diff --git a/bigquery/google/cloud/bigquery/table.py b/bigquery/google/cloud/bigquery/table.py
index 1861ad993241..1a28d84bf843 100644
--- a/bigquery/google/cloud/bigquery/table.py
+++ b/bigquery/google/cloud/bigquery/table.py
@@ -917,9 +917,6 @@ def upload_from_file(self,
             'configuration': {
                 'load': {
                     'sourceFormat': source_format,
-                    'schema': {
-                        'fields': _build_schema_resource(self._schema),
-                    },
                     'destinationTable': {
                         'projectId': self._dataset.project,
                         'datasetId': self._dataset.name,
@@ -929,6 +926,12 @@ def upload_from_file(self,
             }
         }
 
+        if len(self._schema) > 0:
+            load_config = metadata['configuration']['load']
+            load_config['schema'] = {
+                'fields': _build_schema_resource(self._schema)
+            }
+
         _configure_job_metadata(metadata, allow_jagged_rows,
                                 allow_quoted_newlines, create_disposition,
                                 encoding, field_delimiter,
diff --git a/bigquery/tests/data/colors.avro b/bigquery/tests/data/colors.avro
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e0133fd027f4
Binary files /dev/null and b/bigquery/tests/data/colors.avro differ
diff --git a/bigquery/tests/system.py b/bigquery/tests/system.py
index 44e508428fe6..baad4a240507 100644
--- a/bigquery/tests/system.py
+++ b/bigquery/tests/system.py
@@ -390,6 +390,49 @@ def _job_done(instance):
         self.assertEqual(sorted(rows, key=by_age),
                          sorted(ROWS, key=by_age))
 
+    def test_load_table_from_local_avro_file_then_dump_table(self):
+        TABLE_NAME = 'test_table_avro'
+        ROWS = [
+            ("violet", 400),
+            ("indigo", 445),
+            ("blue", 475),
+            ("green", 510),
+            ("yellow", 570),
+            ("orange", 590),
+            ("red", 650)]
+
+        dataset = Config.CLIENT.dataset(
+            _make_dataset_name('load_local_then_dump'))
+
+        retry_403(dataset.create)()
+        self.to_delete.append(dataset)
+
+        table = dataset.table(TABLE_NAME)
+        self.to_delete.insert(0, table)
+
+        with open(os.path.join(WHERE, 'data', 'colors.avro'), 'rb') as avrof:
+            job = table.upload_from_file(
+                avrof,
+                source_format='AVRO',
+                write_disposition='WRITE_TRUNCATE'
+            )
+
+        def _job_done(instance):
+            return instance.state.lower() == 'done'
+
+        # Retry until done.
+        retry = RetryInstanceState(_job_done, max_tries=8)
+        retry(job.reload)()
+
+        self.assertEqual(job.output_rows, len(ROWS))
+
+        # Reload table to get the schema before fetching the rows.
+        table.reload()
+        rows = self._fetch_single_page(table)
+        by_wavelength = operator.itemgetter(1)
+        self.assertEqual(sorted(rows, key=by_wavelength),
+                         sorted(ROWS, key=by_wavelength))
+
     def test_load_table_from_storage_then_dump_table(self):
         import csv
         from google.cloud._testing import _NamedTemporaryFile