diff --git a/R-package/R/xgb.Booster.R b/R-package/R/xgb.Booster.R
index 426c78a95942..487e6957fd74 100644
--- a/R-package/R/xgb.Booster.R
+++ b/R-package/R/xgb.Booster.R
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Construct an internal xgboost Booster and return a handle to it.
 # internal utility function
 xgb.Booster.handle <- function(params = list(), cachelist = list(),
-                               modelfile = NULL) {
+                               modelfile = NULL, handle = NULL) {
   if (typeof(cachelist) != "list" ||
       !all(vapply(cachelist, inherits, logical(1), what = 'xgb.DMatrix'))) {
     stop("cachelist must be a list of xgb.DMatrix objects")
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ xgb.Booster.handle <- function(params = list(), cachelist = list(),
       return(handle)
     } else if (typeof(modelfile) == "raw") {
       ## A memory buffer
-      bst <- xgb.unserialize(modelfile)
+      bst <- xgb.unserialize(modelfile, handle)
       xgb.parameters(bst) <- params
       return (bst)
     } else if (inherits(modelfile, "xgb.Booster")) {
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ xgb.Booster.complete <- function(object, saveraw = TRUE) {
     stop("argument type must be xgb.Booster")
 
   if (is.null.handle(object$handle)) {
-    object$handle <- xgb.Booster.handle(modelfile = object$raw)
+    object$handle <- xgb.Booster.handle(modelfile = object$raw, handle = object$handle)
   } else {
     if (is.null(object$raw) && saveraw) {
       object$raw <- xgb.serialize(object$handle)
diff --git a/R-package/R/xgb.unserialize.R b/R-package/R/xgb.unserialize.R
index 411225f89769..e666eb0550b6 100644
--- a/R-package/R/xgb.unserialize.R
+++ b/R-package/R/xgb.unserialize.R
@@ -1,11 +1,21 @@
 #' Load the instance back from \code{\link{xgb.serialize}}
 #'
 #' @param buffer the buffer containing booster instance saved by \code{\link{xgb.serialize}}
+#' @param handle An \code{xgb.Booster.handle} object which will be overwritten with
+#' the new deserialized object. Must be a null handle (e.g. when loading the model through
+#' `readRDS`). If not provided, a new handle will be created.
+#' @return An \code{xgb.Booster.handle} object.
 #'
 #' @export
-xgb.unserialize <- function(buffer) {
+xgb.unserialize <- function(buffer, handle = NULL) {
   cachelist <- list()
-  handle <- .Call(XGBoosterCreate_R, cachelist)
+  if (is.null(handle)) {
+    handle <- .Call(XGBoosterCreate_R, cachelist)
+  } else {
+    if (!is.null.handle(handle))
+      stop("'handle' is not null/empty. Cannot overwrite existing handle.")
+    .Call(XGBoosterCreateInEmptyObj_R, cachelist, handle)
+  }
   tryCatch(
     .Call(XGBoosterUnserializeFromBuffer_R, handle, buffer),
     error = function(e) {
diff --git a/R-package/man/xgb.unserialize.Rd b/R-package/man/xgb.unserialize.Rd
index 7a11c5c5eca2..d191d77d4ac3 100644
--- a/R-package/man/xgb.unserialize.Rd
+++ b/R-package/man/xgb.unserialize.Rd
@@ -4,10 +4,17 @@
 \alias{xgb.unserialize}
 \title{Load the instance back from \code{\link{xgb.serialize}}}
 \usage{
-xgb.unserialize(buffer)
+xgb.unserialize(buffer, handle = NULL)
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{buffer}{the buffer containing booster instance saved by \code{\link{xgb.serialize}}}
+
+\item{handle}{An \code{xgb.Booster.handle} object which will be overwritten with
+the new deserialized object. Must be a null handle (e.g. when loading the model through
+`readRDS`). If not provided, a new handle will be created.}
+}
+\value{
+An \code{xgb.Booster.handle} object.
 }
 \description{
 Load the instance back from \code{\link{xgb.serialize}}
diff --git a/R-package/src/init.c b/R-package/src/init.c
index 141e46e8964a..f8f71843bd8e 100644
--- a/R-package/src/init.c
+++ b/R-package/src/init.c
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ Check these declarations against the C/Fortran source code.
 /* .Call calls */
 extern SEXP XGBoosterBoostOneIter_R(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterCreate_R(SEXP);
+extern SEXP XGBoosterCreateInEmptyObj_R(SEXP, SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterDumpModel_R(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterEvalOneIter_R(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
 extern SEXP XGBoosterGetAttrNames_R(SEXP);
@@ -49,6 +50,7 @@ extern SEXP XGBGetGlobalConfig_R();
 static const R_CallMethodDef CallEntries[] = {
   {"XGBoosterBoostOneIter_R",     (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterBoostOneIter_R,     4},
   {"XGBoosterCreate_R",           (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterCreate_R,           1},
+  {"XGBoosterCreateInEmptyObj_R", (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterCreateInEmptyObj_R, 2},
   {"XGBoosterDumpModel_R",        (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterDumpModel_R,        4},
   {"XGBoosterEvalOneIter_R",      (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterEvalOneIter_R,      4},
   {"XGBoosterGetAttrNames_R",     (DL_FUNC) &XGBoosterGetAttrNames_R,     1},
diff --git a/R-package/src/xgboost_R.cc b/R-package/src/xgboost_R.cc
index 8bff4212a718..ccb193bc7833 100644
--- a/R-package/src/xgboost_R.cc
+++ b/R-package/src/xgboost_R.cc
@@ -272,6 +272,21 @@ SEXP XGBoosterCreate_R(SEXP dmats) {
   return ret;
 }
 
+SEXP XGBoosterCreateInEmptyObj_R(SEXP dmats, SEXP R_handle) {
+  R_API_BEGIN();
+  int len = length(dmats);
+  std::vector<void*> dvec;
+  for (int i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
+    dvec.push_back(R_ExternalPtrAddr(VECTOR_ELT(dmats, i)));
+  }
+  BoosterHandle handle;
+  CHECK_CALL(XGBoosterCreate(BeginPtr(dvec), dvec.size(), &handle));
+  R_SetExternalPtrAddr(R_handle, handle);
+  R_RegisterCFinalizerEx(R_handle, _BoosterFinalizer, TRUE);
+  R_API_END();
+  return R_NilValue;
+}
+
 SEXP XGBoosterSetParam_R(SEXP handle, SEXP name, SEXP val) {
   R_API_BEGIN();
   CHECK_CALL(XGBoosterSetParam(R_ExternalPtrAddr(handle),
diff --git a/R-package/src/xgboost_R.h b/R-package/src/xgboost_R.h
index 4647c7de233a..95a62aaedde4 100644
--- a/R-package/src/xgboost_R.h
+++ b/R-package/src/xgboost_R.h
@@ -116,6 +116,14 @@ XGB_DLL SEXP XGDMatrixNumCol_R(SEXP handle);
  */
 XGB_DLL SEXP XGBoosterCreate_R(SEXP dmats);
 
+
+/*!
+ * \brief create xgboost learner, saving the pointer into an existing R object
+ * \param dmats a list of dmatrix handles that will be cached
+ * \param R_handle a clean R external pointer (not holding any object)
+ */
+XGB_DLL SEXP XGBoosterCreateInEmptyObj_R(SEXP dmats, SEXP R_handle);
+
 /*!
  * \brief set parameters
  * \param handle handle
diff --git a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_helpers.R b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_helpers.R
index 5638f70cb554..19709cb38875 100644
--- a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_helpers.R
+++ b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_helpers.R
@@ -238,12 +238,13 @@ if (grepl('Windows', Sys.info()[['sysname']]) ||
 test_that("xgb.Booster serializing as R object works", {
   saveRDS(bst.Tree, 'xgb.model.rds')
   bst <- readRDS('xgb.model.rds')
-  if (file.exists('xgb.model.rds')) file.remove('xgb.model.rds')
   dtrain <- xgb.DMatrix(sparse_matrix, label = label)
   expect_equal(predict(bst.Tree, dtrain), predict(bst, dtrain), tolerance = float_tolerance)
   expect_equal(xgb.dump(bst.Tree), xgb.dump(bst))
   xgb.save(bst, 'xgb.model')
   if (file.exists('xgb.model')) file.remove('xgb.model')
+  bst <- readRDS('xgb.model.rds')
+  if (file.exists('xgb.model.rds')) file.remove('xgb.model.rds')
   nil_ptr <- new("externalptr")
   class(nil_ptr) <- "xgb.Booster.handle"
   expect_true(identical(bst$handle, nil_ptr))
diff --git a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_model_compatibility.R b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_model_compatibility.R
index d94f17f29ce7..0f13bdc73f40 100644
--- a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_model_compatibility.R
+++ b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_model_compatibility.R
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ test_that("Models from previous versions of XGBoost can be loaded", {
       if (is_rds && compareVersion(model_xgb_ver, '1.1.1.1') < 0) {
         booster <- readRDS(model_file)
         expect_warning(predict(booster, newdata = pred_data))
+        booster <- readRDS(model_file)
         expect_warning(run_booster_check(booster, name))
       } else {
         if (is_rds) {