diff --git a/mongoengine/queryset/base.py b/mongoengine/queryset/base.py
index c2ad027e..485872d7 100644
--- a/mongoengine/queryset/base.py
+++ b/mongoengine/queryset/base.py
@@ -630,7 +630,10 @@ class BaseQuerySet(object):
             # We may need to cast to the correct type eg. ListField(EmbeddedDocumentField)
             doc_field = getattr(self._document._fields.get(field), "field", None)
             instance = getattr(doc_field, "document_type", False)
-            if instance:
+            EmbeddedDocumentField = _import_class('EmbeddedDocumentField')
+            GenericEmbeddedDocumentField = _import_class('GenericEmbeddedDocumentField')
+            if instance and isinstance(doc_field, (EmbeddedDocumentField,
+                                                   GenericEmbeddedDocumentField)):
                 distinct = [instance(**doc) for doc in distinct]
             return distinct