diff --git a/.changeset/neat-toes-build.md b/.changeset/neat-toes-build.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a4b259ef83e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/neat-toes-build.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@primer/react": patch
+---
+
+experimental/SelectPanel: Move focus to first item if there is no filter input
diff --git a/packages/react/src/drafts/SelectPanel2/SelectPanel.tsx b/packages/react/src/drafts/SelectPanel2/SelectPanel.tsx
index 9943e1862f2..7c2a48e0e80 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/drafts/SelectPanel2/SelectPanel.tsx
+++ b/packages/react/src/drafts/SelectPanel2/SelectPanel.tsx
@@ -191,12 +191,16 @@ const Panel: React.FC<SelectPanelProps> = ({
   // Autofocus hack: React doesn't support autoFocus for dialog: https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/23301
   // tl;dr: react takes over autofocus instead of letting the browser handle it,
   // but not for dialogs, so we have to do it
-  React.useEffect(() => {
-    if (internalOpen) {
-      const searchInput = document.querySelector('dialog[open] input') as HTMLInputElement | undefined
-      searchInput?.focus()
-    }
-  }, [internalOpen])
+  React.useEffect(
+    function intialFocus() {
+      if (internalOpen) {
+        const searchInput = document.querySelector('dialog[open] input') as HTMLInputElement | undefined
+        if (searchInput) searchInput.focus()
+        else moveFocusToList()
+      }
+    },
+    [internalOpen],
+  )
 
   /* Anchored */
   const {position} = useAnchoredPosition(