diff --git a/openwisp-qa-check b/openwisp-qa-check
index 7ca185a2..27552749 100755
--- a/openwisp-qa-check
+++ b/openwisp-qa-check
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ runcheckpendingmigrations() {
   if [ ! -f "./tests/manage.py" ]; then
     echo "File manage.py not found, skipping Make Migration Check."
   else
-    OUTPUT=$(python tests/manage.py makemigrations --dry-run $MODULE)
+    OUTPUT=$(OWQA_USE_IN_MEMORY_DB=1 python tests/manage.py makemigrations --dry-run $MODULE)
     echo $OUTPUT | grep "No changes detected" &>/dev/null &&
       echo "SUCCESS: Migrations check successful!" ||
       {
diff --git a/tests/openwisp2/settings.py b/tests/openwisp2/settings.py
index 27038e9c..ace22cae 100644
--- a/tests/openwisp2/settings.py
+++ b/tests/openwisp2/settings.py
@@ -13,6 +13,14 @@
         "NAME": "openwisp_utils.db",
     }
 }
+
+# Force in-memory DB for QA migration checks
+if os.environ.get("OWQA_USE_IN_MEMORY_DB"):
+    DATABASES["default"] = {
+        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.sqlite3",
+        "NAME": ":memory:",
+    }
+
 if TESTING and "--exclude-tag=selenium_tests" not in sys.argv:
     DATABASES["default"]["TEST"] = {
         "NAME": os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "openwisp_utils_tests.db"),