The inverse problem of identification of boundary-layer thickness is replaced by the higher-order boundary value problem for the Euler–Lagrange equations for minimization of the quadratic functional of the original system (Method of Variational Imbedding – MVI). The imbedding problem is correct in the sense of Hadamard and consists of an explicit differential equation for the boundary-layer thickness. The existence and uniqueness of solution of the linearized imbedding problem is demonstrated and a difference scheme of splitting type is proposed for its numerical solution. The performance of the technique is demonstrated for three different boundary-layer problems: the Blasius problem, flow in the vicinity of plane stagnation point and the flow in the leading stagnation point on a circular cylinder. Comparisons with the self-similar solutions where available are quantitatively very good.