diff --git a/src/Component/Signature/JWSBuilder.php b/src/Component/Signature/JWSBuilder.php
index 4f2af279..f5ccf5a4 100644
--- a/src/Component/Signature/JWSBuilder.php
+++ b/src/Component/Signature/JWSBuilder.php
@@ -104,6 +104,27 @@ public function withPayload(string $payload, bool $isPayloadDetached = false): s
         return $clone;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Set the payload to an already-encoded value.
+     * This method will return a new JWSBuilder object.
+     *
+     * @throws InvalidArgumentException if the payload is not UTF-8 encoded
+     *
+     * @return JWSBuilder
+     */
+    public function withEncodedPayload(string $payload, bool $isPayloadDetached = false): self
+    {
+        if (false === mb_detect_encoding($payload, 'UTF-8', true)) {
+            throw new InvalidArgumentException('The payload must be encoded in UTF-8');
+        }
+        $clone = clone $this;
+        $clone->payload = $payload;
+        $clone->isPayloadDetached = $isPayloadDetached;
+        $clone->isPayloadEncoded = false;
+
+        return $clone;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Adds the information needed to compute the signature.
      * This method will return a new JWSBuilder object.
@@ -177,7 +198,10 @@ public function build(): JWS
 
     private function checkIfPayloadIsEncoded(array $protectedHeader): bool
     {
-        return !array_key_exists('b64', $protectedHeader) || true === $protectedHeader['b64'];
+        if(null === $this->isPayloadEncoded)
+          return !array_key_exists('b64', $protectedHeader) || true === $protectedHeader['b64'];
+        else
+          return $this->isPayloadEncoded;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/Component/Signature/SignerTest.php b/tests/Component/Signature/SignerTest.php
index 62de2767..baf82be8 100644
--- a/tests/Component/Signature/SignerTest.php
+++ b/tests/Component/Signature/SignerTest.php
@@ -744,6 +744,30 @@ public function flattenedJSONWithUnencodedDetachedPayload(): void
         static::assertEquals($expected_result, json_decode($jws, true));
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @test
+     */
+    public function jWSWithExternallyEncodedPayload(): void
+    {
+        $payload = 'aaaaaaa';
+        $jwsBuilder = $this->getJWSBuilderFactory()->create(['HS512']);
+
+        $expected_result = [
+          'payload' => $payload,
+          'protected' => 'eyJhbGciOiJIUzUxMiJ9',
+          'signature' => '_CzoyjQh6gCXWY01DbJwXBJ5yZzeSgYTF5VbHpLRePP3Xt300n4yTEflj8xrrPNrvjApk6YpjTLX-CYX6YzsbA'
+        ];
+
+        $jws = $jwsBuilder
+            ->create()->withEncodedPayload($payload)
+            ->addSignature($this->getKey1(), ['alg' => 'HS512'])
+            ->build()
+        ;
+        $jws = $this->getJWSSerializerManager()->serialize('jws_json_flattened', $jws, 0);
+
+        static::assertEquals($expected_result, json_decode($jws, true));
+    }
+
     /**
      * @test
      */