diff --git a/pyvisa_py/__init__.py b/pyvisa_py/__init__.py
index 46d33941..5abeb937 100644
--- a/pyvisa_py/__init__.py
+++ b/pyvisa_py/__init__.py
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@
 import logging
 from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
 
+# we need to import so that __init_subclass__() is executed once (hence the noqa)
+from . import attributes  # noqa: F401
+from .highlevel import PyVisaLibrary
+
+# Global pyvisa-py logger used to provide more details on errors (VISA error code
+# can make some report rather terse).
 LOGGER = logging.getLogger("pyvisa.pyvisa-py")
 
 __version__ = "unknown"
@@ -19,8 +25,4 @@
     # package is not installed
     pass
 
-# we need to import so that __init_subclass__() is executed once (hence the noqa)
-from . import attributes  # noqa: F401
-from .highlevel import PyVisaLibrary
-
 WRAPPER_CLASS = PyVisaLibrary
diff --git a/pyvisa_py/highlevel.py b/pyvisa_py/highlevel.py
index d9eba98c..baf29ed9 100644
--- a/pyvisa_py/highlevel.py
+++ b/pyvisa_py/highlevel.py
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ def open(
         try:
             sess = cls(session, resource_name, parsed, open_timeout)
         except sessions.OpenError as e:
-            return 0, e.error_code
+            return VISASession(0), e.error_code
 
         return self._register(sess), StatusCode.success
 
diff --git a/pyvisa_py/tcpip.py b/pyvisa_py/tcpip.py
index d7ce29b7..be4c1446 100644
--- a/pyvisa_py/tcpip.py
+++ b/pyvisa_py/tcpip.py
@@ -18,11 +18,10 @@
 from pyvisa import attributes, constants, errors, rname
 from pyvisa.constants import BufferOperation, ResourceAttribute, StatusCode
 
-from . import common, LOGGER
+from . import LOGGER, common
 from .protocols import hislip, rpc, vxi11
 from .sessions import OpenError, Session, UnknownAttribute, VISARMSession
 
-
 # Let psutil be optional dependency
 try:
     import psutil  # type: ignore
diff --git a/pyvisa_py/testsuite/test_sessions.py b/pyvisa_py/testsuite/test_sessions.py
index 9124a191..7618d7de 100644
--- a/pyvisa_py/testsuite/test_sessions.py
+++ b/pyvisa_py/testsuite/test_sessions.py
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 
 from pyvisa.constants import InterfaceType
 from pyvisa.testsuite import BaseTestCase
-import pyvisa_py.highlevel
 from pyvisa_py.sessions import Session