diff --git a/src/test/esm-loader.spec.ts b/src/test/esm-loader.spec.ts
index 2becddb72..f12e04821 100644
--- a/src/test/esm-loader.spec.ts
+++ b/src/test/esm-loader.spec.ts
@@ -362,7 +362,7 @@ test.suite('esm', (test) => {
       test.suite('esm child process and forking', (test) => {
         test('should be able to fork vanilla NodeJS script', async () => {
           const { err, stdout, stderr } = await exec(
-            `${BIN_PATH} --esm ./esm-child-process/process-forking/index.ts`
+            `${BIN_PATH} --esm --cwd ./esm-child-process/process-forking/ index.ts`
           );
 
           expect(err).toBe(null);
@@ -372,7 +372,7 @@ test.suite('esm', (test) => {
 
         test('should be able to fork into a nested TypeScript ESM script', async () => {
           const { err, stdout, stderr } = await exec(
-            `${BIN_PATH} --esm ./esm-child-process/process-forking-nested-esm/index.ts`
+            `${BIN_PATH} --esm --cwd ./esm-child-process/process-forking-nested-esm/ index.ts`
           );
 
           expect(err).toBe(null);
diff --git a/tests/esm-child-process/process-forking-nested-esm/index.ts b/tests/esm-child-process/process-forking-nested-esm/index.ts
index d2ebe098a..ff0f2e61b 100644
--- a/tests/esm-child-process/process-forking-nested-esm/index.ts
+++ b/tests/esm-child-process/process-forking-nested-esm/index.ts
@@ -1,13 +1,10 @@
 import { fork } from 'child_process';
-import { dirname, join } from 'path';
-import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
 
 // Initially set the exit code to non-zero. We only set it to `0` when the
 // worker process finishes properly with the expected stdout message.
 process.exitCode = 1;
 
-const projectDir = dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
-const workerProcess = fork(join(projectDir, 'worker.ts'), [], {
+const workerProcess = fork('./worker.ts', [], {
   stdio: 'pipe',
 });
 
diff --git a/tests/esm-child-process/process-forking/index.ts b/tests/esm-child-process/process-forking/index.ts
index 52052eb72..2e3e05ec8 100644
--- a/tests/esm-child-process/process-forking/index.ts
+++ b/tests/esm-child-process/process-forking/index.ts
@@ -1,13 +1,10 @@
 import { fork } from 'child_process';
-import { dirname, join } from 'path';
-import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
 
 // Initially set the exit code to non-zero. We only set it to `0` when the
 // worker process finishes properly with the expected stdout message.
 process.exitCode = 1;
 
-const projectDir = dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
-const workerProcess = fork(join(projectDir, 'worker.js'), [], {
+const workerProcess = fork('./worker.js', [], {
   stdio: 'pipe',
 });