A welder qualification is not automatically portable between employers, WPS, processes, materials, positions or jurisdictions — not for a Filipino welder, and not for a German one. A Philippine certificate proves skill, not qualification to your code; the difference is a day's work when it is planned and a failed audit when it is not. This page explains which documents mean what, what is retested on arrival under EN ISO 9606-1, ASME IX or AWS D1.1, validity and continuity, acceptance by employer, client and classification body, and how the Makati test removes the risk. Nothing here means "certified in Manila, ready everywhere".
Immigration asks: is this person a qualified welder? — answered by TESDA certificates, diplomas, experience records and, in Germany and Austria, recognition or the Pre-Check register; in Australia, the TRA skills assessment. The shop asks: may this person weld this joint on this job? — answered only by a welder qualification test to the applicable code, witnessed as the code requires, on arrival. Philippine and Gulf documents answer the first question well and the second not at all; EN ISO 9606-1 and its AWS/ASME cousins are job-specific by design, and even a German welder requalifies when the process or material changes.
None of these is an EN ISO 9606-1 qualification. All of them predict whether the welder will pass one.
In Makati the welder welds coupons to your WPS — same process, position, thickness range and material group as the arrival test — with the NDT you specify; we keep the records. On arrival the welder takes the EN ISO 9606-1 test (or your code's) with your coordinator or the certifying body in the first week; continuity is then the employer's to maintain with six-monthly confirmation and requalification at three years. For Germany and Austria the immigration side runs in parallel: recognition of the qualification or the experience route, and in Austria the Pre-Check register for listed Philippine qualifications.
Welders are qualified trades, and almost every country we serve sponsors them: Australia (Welder (First Class) and Metal Fabricator on the Core Skills list, TRA skills assessment), Germany (experience route for diploma holders or recognition), Austria (welders on the 2026 shortage list, Pre-Check register for Philippine qualifications), Croatia (welders and ship welders exempt from the labour-market test), the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and Hungary on national permits, Norway for offshore and yard work, the Gulf on employer sponsorship. Flanders admits welders through its regional medium-skilled list; the Netherlands through skilled routes only. The country decides the timeline more than the trade does.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office for the destination, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. The Philippine ban on direct hiring applies; the employer is always your company, directly.
Everything here is subject to the permit, qualification and licensing requirements of the destination country and the welding codes your contract specifies.
Only if an accredited examiner witnesses the test in Manila; some clients arrange this for large programmes. Normally the test is taken in the first week on arrival, after passing the matched test in Makati.
Under most codes a pipe qualification covers plate within its range; the arrival test is still taken per your contract's code.
The employer, as for any welder; it is a day's work for a welder who passed the matched test in Makati.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.