There is no code requirement, i.e., AWS D1.1, ASME Section IX, etc., that requires the test be administered by a third party, much less an AWS Accredited Test Facility. Likewise, there is no requirement for the welder performance test record to be notarized.
The test record is certified by the employer, it is not a sworn statement.
All I can say about the AWS ATF is, "God save us from ourselves!"
People seem to overlook the important fact that the welder qualification test is no different from the driver's test given to the 16-year old. On a particular day of the week, when the stars were aligned, there was no lunar eclipse, and the welder did everything correctly; he passed the required test. It is not a warrantee that the welder will never make a bad weld, it doesn't even profess to say that in all cases, under any circumstance, with any welding machine, the welder can make a sound weld. The welding standards do not even require the welder to "set up" his or her own machine. It is a simple demonstration that the welder could deposit 3 or 6-inches of relatively sound weld metal. It does not even mean the weld was without any discontinuities; only that it was "sound enough" to satisfy the requirements of the applicable welding standard.
All the welder performance test record provides is objective evidence that the welder took and passed a prescribed performance test with a certain welding process, with a certain filler metal, with a certain base metal, blah, blah, blah. Big deal. It gets you on a job site, but it will not keep you there unless you perform and meet the requirements of the applicable welding standard to the satisfaction of the employer. If you screw up enough, it is bye-bye or a new test.
I, for one, always require the welder to pass at least the fillet break test on the job-site using the equipment that will be used on a daily basis. That is, if I am involved in developing the project specifications or if I can legitimately reject the paperwork offered by the welder when I arrive at the site. I really do not care that the welder passed a test under the laboratory conditions many welder performances tests are given. They do not represent what the welder will be dealing with in the field or on the shop floor. I like to see the welder hook up his own welding leads, adjust the welding machines controls, and fit-up the backing bar and extension tabs. Once that has been done, the welder is ready to make sparks. That is not what is required by the welding standards, those are Al's rules when taking an "Al's Test" and if he is going to receive a piece of paper with my name attesting to the fact that the welder knows the fundamentals of depositing a sound weld.
To be fair to all involved, all the requirements are documented and presented to the welder at the time of the test. Together, the welder(s) and I review the requirements, the "do's and don’ts" of taking the test, and the acceptance criteria that will be used to gauge the completed weld. There are no secrets, I do not change course in the middle of the stream, and the welder knows exactly what is expected before he/she strikes the first arc.
I supply only the test plates that are beveled beforehand. The welder supplies everything else down to the toothpick in his mouth. If he is dumb enough to use "rehydrated E6010 electrodes,” so be it, he's going to fail. It is his (or his employer's) money and if he wants to throw it away, who am I to protest? The profit is twice as nice the second time around. If the welder believes using a multipass flux cored electrode means he does not have to chip the slag between passes, so be it. Weld class begins after the check has cleared and the test plates fail the bend test.
The welder performance test record is not sacrosanct. I reject many of them because the forms are not completed properly, there is missing information, a missing signature, the wrong gas, etc.
“Sorry buddy, you have to take another test.”
"What's that? A P.E. signed it and his mother is a CWI! So what, who cares, the idiot cannot even fill in the test record properly. Sorry buddy, you have to take another test."
The rant of the day is done.
Best regards - Al