diff --git a/modules/swagger-parser-v3/src/main/java/io/swagger/v3/parser/processors/ExternalRefProcessor.java b/modules/swagger-parser-v3/src/main/java/io/swagger/v3/parser/processors/ExternalRefProcessor.java
index 0413f79312..b6b5642edb 100644
--- a/modules/swagger-parser-v3/src/main/java/io/swagger/v3/parser/processors/ExternalRefProcessor.java
+++ b/modules/swagger-parser-v3/src/main/java/io/swagger/v3/parser/processors/ExternalRefProcessor.java
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@
 import io.swagger.v3.parser.ResolverCache;
 import io.swagger.v3.parser.models.RefFormat;
 import io.swagger.v3.parser.models.RefType;
+import io.swagger.v3.parser.util.RefUtils;
+
 import org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
@@ -86,6 +88,18 @@ public String processRefToExternalSchema(String $ref, RefFormat refFormat) {
             return renamedRef;
         }
 
+        RefFormat format = computeRefFormat($ref);
+        if (format.equals(RefFormat.RELATIVE)) {
+            String normalizedRef = Paths.get($ref).normalize().toString();
+            System.out.println("Normalized " + $ref + " to " + normalizedRef);
+            renamedRef = cache.getRenamedRef($ref);
+            if (renamedRef != null) {
+                return renamedRef;
+            } else {
+                $ref = normalizedRef;
+            }
+        }
+
         final Schema schema = cache.loadRef($ref, refFormat, Schema.class);
 
         if(schema == null) {