diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index f2f90c966..9eb1da0fe 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -914,7 +914,7 @@
           <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.ParenPadCheck</pattern><branchRate>86</branchRate><lineRate>95</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.SeparatorWrapCheck</pattern><branchRate>100</branchRate><lineRate>93</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.TypecastParenPadCheck</pattern><branchRate>87</branchRate><lineRate>88</lineRate></regex>
-          <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.WhitespaceAfterCheck</pattern><branchRate>90</branchRate><lineRate>90</lineRate></regex>
+          <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.WhitespaceAfterCheck</pattern><branchRate>86</branchRate><lineRate>90</lineRate></regex>
           <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.WhitespaceAroundCheck</pattern><branchRate>96</branchRate><lineRate>98</lineRate></regex>
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/WhitespaceAfterCheck.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/WhitespaceAfterCheck.java
index d91a73d92..586a771f6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/WhitespaceAfterCheck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/WhitespaceAfterCheck.java
@@ -102,22 +102,32 @@ public class WhitespaceAfterCheck
                 && (charAfter == ';' || charAfter == ')')) {
                 return;
             }
-            if (!Character.isWhitespace(charAfter)) {
-                //empty FOR_ITERATOR?
-                if (targetAST.getType() == TokenTypes.SEMI) {
-                    final DetailAST sibling =
-                        targetAST.getNextSibling();
-                    if (sibling != null
-                        && sibling.getType() == TokenTypes.FOR_ITERATOR
-                        && sibling.getChildCount() == 0) {
-                        return;
-                    }
-                }
+            if (!Character.isWhitespace(charAfter) && !isEmptyForIterator(targetAST)) {
+
                 log(targetAST.getLineNo(),
-                    targetAST.getColumnNo() + targetAST.getText().length(),
-                    WS_NOT_FOLLOWED,
-                    message);
+                        targetAST.getColumnNo() + targetAST.getText().length(),
+                        WS_NOT_FOLLOWED,
+                        message);
             }
         }
     }
+
+    /**
+     * check for empty FOR_ITERATOR
+     * @param targetAST Ast token
+     * @return true if iterator is empty
+     */
+    private boolean isEmptyForIterator(DetailAST targetAST) {
+
+        if (targetAST.getType() == TokenTypes.SEMI) {
+            final DetailAST sibling =
+                targetAST.getNextSibling();
+            if (sibling != null
+                && sibling.getType() == TokenTypes.FOR_ITERATOR
+                && sibling.getChildCount() == 0) {
+                return true;
+            }
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
 }