diff --git a/FWCore/PyDevParameterSet/src/PyBind11ProcessDesc.cc b/FWCore/PyDevParameterSet/src/PyBind11ProcessDesc.cc
index 3d24668722316..bca75c9f16927 100644
--- a/FWCore/PyDevParameterSet/src/PyBind11ProcessDesc.cc
+++ b/FWCore/PyDevParameterSet/src/PyBind11ProcessDesc.cc
@@ -34,12 +34,24 @@ PyBind11ProcessDesc::PyBind11ProcessDesc(std::string const& config, int argc, ch
   pybind11::initialize_interpreter();
   edm::python::initializePyBind11Module();
   prepareToRead();
+  {
+#if PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3
+  typedef std::unique_ptr<wchar_t[], decltype(&PyMem_RawFree)> WArgUPtr;
+  std::vector<WArgUPtr> v_argv;
+  std::vector<wchar_t *> vp_argv;
+  v_argv.reserve(argc);
+  vp_argv.reserve(argc);
+  for (int i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
+    v_argv.emplace_back(Py_DecodeLocale(argv[i], NULL), &PyMem_RawFree);
+    vp_argv.emplace_back(v_argv.back().get());
+  }
+
+  wchar_t **argvt = vp_argv.data();
+#else
+  char **argvt = argv;
+#endif
 
-  if ( argc > 0 ) {
-    pybind11::list argvList;
-    for ( int i=0; i<argc; i++)
-      argvList.append(argv[i]);
-    pybind11::module::import("sys").attr("argv") = argvList;
+  PySys_SetArgv(argc, argvt);
   }
   read(config);
 }
diff --git a/FWCore/PyDevParameterSet/src/PyBind11Wrapper.h b/FWCore/PyDevParameterSet/src/PyBind11Wrapper.h
index aad78ccd6c71c..31bbe3031a275 100644
--- a/FWCore/PyDevParameterSet/src/PyBind11Wrapper.h
+++ b/FWCore/PyDevParameterSet/src/PyBind11Wrapper.h
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include <vector>
 #include <string>
 #include <pybind11/pybind11.h>
+#include <pybind11/stl.h>
 #include <iostream>
 
 namespace edm {
@@ -15,10 +16,7 @@ void
 
   template<typename T>
     pybind11::list toPython11List(const std::vector<T> & v) {
-    pybind11::list result;
-    for(const auto & i: v) {
-       result.append(i);
-    }
+    pybind11::list result=pybind11::cast(v);
     return result;
   }