A method, apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium for wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE) is provided. The UE receives an indication of one or more timers associated with a radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or an RRC connection re-establishment procedure with a network entity via a relay. The UE transmits a request associated with an RRC connection to a second UE to be relayed to the network entity and monitors for a response from the network entity based on the one or more timers associated with the RRC connection establishment procedure or the RRC connection re-establishment procedure via the second UE as the relay.