AISC certification confirms to owners, the design community, the construction industry, and public officials that certified participants have the personnel, organization, experience, documented procedures, knowledge, equipment, and commitment to quality control and quality assurance.

An endorsement reflects a participant's adherence to any additional requirements for specialized steel fabrication or erection on a project. See below for our current selection of certifications and endorsements.

Fabricator Program

Certifications: Certified Building Fabricator (BU), Certified Bridge Fabricator - Simple (SBR), Certified Bridge Fabricator - Intermediate (IBR), Certified Bridge Fabricator - Advanced (ABR), Certified Highway Component Manufacturer (CPT), Certified Hydraulic Fabricator (HYD), Certified Hydraulic Fabricator - Advanced (HYDA)

Endorsements: Complex Coatings Endorsement - Enclosed, Covered and Exposed (CCE-1, CCE-2 and CCE-3), Fracture Control Endorsement (FCE)*, Fracture Control Endorsement for Hydraulic (FCEH)**

Erector Program

Certifications: Certified Erector (CSE)

Endorsements: Seismic Endorsement (SEE), Metal Deck Installation Endorsement (MEE), Bridge Erection Endorsement (BEE)

* Requires concurrent certification to SBR, IBR, ABR, or CPT
** Requires concurrent certification to HYD

No; in order to obtain one of the optional endorsements, your fabrication facility or erection company must already hold or be applying for an eligible AISC certification.

We do not provide translation services. All correspondence and required documentation must be in English. During your site audit, Interpreters must be provided by the Participant or Applicants for the auditor’s communication during the audit, as necessary. Interpreters must be knowledgeable of the appropriate industry terminology.

The difference between “Conditional Certification” and certification is that the physical portion or direct observation of the operations of the shop or field processes have not been assessed, but the quality management system including procedures, manual, and records have been reviewed and assessed.

For more information, please refer to Section 7.1.2 of the GRs.

AISC Certification is typically valid for twelve months, and your certificate is proof of certification. 

Certificates are non-transferable and can NOT be considered as an asset in the sale of a fabrication facility or erection company that is currently AISC certified.

The Participantmay withdraw certification by completing a Certification Withdrawal Request found at aisc.org/withdraw. Participants that withdraw their certification will be required to reapply. 

Please refer to Section 10 of the GRs and the Progressive Action Policy for Certification Complaints and Allegations.

We are always looking to improve upon our program and services offered. In order to evaluate what areas of our program need improvement, please complete our customer service feedback survey here.

If you have any questions that were not answered by the FAQ section, please email your question(s) to certification@aisc.org.

The standard certification process takes roughly eight to ten months from the time you submit the online application to the time you receive a certificate. You can expedite your application, which moves your application to the top of the list for all reviews. The average expedited time frame is three to four months. Please see the Fee Schedules for the Expedited Application Fee and more information about expediting.

Please note that the process could be longer or shorter depending on the current number of applications in process and the timeliness of the applicant’s responses to requests for documentation.

See the below table for a more detailed breakdown.

The Application Document Submittals checklists outline the documents required to be submitted for all applicants.

AISC does not offer or refer consulting services; however, applicants are welcome to use third-party consultants for guidance during the application process.

AISC and Quality Management Company (QMC), which is the auditing agency for AISC, offer pre-assessments, in which a QMC staff member will assist your management team in understanding the core principles of an effective quality management system. For more information, click here.

If you are unsure of which certifications and endorsements apply to your company, please see the Program Descriptions page for a more detailed look at each of our certification types.

Please submit your application document submittals electronically via email to application@aisc.org.

Emails must be under 15MB. If needed, please split up and send your files in multiple emails to remain under the 15MB limit.

Please see our Fee Schedules.

An applicant can expect to pay the initial application fee, the base fee per the chart at the top of the Fee Schedule, and if applicable, the additional certifications/endorsements fee(s) and the expedited application fee.

For yearly renewals, the total cost would only be the base fee per the chart at the top of the Fee Schedule, and if applicable, the additional certifications/endorsements fee(s); the initial application fee and the expedited application fee are not charged for renewals.

Invoices will be emailed to the accounts payable contact, certification contact, and principal officer contact on file for your fabrication facility or erection company roughly 90 days prior to your next scheduled audit week.

Rescheduling requests must be approved by AISC before rescheduling can occur. Absent personnel, vacation conflicts, small company size/limited staff availability, busy production schedules, hunting season, or other similar circumstances are not considered acceptable reasons for rescheduling and will not be approved.

Requests from Participants wishing to reschedule due to absence of specific staff wishing to participate in the audit will not be approved.

Please refer to Section 4.4 of the GRs for additional information.

The assigned auditor will be reflected on your renewal invoice, and they will email you their audit plan 30 to 45 days prior to the site audit.

If you do not receive your audit plan within the aforementioned parameters, please do not hesitate to contact us at certification@aisc.org.

We make a concerted effort to conduct audits for a company with multiple certificates in succession. However, since scheduling is based on climate and geographical location, sister companies may or may not be grouped together and audited within the same week.

Please refer to Section 4.7.1 of the GRs for details on audit duration.

Please refer to Section 5.11 of the GRs.

If the Participant or Applicant chooses to dispute or “challenge” a CAR, that challenge may be submitted by emailing Quality Management Company (QMC) at cars@qmcauditing.com with the reason(s) for the challenge within 30 days of the conclusion of the audit.

Challenging a CAR does not negate a Participant’s/Applicant’s obligation to resolve all other CARs within the required timeframe.

For more information, please refer to Section 6.3 of the GRs.

All audit results have to go through the post-audit review process detailed in Section 7.2 of the GRs. Typically speaking, audits resulting in zero CARs will have the aforementioned review process completed anywhere from 21 to 30 days.

Those audits that do result in CARs issued will have the aforementioned process completed anywhere from 45 to 75 days.

Please note the latter heavily depends on the timeliness of a participant’s response to the initial CAR review and any subsequent CAR reviews thereafter.

The decision by the Certification Review Group (CRG) may be appealed using the AISC Appeal Policy for Certification Determination (Appeal Policy). Certification fees will not be refunded.

For more information, please refer to Section 9 of the GRs.

Changes in ownership, location, and company name may require additional audits or lead to certification termination. These instances are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

To notify AISC of your changes, please complete a “Request an update to your Company Profile” form at aisc.org/certprofile.

Yes; for more information, please refer to Section 7.10 of the GRs.

Please refer to Section 8 of the GRs.