diff --git a/.ci/versions_checker.sh b/.ci/versions_checker.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..fe0f0092ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.ci/versions_checker.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2019 Intel Corporation
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+#
+# The purpose of this script is to
+# run the tag_repos.sh script that is in the
+# packaging repository which checks the VERSION
+# file from the components in order to verify
+# that the VERSION matches between them.
+# This ensures that the rest
+# of the components are merged before the runtime
+
+set -e
+
+GOPATH=${GOPATH:-${HOME}/go}
+
+PACKAGING_REPO="github.com/kata-containers/packaging"
+RUNTIME_REPO="github.com/kata-containers/runtime"
+KATA_BRANCH=${target_branch:-master}
+
+go get -d "${PACKAGING_REPO}" || true
+
+check_changes=$(git diff --name-only "origin/${KATA_BRANCH}" | grep VERSION)
+version_to_check=$(cat "${GOPATH}/src/${RUNTIME_REPO}/VERSION")
+
+if [ ! -z "$check_changes" ]; then
+	echo "Changes detected on VERSION"
+	echo "Check versions in branch ${KATA_BRANCH}"
+	pushd "${GOPATH}/src/${PACKAGING_REPO}"
+	./release/tag_repos.sh -b "${KATA_BRANCH}" pre-release "${version_to_check}"
+	popd
+fi
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index d65771fdc6..1236f4a34d 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -21,7 +21,10 @@ env:
   - target_branch=$TRAVIS_BRANCH
 
 before_install:
+  - git remote set-branches --add origin "${TRAVIS_BRANCH}"
+  - git fetch
   - ".ci/setup.sh"
+  - ".ci/versions_checker.sh"
 
 before_script:
   - ".ci/static-checks.sh"
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 53adb84c82..a7ee35a3ea 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.8.2
+1.8.3