diff --git a/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RequestConverters.java b/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RequestConverters.java
index 3acb8d8297306..f1d37691a796c 100644
--- a/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RequestConverters.java
+++ b/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RequestConverters.java
@@ -474,9 +474,18 @@ static Request rankEval(RankEvalRequest rankEvalRequest) throws IOException {
     }
 
     static Request reindex(ReindexRequest reindexRequest) throws IOException {
+        return prepareReindexRequest(reindexRequest, true);
+    }
+
+    static Request submitReindex(ReindexRequest reindexRequest) throws IOException {
+        return prepareReindexRequest(reindexRequest, false);
+    }
+
+    private static Request prepareReindexRequest(ReindexRequest reindexRequest, boolean waitForCompletion) throws IOException {
         String endpoint = new EndpointBuilder().addPathPart("_reindex").build();
         Request request = new Request(HttpPost.METHOD_NAME, endpoint);
         Params params = new Params(request)
+            .withWaitForCompletion(waitForCompletion)
             .withRefresh(reindexRequest.isRefresh())
             .withTimeout(reindexRequest.getTimeout())
             .withWaitForActiveShards(reindexRequest.getWaitForActiveShards())
@@ -885,11 +894,8 @@ Params withDetailed(boolean detailed) {
             return this;
         }
 
-        Params withWaitForCompletion(boolean waitForCompletion) {
-            if (waitForCompletion) {
-                return putParam("wait_for_completion", Boolean.TRUE.toString());
-            }
-            return this;
+        Params withWaitForCompletion(Boolean waitForCompletion) {
+            return putParam("wait_for_completion", waitForCompletion.toString());
         }
 
         Params withNodes(String[] nodes) {
diff --git a/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RestHighLevelClient.java b/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RestHighLevelClient.java
index bd1adf634a518..7f0d7644d675b 100644
--- a/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RestHighLevelClient.java
+++ b/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/RestHighLevelClient.java
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.action.update.UpdateResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.core.TermVectorsResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.core.TermVectorsRequest;
+import org.elasticsearch.client.reindex.ReindexSubmissionResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.CheckedConsumer;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.CheckedFunction;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.ParseField;
@@ -447,6 +448,20 @@ public final BulkByScrollResponse reindex(ReindexRequest reindexRequest, Request
         );
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Submits a reindex task.
+     * See <a href="https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-reindex.html">Reindex API on elastic.co</a>
+     * @param reindexRequest the request
+     * @param options the request options (e.g. headers), use {@link RequestOptions#DEFAULT} if nothing needs to be customized
+     * @return the submission response
+     * @throws IOException in case there is a problem sending the request or parsing back the response
+     */
+    public final ReindexSubmissionResponse submitReindexTask(ReindexRequest reindexRequest, RequestOptions options) throws IOException {
+        return performRequestAndParseEntity(
+            reindexRequest, RequestConverters::submitReindex, options, ReindexSubmissionResponse::fromXContent, emptySet()
+        );
+    }
+
     /**
      * Asynchronously executes a reindex request.
      * See <a href="https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-reindex.html">Reindex API on elastic.co</a>
diff --git a/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/reindex/ReindexSubmissionResponse.java b/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/reindex/ReindexSubmissionResponse.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..522e48f3c2e6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/rest-high-level/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/client/reindex/ReindexSubmissionResponse.java
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.elasticsearch.client.reindex;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionResponse;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.ParseField;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ConstructingObjectParser;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ObjectParser;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ToXContentObject;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
+import org.elasticsearch.tasks.TaskId;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Objects;
+
+public class ReindexSubmissionResponse extends ActionResponse implements ToXContentObject {
+    private static final ParseField TASK = new ParseField("task");
+    public static final ConstructingObjectParser<ReindexSubmissionResponse, Void> PARSER = new ConstructingObjectParser<>(
+        "reindex_submission_response",
+        true, a -> new ReindexSubmissionResponse((TaskId) a[0]));
+
+    static {
+        PARSER.declareField(ConstructingObjectParser.optionalConstructorArg(), TaskId.parser(), TASK, ObjectParser.ValueType.STRING);
+    }
+
+    public static ReindexSubmissionResponse fromXContent(XContentParser parser) throws IOException {
+        return PARSER.parse(parser, null);
+    }
+
+    private final TaskId task;
+
+    ReindexSubmissionResponse(@Nullable TaskId task) {
+        this.task = task;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Get the task id
+     *
+     * @return the id of the reindex task.
+     */
+    public TaskId getTask() {
+        return task;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int hashCode() {
+        return Objects.hash(task);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean equals(Object other) {
+        if (this == other) {
+            return true;
+        }
+        if (other == null || getClass() != other.getClass()) {
+            return false;
+        }
+        ReindexSubmissionResponse that = (ReindexSubmissionResponse) other;
+        return Objects.equals(task, that.task);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public XContentBuilder toXContent(XContentBuilder builder, Params params) throws IOException {
+        builder.startObject();
+        if (task != null) {
+            builder.field(TASK.getPreferredName(), task.toString());
+        }
+        builder.endObject();
+        return builder;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/ReindexIT.java b/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/ReindexIT.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..87b5c03a319a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/ReindexIT.java
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.client;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.action.bulk.BulkRequest;
+import org.elasticsearch.action.index.IndexRequest;
+import org.elasticsearch.action.support.WriteRequest;
+import org.elasticsearch.client.reindex.ReindexSubmissionResponse;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.query.IdsQueryBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.reindex.BulkByScrollResponse;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.reindex.ReindexRequest;
+import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestStatus;
+import org.elasticsearch.tasks.TaskId;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.function.BooleanSupplier;
+
+public class ReindexIT extends ESRestHighLevelClientTestCase {
+
+    //TODO taken from CrudIT - should these scenarios be moved here?
+    public void testReindex() throws IOException {
+        final String sourceIndex = "source1";
+        final String destinationIndex = "dest";
+        {
+            // Prepare
+            Settings settings = Settings.builder()
+                .put("number_of_shards", 1)
+                .put("number_of_replicas", 0)
+                .build();
+            createIndex(sourceIndex, settings);
+            createIndex(destinationIndex, settings);
+            BulkRequest bulkRequest = new BulkRequest()
+                .add(new IndexRequest(sourceIndex, "type", "1").source(Collections.singletonMap("foo", "bar"), XContentType.JSON))
+                .add(new IndexRequest(sourceIndex, "type", "2").source(Collections.singletonMap("foo2", "bar2"), XContentType.JSON))
+                .setRefreshPolicy(WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy.IMMEDIATE);
+            assertEquals(
+                RestStatus.OK,
+                highLevelClient().bulk(
+                    bulkRequest,
+                    RequestOptions.DEFAULT
+                ).status()
+            );
+        }
+        {
+            // test1: create one doc in dest
+            ReindexRequest reindexRequest = new ReindexRequest();
+            reindexRequest.setSourceIndices(sourceIndex);
+            reindexRequest.setDestIndex(destinationIndex);
+            reindexRequest.setSourceQuery(new IdsQueryBuilder().addIds("1").types("type"));
+            reindexRequest.setRefresh(true);
+            BulkByScrollResponse bulkResponse = execute(reindexRequest, highLevelClient()::reindex, highLevelClient()::reindexAsync);
+            assertEquals(1, bulkResponse.getCreated());
+            assertEquals(1, bulkResponse.getTotal());
+            assertEquals(0, bulkResponse.getDeleted());
+            assertEquals(0, bulkResponse.getNoops());
+            assertEquals(0, bulkResponse.getVersionConflicts());
+            assertEquals(1, bulkResponse.getBatches());
+            assertTrue(bulkResponse.getTook().getMillis() > 0);
+            assertEquals(1, bulkResponse.getBatches());
+            assertEquals(0, bulkResponse.getBulkFailures().size());
+            assertEquals(0, bulkResponse.getSearchFailures().size());
+        }
+    }
+
+    public void testReindexTask() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+        final String sourceIndex = "source123";
+        final String destinationIndex = "dest2";
+        {
+            // Prepare
+            Settings settings = Settings.builder()
+                .put("number_of_shards", 1)
+                .put("number_of_replicas", 0)
+                .build();
+            createIndex(sourceIndex, settings);
+            createIndex(destinationIndex, settings);
+            BulkRequest bulkRequest = new BulkRequest()
+                .add(new IndexRequest(sourceIndex, "type", "1").source(Collections.singletonMap("foo", "bar"), XContentType.JSON))
+                .add(new IndexRequest(sourceIndex, "type", "2").source(Collections.singletonMap("foo2", "bar2"), XContentType.JSON))
+                .setRefreshPolicy(WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy.IMMEDIATE);
+            assertEquals(
+                RestStatus.OK,
+                highLevelClient().bulk(
+                    bulkRequest,
+                    RequestOptions.DEFAULT
+                ).status()
+            );
+        }
+        {
+            // test1: create one doc in dest
+            ReindexRequest reindexRequest = new ReindexRequest();
+            reindexRequest.setSourceIndices(sourceIndex);
+            reindexRequest.setDestIndex(destinationIndex);
+            reindexRequest.setSourceQuery(new IdsQueryBuilder().addIds("1").types("type"));
+            reindexRequest.setRefresh(true);
+
+            ReindexSubmissionResponse reindexSubmission = highLevelClient().submitReindexTask(reindexRequest, RequestOptions.DEFAULT);
+
+            BooleanSupplier hasUpgradeCompleted = checkCompletionStatus(reindexSubmission.getTask());
+            awaitBusy(hasUpgradeCompleted);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private BooleanSupplier checkCompletionStatus(TaskId taskId) {
+        return () -> {
+            try {
+                Response response = client().performRequest(new Request("GET", "/_tasks/" + taskId.toString()));
+                return (boolean) entityAsMap(response).get("completed");
+            } catch (IOException e) {
+                fail(e.getMessage());
+                return false;
+            }
+        };
+    }
+}