diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-autocomplete/gr-autocomplete.html b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-autocomplete/gr-autocomplete.html
index 46877d7..1fa3db1 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-autocomplete/gr-autocomplete.html
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-autocomplete/gr-autocomplete.html
@@ -77,30 +77,13 @@
         on-blur="_onInputBlur"
         autocomplete="off">
 
-      <template is="dom-if" if="[[_isPolymer2()]]">
-        <!-- Content uses vertical-align:baseline. If iron-icon is placed
-          directly in the slot and is not visible,  vertical-align doesn't
-          work, because display:none convert it from inline-block element to
-          block element. To fix this problem, iron-icon is wrapped in div
-          which never changes display type.
-          The problem doesn't exist in Polymer1 because DOM is different.
-          Applying the same fix to Polymer1 breaks vertical-align.
-        -->
-        <div slot="prefix">
-          <iron-icon
-            icon="gr-icons:search"
-            class$="searchIcon [[_computeShowSearchIconClass(showSearchIcon)]]">
-          </iron-icon>
-        </div>
-      </template>
-      <template is="dom-if" if="[[!_isPolymer2()]]">
+      <!-- prefix as attribute is required to for polymer 1 -->
+      <div slot="prefix" prefix>
         <iron-icon
-          prefix
           icon="gr-icons:search"
           class$="searchIcon [[_computeShowSearchIconClass(showSearchIcon)]]">
         </iron-icon>
-      </template>
-
+      </div>
     </paper-input>
     <gr-autocomplete-dropdown
         vertical-align="top"
diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-autocomplete/gr-autocomplete.js b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-autocomplete/gr-autocomplete.js
index 745cff1..d422df8 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-autocomplete/gr-autocomplete.js
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-autocomplete/gr-autocomplete.js
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@
     },
 
     focus() {
-      this.$.input.focus();
+      this._nativeInput.focus();
     },
 
     selectAll() {
@@ -330,7 +330,7 @@
         default:
           // For any normal keypress, return focus to the input to allow for
           // unbroken user input.
-          this.$.input.inputElement.focus();
+          this.focus();
 
           // Since this has been a normal keypress, the suggestions will have
           // been based on a previous input. Clear them. This prevents an
@@ -430,9 +430,5 @@
     _computeShowSearchIconClass(showSearchIcon) {
       return showSearchIcon ? 'showSearchIcon' : '';
     },
-
-    _isPolymer2() {
-      return window.POLYMER2;
-    },
   });
 })();