_completions = (
         self.FilterAndSortCandidates(
           self.completions_cache.raw_completions,
-          ToUtf8IfNeeded( request_data[ 'query' ] ) ) )
+          request_data[ 'query' ] ) )
     else:
       self.completions_cache = None
       self.CandidatesForQueryAsyncInner( request_data )
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ class Completer( object ):
     matches = ycm_core.FilterAndSortCandidates(
       candidates,
       sort_property,
-      query )
+      ToUtf8IfNeeded( query ) )
 
     return matches