diff --git a/docs/api-usage.rst b/docs/api-usage.rst
index fc2314ee8..d211e25ab 100644
--- a/docs/api-usage.rst
+++ b/docs/api-usage.rst
@@ -366,3 +366,20 @@ default an exception is raised for these errors.
 
    gl = gitlab.gitlab(url, token, api_version=4)
    gl.projects.list(all=True, retry_transient_errors=True)
+
+Timeout
+-------
+
+python-gitlab will by default use the ``timeout`` option from it's configuration
+for all requests. This is passed downwards to the ``requests`` module at the
+time of making the HTTP request. However if you would like to override the
+global timeout parameter for a particular call, you can provide the ``timeout``
+parameter to that API invocation:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   import gitlab
+
+   gl = gitlab.gitlab(url, token, api_version=4)
+   gl.projects.import_github(ACCESS_TOKEN, 123456, "root", timeout=120.0)
+
diff --git a/gitlab/__init__.py b/gitlab/__init__.py
index 03e55568d..c4460a421 100644
--- a/gitlab/__init__.py
+++ b/gitlab/__init__.py
@@ -491,6 +491,8 @@ def http_request(
 
         verify = opts.pop("verify")
         timeout = opts.pop("timeout")
+        # If timeout was passed into kwargs, allow it to override the default
+        timeout = kwargs.get("timeout", timeout)
 
         # We need to deal with json vs. data when uploading files
         if files:
diff --git a/gitlab/tests/test_gitlab.py b/gitlab/tests/test_gitlab.py
index 5bf373a13..3eccf6e7d 100644
--- a/gitlab/tests/test_gitlab.py
+++ b/gitlab/tests/test_gitlab.py
@@ -844,6 +844,33 @@ def resp_update_submodule(url, request):
             self.assertEqual(ret["message"], "Message")
             self.assertEqual(ret["id"], "ed899a2f4b50b4370feeea94676502b42383c746")
 
+    def test_import_github(self):
+        @urlmatch(
+            scheme="http",
+            netloc="localhost",
+            path="/api/v4/import/github",
+            method="post",
+        )
+        def resp_import_github(url, request):
+            headers = {"content-type": "application/json"}
+            content = """{
+            "id": 27,
+            "name": "my-repo",
+            "full_path": "/root/my-repo",
+            "full_name": "Administrator / my-repo"
+            }"""
+            content = content.encode("utf-8")
+            return response(200, content, headers, None, 25, request)
+
+        with HTTMock(resp_import_github):
+            base_path = "/root"
+            name = "my-repo"
+            ret = self.gl.projects.import_github("githubkey", 1234, base_path, name)
+            self.assertIsInstance(ret, dict)
+            self.assertEqual(ret["name"], name)
+            self.assertEqual(ret["full_path"], "/".join((base_path, name)))
+            self.assertTrue(ret["full_name"].endswith(name))
+
     def _default_config(self):
         fd, temp_path = tempfile.mkstemp()
         os.write(fd, valid_config)
diff --git a/gitlab/v4/objects.py b/gitlab/v4/objects.py
index 2b5ed1ddc..65be16d1b 100644
--- a/gitlab/v4/objects.py
+++ b/gitlab/v4/objects.py
@@ -4744,6 +4744,69 @@ def import_project(
             "/projects/import", post_data=data, files=files, **kwargs
         )
 
+    def import_github(
+        self, personal_access_token, repo_id, target_namespace, new_name=None, **kwargs
+    ):
+        """Import a project from Github to Gitlab (schedule the import)
+
+        This method will return when an import operation has been safely queued,
+        or an error has occurred. After triggering an import, check the
+        `import_status` of the newly created project to detect when the import
+        operation has completed.
+
+        NOTE: this request may take longer than most other API requests.
+        So this method will specify a 60 second default timeout if none is specified.
+        A timeout can be specified via kwargs to override this functionality.
+
+        Args:
+            personal_access_token (str): GitHub personal access token
+            repo_id (int): Github repository ID
+            target_namespace (str): Namespace to import repo into
+            new_name (str): New repo name (Optional)
+            **kwargs: Extra options to send to the server (e.g. sudo)
+
+        Raises:
+            GitlabAuthenticationError: If authentication is not correct
+            GitlabListError: If the server failed to perform the request
+
+        Returns:
+            dict: A representation of the import status.
+
+        Example:
+        ```
+            gl = gitlab.Gitlab_from_config()
+            print "Triggering import"
+            result = gl.projects.import_github(ACCESS_TOKEN,
+                                               123456,
+                                               "my-group/my-subgroup")
+            project = gl.projects.get(ret['id'])
+            print "Waiting for import to complete"
+            while project.import_status == u'started':
+                time.sleep(1.0)
+                project = gl.projects.get(project.id)
+            print "Github import complete"
+        ```
+        """
+        data = {
+            "personal_access_token": personal_access_token,
+            "repo_id": repo_id,
+            "target_namespace": target_namespace,
+        }
+        if new_name:
+            data["new_name"] = new_name
+        if (
+            "timeout" not in kwargs
+            or self.gitlab.timeout is None
+            or self.gitlab.timeout < 60.0
+        ):
+            # Ensure that this HTTP request has a longer-than-usual default timeout
+            # The base gitlab object tends to have a default that is <10 seconds,
+            # and this is too short for this API command, typically.
+            # On the order of 24 seconds has been measured on a typical gitlab instance.
+            kwargs["timeout"] = 60.0
+        result = self.gitlab.http_post("/import/github", post_data=data, **kwargs)
+        return result
+
 
 class RunnerJob(RESTObject):
     pass