diff --git a/ec2-create-ce b/ec2-create-ce
index 618dca8..006acc2 100755
--- a/ec2-create-ce
+++ b/ec2-create-ce
@@ -411,17 +411,6 @@ ec2-create-tags --region "$AWS_REGION" "$INSTANCE_ID" --tag Purpose="$TAG_PURPOS
 # assign name (useful for web management console browsing)
 ec2-create-tags --region "$AWS_REGION" "$INSTANCE_ID" --tag Name="${AMI_NAME}/${DATE_STRING}/${JOB_NAME}/build_${BUILD_NUMBER}"
 
-# assign elastic IP address to instance,
-# enabling us to enable access to restricted
-# webserver areas
-if [ -n "$ALLOCATION_ID" ] ; then
-  echo "Associating elastic IP $ELASTIC_IP allocation ID ${ALLOCATION_ID} with instance ID $INSTANCE_ID"
-  ec2-associate-address --region "${AWS_REGION}" --allocation-id "${ALLOCATION_ID}" --instance "${INSTANCE_ID}"
-elif [ -n "$ELASTIC_IP" ] ; then
-  echo "Associating elastic IP $ELASTIC_IP with instance ID $INSTANCE_ID"
-  ec2-associate-address --region "${AWS_REGION}" "${ELASTIC_IP}" -i "${INSTANCE_ID}"
-fi
-
 STATUS="$(ec2-describe-instances --region ${AWS_REGION} --filter instance-id="$INSTANCE_ID" | awk '/INSTANCE/ {print $6}')"
 echo "Starting instance ID $INSTANCE_ID for ngcp version $NGCP_VERSION"
 
@@ -438,6 +427,17 @@ if [ "$STATUS" != "running" ] ; then
   bailout 1
 fi
 
+# assign elastic IP address to instance,
+# enabling us to enable access to restricted
+# webserver areas
+if [ -n "$ALLOCATION_ID" ] ; then
+  echo "Associating elastic IP $ELASTIC_IP allocation ID ${ALLOCATION_ID} with instance ID $INSTANCE_ID"
+  ec2-associate-address --region "${AWS_REGION}" --allocation-id "${ALLOCATION_ID}" --instance "${INSTANCE_ID}"
+elif [ -n "$ELASTIC_IP" ] ; then
+  echo "Associating elastic IP $ELASTIC_IP with instance ID $INSTANCE_ID"
+  ec2-associate-address --region "${AWS_REGION}" "${ELASTIC_IP}" -i "${INSTANCE_ID}"
+fi
+
 HOSTNAME="$(ec2-describe-instances --region ${AWS_REGION} --filter instance-id="$INSTANCE_ID" | awk '/INSTANCE/ {print $4}')"
 
 retry=360 # up to 30 minutes