diff --git a/html-imports.js b/html-imports.js
index 2477ffb..9c97b9c 100644
--- a/html-imports.js
+++ b/html-imports.js
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ var scopeName = 'HTMLImports';
 var modules = [
   'src/scope.js',
   'src/path.js',
+  'src/Loader.js',
   'src/HTMLImports.js',
   'src/Parser.js',
   'src/boot.js'
diff --git a/src/HTMLImports.js b/src/HTMLImports.js
index ff086ca..d093a90 100644
--- a/src/HTMLImports.js
+++ b/src/HTMLImports.js
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ if (!useNative) {
 
   // imports
   var path = scope.path;
+  var Loader = scope.Loader;
   var xhr = scope.xhr;
 
   // importer
@@ -33,7 +34,7 @@ if (!useNative) {
   // linked style sheets in an <element> are loaded, and the content gets path fixups
   // inline style sheets get path fixups when their containing import modifies paths
 
-  var loader;
+  var importLoader;
   var IMPORT_LINK_TYPE = 'import';
   var STYLE_LINK_TYPE = 'stylesheet';
 
@@ -47,30 +48,30 @@ if (!useNative) {
       'script[src][type="text/javascript"]'
     ].join(','),
     loader: function(next) {
-      if (loader && loader.inflight) {
-        var currentComplete = loader.oncomplete;
-        loader.oncomplete = function() {
+      if (importLoader && importLoader.inflight) {
+        var currentComplete = importLoader.oncomplete;
+        importLoader.oncomplete = function() {
           currentComplete();
           next();
         }
-        return loader;
+        return importLoader;
       }
       // construct a loader instance
-      loader = new Loader(importer.loaded, next);
+      importLoader = new Loader(importer.loaded, next);
       // alias the importer cache (for debugging)
-      loader.cache = importer.cache;
-      return loader;
+      importLoader.cache = importer.cache;
+      return importLoader;
     },
     load: function(doc, next) {
       // get a loader instance from the factory
-      loader = importer.loader(next);
+      importLoader = importer.loader(next);
       // add nodes from document into loader queue
       importer.preload(doc);
     },
     preload: function(doc) {
       var nodes = this.marshalNodes(doc);
       // add these nodes to loader's queue
-      loader.addNodes(nodes);
+      importLoader.addNodes(nodes);
     },
     marshalNodes: function(doc) {
       // all preloadable nodes in inDocument
@@ -188,178 +189,13 @@ if (!useNative) {
     return doc;
   }
 
-  var Loader = function(onLoad, onComplete) {
-    this.onload = onLoad;
-    this.oncomplete = onComplete;
-    this.inflight = 0;
-    this.pending = {};
-    this.cache = {};
-  };
-
-  Loader.prototype = {
-    addNodes: function(nodes) {
-      // number of transactions to complete
-      this.inflight += nodes.length;
-      // commence transactions
-      forEach(nodes, this.require, this);
-      // anything to do?
-      this.checkDone();
-    },
-    require: function(elt) {
-      var url = path.nodeUrl(elt);
-      // ensure we have a standard url that can be used
-      // reliably for deduping.
-      url = path.makeAbsUrl(url);
-      // TODO(sjmiles): ad-hoc
-      elt.__nodeUrl = url;
-      // deduplication
-      if (!this.dedupe(url, elt)) {
-        // fetch this resource
-        this.fetch(url, elt);
-      }
-    },
-    dedupe: function(url, elt) {
-      if (this.pending[url]) {
-        // add to list of nodes waiting for inUrl
-        this.pending[url].push(elt);
-        // don't need fetch
-        return true;
-      }
-      if (this.cache[url]) {
-        // complete load using cache data
-        this.onload(url, elt, loader.cache[url]);
-        // finished this transaction
-        this.tail();
-        // don't need fetch
-        return true;
-      }
-      // first node waiting for inUrl
-      this.pending[url] = [elt];
-      // need fetch (not a dupe)
-      return false;
-    },
-    fetch: function(url, elt) {
-      var receiveXhr = function(err, resource) {
-        this.receive(url, elt, err, resource);
-      }.bind(this);
-      xhr.load(url, receiveXhr);
-      // TODO(sorvell): blocked on
-      // https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=257221
-      // xhr'ing for a document makes scripts in imports runnable; otherwise
-      // they are not; however, it requires that we have doctype=html in
-      // the import which is unacceptable. This is only needed on Chrome
-      // to avoid the bug above.
-      /*
-      if (isDocumentLink(elt)) {
-        xhr.loadDocument(url, receiveXhr);
-      } else {
-        xhr.load(url, receiveXhr);
-      }
-      */
-    },
-    receive: function(url, elt, err, resource) {
-      if (!err) {
-        loader.cache[url] = resource;
-      }
-      loader.pending[url].forEach(function(e) {
-        if (!err) {
-          this.onload(url, e, resource);
-        }
-        this.tail();
-      }, this);
-      loader.pending[url] = null;
-    },
-    tail: function() {
-      --this.inflight;
-      this.checkDone();
-    },
-    checkDone: function() {
-      if (!this.inflight) {
-        this.oncomplete();
-      }
-    }
-  };
-
-  xhr = xhr || {
-    async: true,
-    ok: function(request) {
-      return (request.status >= 200 && request.status < 300)
-          || (request.status === 304)
-          || (request.status === 0);
-    },
-    load: function(url, next, nextContext) {
-      var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
-      if (scope.flags.debug || scope.flags.bust) {
-        url += '?' + Math.random();
-      }
-      request.open('GET', url, xhr.async);
-      request.addEventListener('readystatechange', function(e) {
-        if (request.readyState === 4) {
-          next.call(nextContext, !xhr.ok(request) && request,
-              request.response || request.responseText, url);
-        }
-      });
-      request.send();
-      return request;
-    },
-    loadDocument: function(url, next, nextContext) {
-      this.load(url, next, nextContext).responseType = 'document';
-    }
-  };
-
   var forEach = Array.prototype.forEach.call.bind(Array.prototype.forEach);
 
   // exports
-  scope.xhr = xhr;
   scope.importer = importer;
   scope.IMPORT_LINK_TYPE = IMPORT_LINK_TYPE;
 } else {
   // do nothing if using native imports
-  /*
-  // TODO(sorvell): this exists as a load extension point.
-  importer.preloadSelectors = [
-    'template'
-  ].join(',');
-
-  function forEachImport(imp, cb) {
-    if (cb) {
-      cb(imp);
-    }
-    var n$ = imp.querySelectorAll('link[rel=' + IMPORT_LINK_TYPE + ']');
-    for (var i=0, l=n$.length, n; (i<l) && (n=n$[i]); i++) {
-      if (n.import) {
-        forEachImport(n.import, cb);
-      } else {
-        console.warn('import not loaded', n);
-      }
-    }
-  };
-  
-  var marshalNodes = importer.marshalNodes;
-  function preloadImport(imp) {
-    nodes = marshalNodes.call(this, imp);
-    var url = path.documentUrlFromNode(imp);
-    for (var i=0, l=nodes.length, n; (i<l) && (n=nodes[i]); i++) {
-      path.resolveNodeAttributes(n, url);  
-    }
-    return nodes; 
-  };
-  
-
-  // marshal all relevant nodes in import tree.
-  importer.marshalNodes = function(doc) {
-    var nodes = [], self = this;
-    forEachImport(doc, function(imp) {
-      // only preload 1x per import.
-      if (!imp._preloaded) {
-        imp._preloaded = true;
-        var n$ = preloadImport.call(self, imp);
-        nodes = nodes.concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(n$, 0));
-      }
-    });
-    return nodes;
-  }
-  */
 }
 
 // NOTE: We cannot polyfill document.currentScript because it's not possible
@@ -374,8 +210,34 @@ Object.defineProperty(document, '_currentScript', {
   configurable: true
 });
 
+function whenImportsReady(callback, doc) {
+  doc = doc || document;
+  if (doc.readyState === 'loading') {
+    doc.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
+      whenImportsReady(callback, doc);
+    })
+    return;
+  }
+  var imports = doc.querySelectorAll('link[rel=import');
+  var loaded = 0, l = imports.length;
+  function check() {
+    loaded++;
+    if (loaded == l) {
+      callback && callback();
+    }
+  }
+  for (var i=0, imp; (i<l) && (imp=imports[i]); i++) {
+    if (imp.import) {
+      check();
+    } else {
+      imp.addEventListener('load', check);
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 // exports
 scope.hasNative = hasNative;
 scope.useNative = useNative;
+scope.whenImportsReady = whenImportsReady;
 
 })(window.HTMLImports);
diff --git a/src/Loader.js b/src/Loader.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..238f767
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Loader.js
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2013 The Polymer Authors. All rights reserved.
+ * Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+ * license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+ */
+
+(function(scope) {
+
+  // imports
+  var path = scope.path;
+  var xhr = scope.xhr;
+
+  var cache = {};
+
+  var Loader = function(onLoad, onComplete) {
+    this.onload = onLoad;
+    this.oncomplete = onComplete;
+    this.inflight = 0;
+    this.pending = {};
+  };
+
+  Loader.prototype = {
+    addNodes: function(nodes) {
+      // number of transactions to complete
+      this.inflight += nodes.length;
+      // commence transactions
+      forEach(nodes, this.require, this);
+      // anything to do?
+      this.checkDone();
+    },
+    require: function(elt) {
+      var url = path.nodeUrl(elt);
+      // ensure we have a standard url that can be used
+      // reliably for deduping.
+      url = path.makeAbsUrl(url);
+      // TODO(sjmiles): ad-hoc
+      elt.__nodeUrl = url;
+      // deduplication
+      if (!this.dedupe(url, elt)) {
+        // fetch this resource
+        this.fetch(url, elt);
+      }
+    },
+    dedupe: function(url, elt) {
+      if (this.pending[url]) {
+        // add to list of nodes waiting for inUrl
+        this.pending[url].push(elt);
+        // don't need fetch
+        return true;
+      }
+      if (this.cache[url]) {
+        // complete load using cache data
+        this.onload(url, elt, cache[url]);
+        // finished this transaction
+        this.tail();
+        // don't need fetch
+        return true;
+      }
+      // first node waiting for inUrl
+      this.pending[url] = [elt];
+      // need fetch (not a dupe)
+      return false;
+    },
+    fetch: function(url, elt) {
+      var receiveXhr = function(err, resource) {
+        this.receive(url, elt, err, resource);
+      }.bind(this);
+      xhr.load(url, receiveXhr);
+      // TODO(sorvell): blocked on
+      // https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=257221
+      // xhr'ing for a document makes scripts in imports runnable; otherwise
+      // they are not; however, it requires that we have doctype=html in
+      // the import which is unacceptable. This is only needed on Chrome
+      // to avoid the bug above.
+      /*
+      if (isDocumentLink(elt)) {
+        xhr.loadDocument(url, receiveXhr);
+      } else {
+        xhr.load(url, receiveXhr);
+      }
+      */
+    },
+    receive: function(url, elt, err, resource) {
+      if (!err) {
+        cache[url] = resource;
+      }
+      this.pending[url].forEach(function(e) {
+        if (!err) {
+          this.onload(url, e, resource);
+        }
+        this.tail();
+      }, this);
+      this.pending[url] = null;
+    },
+    tail: function() {
+      --this.inflight;
+      this.checkDone();
+    },
+    checkDone: function() {
+      if (!this.inflight) {
+        this.oncomplete();
+      }
+    }
+  };
+
+  xhr = xhr || {
+    async: true,
+    ok: function(request) {
+      return (request.status >= 200 && request.status < 300)
+          || (request.status === 304)
+          || (request.status === 0);
+    },
+    load: function(url, next, nextContext) {
+      var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
+      if (scope.flags.debug || scope.flags.bust) {
+        url += '?' + Math.random();
+      }
+      request.open('GET', url, xhr.async);
+      request.addEventListener('readystatechange', function(e) {
+        if (request.readyState === 4) {
+          next.call(nextContext, !xhr.ok(request) && request,
+              request.response || request.responseText, url);
+        }
+      });
+      request.send();
+      return request;
+    },
+    loadDocument: function(url, next, nextContext) {
+      this.load(url, next, nextContext).responseType = 'document';
+    }
+  };
+
+  var forEach = Array.prototype.forEach.call.bind(Array.prototype.forEach);
+
+  // exports
+  scope.xhr = xhr;
+  scope.Loader = Loader;
+
+})(window.HTMLImports);
diff --git a/src/boot.js b/src/boot.js
index 7d12744..c2dbd15 100644
--- a/src/boot.js
+++ b/src/boot.js
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ function notifyReady() {
 }
 
 if (HTMLImports.useNative) {
-  notifyReady();
+  //notifyReady();
 } else {
   function bootstrap() {
     // preload document resource trees
@@ -56,6 +56,10 @@ if (HTMLImports.useNative) {
   } else {
     window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', bootstrap);
   }
+
+  HTMLImports.whenImportsReady(function() {
+    notifyReady();
+  });
 }
 
 })();