diff --git a/pkg/controllers/tagging/tagging_controller.go b/pkg/controllers/tagging/tagging_controller.go
index 3620212406..89affd4d77 100644
--- a/pkg/controllers/tagging/tagging_controller.go
+++ b/pkg/controllers/tagging/tagging_controller.go
@@ -63,6 +63,9 @@ const (
 
 	// The label for depicting total number of errors a work item encounter and fail
 	errorsAfterRetriesExhaustedWorkItemErrorMetric = "errors_after_retries_exhausted"
+
+	// The period of time after Node creation to retry tagging due to eventual consistency of the CreateTags API.
+	newNodeEventualConsistencyGracePeriod = time.Minute * 5
 )
 
 // Controller is the controller implementation for tagging cluster resources.
@@ -292,6 +295,18 @@ func (tc *Controller) tagEc2Instance(node *v1.Node) error {
 	err := tc.cloud.TagResource(string(instanceID), tc.tags)
 
 	if err != nil {
+		if awsv1.IsAWSErrorInstanceNotFound(err) {
+			// This can happen for two reasons.
+			// 1. The CreateTags API is eventually consistent. In rare cases, a newly-created instance may not be taggable for a short period.
+			//    We will re-queue the event and retry.
+			if isNodeWithinEventualConsistencyGracePeriod(node) {
+				return fmt.Errorf("EC2 instance %s for node %s does not exist, but node is within eventual consistency grace period", instanceID, node.GetName())
+			}
+			// 2. The event in our workQueue is stale, and the instance no longer exists.
+			//    Tagging will never succeed, and the event should not be re-queued.
+			klog.Infof("Skip tagging since EC2 instance %s for node %s does not exist", instanceID, node.GetName())
+			return nil
+		}
 		klog.Errorf("Error in tagging EC2 instance %s for node %s, error: %v", instanceID, node.GetName(), err)
 		return err
 	}
@@ -380,3 +395,7 @@ func (tc *Controller) getChecksumOfTags() string {
 	sort.Strings(tags)
 	return fmt.Sprintf("%x", md5.Sum([]byte(strings.Join(tags, ","))))
 }
+
+func isNodeWithinEventualConsistencyGracePeriod(node *v1.Node) bool {
+	return time.Since(node.CreationTimestamp.Time) < newNodeEventualConsistencyGracePeriod
+}
diff --git a/pkg/controllers/tagging/tagging_controller_test.go b/pkg/controllers/tagging/tagging_controller_test.go
index 4e7a3cdaa6..a96b4135f5 100644
--- a/pkg/controllers/tagging/tagging_controller_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controllers/tagging/tagging_controller_test.go
@@ -17,6 +17,11 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"context"
 	"flag"
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
 	v1 "k8s.io/api/core/v1"
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/informers"
@@ -25,10 +30,6 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/client-go/util/workqueue"
 	awsv1 "k8s.io/cloud-provider-aws/pkg/providers/v1"
 	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
-	"os"
-	"strings"
-	"testing"
-	"time"
 )
 
 const TestClusterID = "clusterid.test"
@@ -162,6 +163,34 @@ func Test_NodesJoiningAndLeaving(t *testing.T) {
 			toBeTagged:       false,
 			expectedMessages: []string{"Successfully untagged i-0001"},
 		},
+		{
+			name: "node0 is recently created and the instance is not found the first 3 CreateTags attempts",
+			currNode: &v1.Node{
+				ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
+					Name:              "node0",
+					CreationTimestamp: metav1.Now(),
+				},
+				Spec: v1.NodeSpec{
+					ProviderID: "i-not-found-count-3-0001",
+				},
+			},
+			toBeTagged:       true,
+			expectedMessages: []string{"Successfully tagged i-not-found-count-3-0001", "node is within eventual consistency grace period"},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "node0 is not recently created and the instance is not found",
+			currNode: &v1.Node{
+				ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
+					Name:              "node0",
+					CreationTimestamp: metav1.Date(2012, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC),
+				},
+				Spec: v1.NodeSpec{
+					ProviderID: "i-not-found",
+				},
+			},
+			toBeTagged:       true,
+			expectedMessages: []string{"Skip tagging since EC2 instance i-not-found for node node0 does not exist"},
+		},
 	}
 
 	awsServices := awsv1.NewFakeAWSServices(TestClusterID)
diff --git a/pkg/providers/v1/aws.go b/pkg/providers/v1/aws.go
index e2212cd105..2adc93ce9b 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/v1/aws.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/v1/aws.go
@@ -1707,7 +1707,7 @@ func (c *Cloud) InstanceExistsByProviderID(ctx context.Context, providerID strin
 	instances, err := c.ec2.DescribeInstances(request)
 	if err != nil {
 		// if err is InstanceNotFound, return false with no error
-		if isAWSErrorInstanceNotFound(err) {
+		if IsAWSErrorInstanceNotFound(err) {
 			return false, nil
 		}
 		return false, err
@@ -1946,7 +1946,8 @@ func (c *Cloud) GetZoneByNodeName(ctx context.Context, nodeName types.NodeName)
 
 }
 
-func isAWSErrorInstanceNotFound(err error) bool {
+// IsAWSErrorInstanceNotFound returns true if the specified error is an awserr.Error with the code `InvalidInstanceId.NotFound`.
+func IsAWSErrorInstanceNotFound(err error) bool {
 	if err == nil {
 		return false
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/providers/v1/aws_fakes.go b/pkg/providers/v1/aws_fakes.go
index 84737b1417..a4e45a1f29 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/v1/aws_fakes.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/v1/aws_fakes.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"sort"
+	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
@@ -47,6 +48,8 @@ type FakeAWSServices struct {
 	asg      *FakeASG
 	metadata *FakeMetadata
 	kms      *FakeKMS
+
+	callCounts map[string]int
 }
 
 // NewFakeAWSServices creates a new FakeAWSServices
@@ -79,6 +82,8 @@ func NewFakeAWSServices(clusterID string) *FakeAWSServices {
 	tag.Value = aws.String(clusterID)
 	selfInstance.Tags = []*ec2.Tag{&tag}
 
+	s.callCounts = make(map[string]int)
+
 	return s
 }
 
@@ -97,6 +102,15 @@ func (s *FakeAWSServices) WithRegion(region string) *FakeAWSServices {
 	return s
 }
 
+// countCall increments the counter for the given service, api, and resourceID and returns the resulting call count
+func (s *FakeAWSServices) countCall(service string, api string, resourceID string) int {
+	key := fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s:%s", service, api, resourceID)
+	s.callCounts[key]++
+	count := s.callCounts[key]
+	klog.Warningf("call count: %s:%d", key, count)
+	return count
+}
+
 // Compute returns a fake EC2 client
 func (s *FakeAWSServices) Compute(region string) (EC2, error) {
 	return s.ec2, nil
@@ -295,6 +309,7 @@ func (ec2i *FakeEC2Impl) DescribeAvailabilityZones(request *ec2.DescribeAvailabi
 // CreateTags is a mock for CreateTags from EC2
 func (ec2i *FakeEC2Impl) CreateTags(input *ec2.CreateTagsInput) (*ec2.CreateTagsOutput, error) {
 	for _, id := range input.Resources {
+		callCount := ec2i.aws.countCall("ec2", "CreateTags", *id)
 		if *id == "i-error" {
 			return nil, errors.New("Unable to tag")
 		}
@@ -302,6 +317,17 @@ func (ec2i *FakeEC2Impl) CreateTags(input *ec2.CreateTagsInput) (*ec2.CreateTags
 		if *id == "i-not-found" {
 			return nil, awserr.New("InvalidInstanceID.NotFound", "Instance not found", nil)
 		}
+		// return an Instance not found error for the first `n` calls
+		// instance ID should be of the format `i-not-found-count-$N-$SUFFIX`
+		if strings.HasPrefix(*id, "i-not-found-count-") {
+			notFoundCount, err := strconv.Atoi(strings.Split(*id, "-")[4])
+			if err != nil {
+				panic(err)
+			}
+			if callCount < notFoundCount {
+				return nil, awserr.New("InvalidInstanceID.NotFound", "Instance not found", nil)
+			}
+		}
 	}
 	return &ec2.CreateTagsOutput{}, nil
 }
diff --git a/pkg/providers/v1/tags.go b/pkg/providers/v1/tags.go
index beaaf0ca7d..9b82436097 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/v1/tags.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/v1/tags.go
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ func (c *Cloud) UntagResource(resourceID string, tags map[string]string) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		// An instance not found should not fail the untagging workflow as it
 		// would for tagging, since the target state is already reached.
-		if isAWSErrorInstanceNotFound(err) {
+		if IsAWSErrorInstanceNotFound(err) {
 			klog.Infof("Couldn't find resource when trying to untag it hence skipping it, %v", err)
 			return nil
 		}