diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/README.md b/packages/aws-cdk/README.md
index 1bd9e491e34e4..479c3f636307a 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/README.md
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/README.md
@@ -435,6 +435,33 @@ to turn them off, pass the `--no-hotswap` option when invoking it.
 **Note**: This command is considered experimental,
 and might have breaking changes in the future.
 
+#### Import existing resources
+
+**Important:** This is a work in progress, only S3 buckets are currently supported
+
+Sometimes, it is beneficial to import (enroll/adopt/...) AWS resources, that were
+created manually (or by different means), into a CDK stack. Some resources can simply be
+deleted and recreated by CDK, but for others, this is not convenient: Typically stateful
+resources like S3 Buckets, DynamoDB tables, etc., cannot be easily deleted without an
+impact on the service.
+
+To import an existing resource to a CDK stack:
+
+- run a `cdk diff` to ensure there are no pending changes to the CDK stack you want to
+  import resources into - if there are, apply/discard them first
+- add corresponding constructs for the resources to be added in your stack - for example,
+  for an S3 bucket, add something like `new s3.Bucket(this, 'ImportedS3Bucket', {});` -
+  **no other changes must be done to the stack before the import is completed**
+- run `cdk deploy` with `--import-resources` argument to instruct CDK to start the import
+  operation
+- if resource definition contains all information needed for the import, this happens
+  automatically (e.g. an `s3.Bucket` construct has an explicit `bucketName` set),
+  otherwise, CDK will prompt user to provide neccessary identification information (e.g.
+  the bucket name)
+- after cdk deploy reports success, the resource is managed by CDK. Any subsequent
+  changes in the construct configuration will be reflected on the resource
+
+
 ### `cdk destroy`
 
 Deletes a stack from it's environment. This will cause the resources in the stack to be destroyed (unless they were
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/bin/cdk.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/bin/cdk.ts
index 3f90dfc8ff3e2..0a2325bb41173 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/bin/cdk.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/bin/cdk.ts
@@ -124,7 +124,8 @@ async function parseCommandLineArguments() {
         desc: 'Continuously observe the project files, ' +
           'and deploy the given stack(s) automatically when changes are detected. ' +
           'Implies --hotswap by default',
-      }),
+      })
+      .option('import-resources', { type: 'boolean', alias: 'i', desc: 'Import existing resources in the stack' }),
     )
     .command('watch [STACKS..]', "Shortcut for 'deploy --watch'", yargs => yargs
       // I'm fairly certain none of these options, present for 'deploy', make sense for 'watch':
@@ -375,6 +376,7 @@ async function initCommandLine() {
           rollback: configuration.settings.get(['rollback']),
           hotswap: args.hotswap,
           watch: args.watch,
+          importResources: args['import-resources'],
         });
 
       case 'watch':
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cloudformation-deployments.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cloudformation-deployments.ts
index fb7c5410faf3d..f3d6cbe0f439d 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cloudformation-deployments.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cloudformation-deployments.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import { publishAssets } from '../util/asset-publishing';
 import { Mode, SdkProvider } from './aws-auth';
 import { deployStack, DeployStackResult, destroyStack } from './deploy-stack';
 import { ToolkitInfo } from './toolkit-info';
-import { CloudFormationStack, Template } from './util/cloudformation';
+import { CloudFormationStack, Template, ResourcesToImport } from './util/cloudformation';
 import { StackActivityProgress } from './util/cloudformation/stack-activity-monitor';
 
 /**
@@ -152,6 +152,11 @@ export interface DeployStackOptions {
    * @default - nothing extra is appended to the User-Agent header
    */
   readonly extraUserAgent?: string;
+
+  /**
+   * List of existing resources to be IMPORTED into the stack, instead of being CREATED
+   */
+  readonly resourcesToImport?: ResourcesToImport;
 }
 
 export interface DestroyStackOptions {
@@ -230,6 +235,7 @@ export class CloudFormationDeployments {
       rollback: options.rollback,
       hotswap: options.hotswap,
       extraUserAgent: options.extraUserAgent,
+      resourcesToImport: options.resourcesToImport,
     });
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
index 40719507d6e20..d1c868c457b53 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import { CfnEvaluationException } from './hotswap/evaluate-cloudformation-templa
 import { ToolkitInfo } from './toolkit-info';
 import {
   changeSetHasNoChanges, CloudFormationStack, TemplateParameters, waitForChangeSet,
-  waitForStackDeploy, waitForStackDelete, ParameterValues, ParameterChanges,
+  waitForStackDeploy, waitForStackDelete, ParameterValues, ParameterChanges, ResourcesToImport,
 } from './util/cloudformation';
 import { StackActivityMonitor, StackActivityProgress } from './util/cloudformation/stack-activity-monitor';
 
@@ -189,6 +189,12 @@ export interface DeployStackOptions {
    * @default - nothing extra is appended to the User-Agent header
    */
   readonly extraUserAgent?: string;
+
+  /**
+   * If set, change set of type IMPORT will be created, and resourcesToImport
+   * passed to it.
+   */
+  readonly resourcesToImport?: ResourcesToImport;
 }
 
 const LARGE_TEMPLATE_SIZE_KB = 50;
@@ -294,7 +300,8 @@ async function prepareAndExecuteChangeSet(
   const changeSet = await cfn.createChangeSet({
     StackName: deployName,
     ChangeSetName: changeSetName,
-    ChangeSetType: update ? 'UPDATE' : 'CREATE',
+    ChangeSetType: options.resourcesToImport ? 'IMPORT' : update ? 'UPDATE' : 'CREATE',
+    ResourcesToImport: options.resourcesToImport,
     Description: `CDK Changeset for execution ${executionId}`,
     TemplateBody: bodyParameter.TemplateBody,
     TemplateURL: bodyParameter.TemplateURL,
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation.ts
index b3b5660d727c4..846add6c46138 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ interface TemplateParameter {
   [key: string]: any;
 }
 
+export type ResourcesToImport = CloudFormation.ResourcesToImport;
+
 /**
  * Represents an (existing) Stack in CloudFormation
  *
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation/stack-status.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation/stack-status.ts
index e26886225eea8..76069868cf99b 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation/stack-status.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/util/cloudformation/stack-status.ts
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ export class StackStatus {
   }
 
   get isDeploySuccess(): boolean {
-    return !this.isNotFound && (this.name === 'CREATE_COMPLETE' || this.name === 'UPDATE_COMPLETE');
+    return !this.isNotFound && (this.name === 'CREATE_COMPLETE' || this.name === 'UPDATE_COMPLETE' || this.name === 'IMPORT_COMPLETE');
   }
 
   public toString(): string {
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts
index d6e27a8c8e54b..9ff0580c40ce9 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts
@@ -11,8 +11,10 @@ import { Bootstrapper, BootstrapEnvironmentOptions } from './api/bootstrap';
 import { CloudFormationDeployments } from './api/cloudformation-deployments';
 import { CloudAssembly, DefaultSelection, ExtendedStackSelection, StackCollection, StackSelector } from './api/cxapp/cloud-assembly';
 import { CloudExecutable } from './api/cxapp/cloud-executable';
+import { ResourcesToImport } from './api/util/cloudformation';
 import { StackActivityProgress } from './api/util/cloudformation/stack-activity-monitor';
 import { printSecurityDiff, printStackDiff, RequireApproval } from './diff';
+import { prepareResourcesToImport } from './import';
 import { data, debug, error, highlight, print, success, warning } from './logging';
 import { deserializeStructure } from './serialize';
 import { Configuration, PROJECT_CONFIG } from './settings';
@@ -117,6 +119,11 @@ export class CdkToolkit {
       return this.watch(options);
     }
 
+    // TODO - print more intelligent message
+    if (options.importResources) {
+      warning('Import resources flag was set');
+    }
+
     const stacks = await this.selectStacksForDeploy(options.selector, options.exclusively, options.cacheCloudAssembly);
 
     const requireApproval = options.requireApproval ?? RequireApproval.Broadening;
@@ -167,6 +174,17 @@ export class CdkToolkit {
         continue;
       }
 
+      let resourcesToImport: ResourcesToImport | undefined = undefined;
+      if (options.importResources) {
+        const currentTemplate = await this.props.cloudFormation.readCurrentTemplate(stack);
+        resourcesToImport = await prepareResourcesToImport(currentTemplate, stack);
+
+        // There's a CloudFormation limitation that on import operation, no other changes are allowed:
+        // As CDK always changes the CDKMetadata resource with a new value, as a workaround, we override
+        // the template's metadata with currently deployed version
+        stack.template.Resources.CDKMetadata = currentTemplate.Resources.CDKMetadata;
+      }
+
       if (requireApproval !== RequireApproval.Never) {
         const currentTemplate = await this.props.cloudFormation.readCurrentTemplate(stack);
         if (printSecurityDiff(currentTemplate, stack, requireApproval)) {
@@ -209,6 +227,7 @@ export class CdkToolkit {
           rollback: options.rollback,
           hotswap: options.hotswap,
           extraUserAgent: options.extraUserAgent,
+          resourcesToImport,
         });
 
         const message = result.noOp
@@ -799,6 +818,14 @@ export interface DeployOptions extends WatchOptions {
    * @default true
    */
   readonly cacheCloudAssembly?: boolean;
+
+  /**
+   * Whether to import matching existing resources for newly defined constructs in the stack,
+   * rather than creating new ones
+   *
+   * @default false
+   */
+  readonly importResources?: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface DestroyOptions {
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/import.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/import.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..83ac32011c99f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/import.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+import * as cfnDiff from '@aws-cdk/cloudformation-diff';
+import * as cxapi from '@aws-cdk/cx-api';
+import * as promptly from 'promptly';
+import { ResourcesToImport } from './api/util/cloudformation';
+
+// Basic idea: we want to have a structure (ideally auto-generated from CFN definitions) that lists all resource types
+// that support importing and for each type, the identification information
+//
+// For each resource that is to be added in the new template:
+// - look up the identification information for the resource type [if not found, fail "type not supported"]
+// - look up the physical resource (perhaps using cloud control API?) [if not found, fail "resource to be imported does not exist"]
+// - assembe and return "resources to import" object to be passed on to changeset creation
+//
+// TEST: can we have a CFN changeset that both creates resources and import other resources?
+const RESOURCE_IDENTIFIERS: { [key: string]: string[] } = {
+  'AWS::S3::Bucket': ['BucketName'],
+};
+
+export async function prepareResourcesToImport(oldTemplate: any, newTemplate: cxapi.CloudFormationStackArtifact): Promise<ResourcesToImport> {
+  const diff = cfnDiff.diffTemplate(oldTemplate, newTemplate.template);
+
+  const additions: { [key: string]: cfnDiff.ResourceDifference } = {};
+  diff.resources.forEachDifference((id, chg) => {
+    if (chg.isAddition) {
+      additions[id] = chg;
+    }
+  });
+
+  const resourcesToImport: ResourcesToImport = [];
+  for (let [id, chg] of Object.entries(additions)) {
+    if (chg.newResourceType === undefined || !(chg.newResourceType in RESOURCE_IDENTIFIERS)) {
+      throw new Error(`Resource ${id} is of type ${chg.newResourceType} that is not supported for import`);
+    }
+
+    let identifier: { [key: string]: string } = {};
+    for (let idpart of RESOURCE_IDENTIFIERS[chg.newResourceType]) {
+      if (chg.newProperties && (idpart in chg.newProperties)) {
+        identifier[idpart] = chg.newProperties[idpart];
+      } else {
+        const displayName : string = newTemplate.template?.Resources?.[id]?.Metadata?.['aws:cdk:path'] ?? id;
+        identifier[idpart] = await promptly.prompt(`Please enter ${idpart} of ${chg.newResourceType} to import as ${displayName.replace(/\/Resource$/, '')}: `);
+      }
+    }
+
+    resourcesToImport.push({
+      LogicalResourceId: id,
+      ResourceType: chg.newResourceType,
+      ResourceIdentifier: identifier,
+    });
+  }
+
+  return resourcesToImport;
+}
\ No newline at end of file