diff --git a/database/cassandra/README.md b/database/cassandra/README.md
index c3d4387ad..65ab0e62c 100644
--- a/database/cassandra/README.md
+++ b/database/cassandra/README.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ system_schema table which comes with 3.X
 | `consistency` | ALL | Migration consistency
 | `protocol` |  | Cassandra protocol version (3 or 4)
 | `timeout` | 1 minute | Migration timeout
+| `connect-timeout` | 600ms | Initial connection timeout to the cluster |
 | `username` | nil | Username to use when authenticating. |
 | `password` | nil | Password to use when authenticating. |
 | `sslcert` | | Cert file location. The file must contain PEM encoded data. |
diff --git a/database/cassandra/cassandra.go b/database/cassandra/cassandra.go
index a639426d1..85b2eb19c 100644
--- a/database/cassandra/cassandra.go
+++ b/database/cassandra/cassandra.go
@@ -133,6 +133,14 @@ func (c *Cassandra) Open(url string) (database.Driver, error) {
 		}
 		cluster.Timeout = timeout
 	}
+	if len(u.Query().Get("connect-timeout")) > 0 {
+		var connectTimeout time.Duration
+		connectTimeout, err = time.ParseDuration(u.Query().Get("connect-timeout"))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		cluster.ConnectTimeout = connectTimeout
+	}
 
 	if len(u.Query().Get("sslmode")) > 0 {
 		if u.Query().Get("sslmode") != "disable" {