diff --git a/app/controllers/application.js b/app/controllers/application.js
index 2677c3e5..a390b5d3 100644
--- a/app/controllers/application.js
+++ b/app/controllers/application.js
@@ -15,10 +15,8 @@ export default class ApplicationController extends Controller {
   @alias('model.staticConfig')
   staticConfig;
 
-  params = ['userToken'];
   rootURL = config.rootURL;
 
-  @tracked userToken = null;
   @tracked wideRoutes = ['grants.index', 'grants.detail', 'submissions.index'];
   @tracked brand = get(this, 'staticConfig.branding');
   @tracked currentRouteName = this.router.currentRouteName;
diff --git a/app/routes/application.js b/app/routes/application.js
index 2f412766..3d2a95ed 100644
--- a/app/routes/application.js
+++ b/app/routes/application.js
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import { action } from '@ember/object';
 export default class ApplicationRoute extends CheckSessionRoute {
   @service('app-static-config') staticConfig;
 
+  queryParams = ['userToken'];
+
   /* Used as route-action in templates */
   @action
   back() {
@@ -18,42 +20,14 @@ export default class ApplicationRoute extends CheckSessionRoute {
   }
 
   /**
-   * It is possible for unfortunate things to happen somewhere in the backend stack
-   * that will result in route ids not being encoded.
-   * Therefore we specially handle the /submissions/id and /grants/id routes. In
-   * the event that unencoded ID is encountered (it will include slashes), replace
-   * the current history with the encoded version.
+   * If there is a userToken query parameter call the user service with that parameter
+   * to ensure objects are updated in the backend before any queries are done.
    */
   beforeModel(transition) {
-    let intent = transition.intent.url;
-
-    if (!intent) {
-      return;
-    }
+    let userToken = transition.to.queryParams.userToken;
 
-    let prefix = null;
-
-    if (intent.startsWith('/grants/')) {
-      prefix = '/grants/';
-    } else if (intent.startsWith('/submissions/')) {
-      prefix = '/submissions/';
-    } else {
-      return;
-    }
-
-    // Work around ember collapsing // into /
-    if (intent.includes('https:/') && !intent.includes('https://')) {
-      intent = intent.replace('https:/', 'https://');
-    }
-
-    // Ensure that route parameter is encoded
-    if (intent.includes('https://')) {
-      let q = intent.indexOf('?');
-      if (q == -1) {
-        q = intent.length;
-      }
-      const targetId = intent.substring(prefix.length, q);
-      this.replaceWith(intent.replace(targetId, `${encodeURIComponent(targetId)}`));
+    if (userToken) {
+      return fetch(`/user/whoami?userToken=${encodeURIComponent(userToken)}`);
     }
   }