diff --git a/mercurial/merge.py b/mercurial/merge.py
--- a/mercurial/merge.py
+++ b/mercurial/merge.py
@@ -598,8 +598,8 @@ def _getcheckunknownconfig(repo, section
 def _checkunknownfile(repo, wctx, mctx, f, f2=None):
     if f2 is None:
         f2 = f
-    return (repo.wvfs.isfileorlink(f)
-        and repo.wvfs.audit.check(f)
+    return (repo.wvfs.audit.check(f)
+        and repo.wvfs.isfileorlink(f)
         and repo.dirstate.normalize(f) not in repo.dirstate
         and mctx[f2].cmp(wctx[f]))