Method Competence Versus Code Authority: Two Different Jobs
An ASNT NDT Level II is qualified to set up, perform and interpret one test method and write the result. A code inspector, whether API 510, 570, 653 or a National Board commission, is qualified to accept or reject the equipment against a code and sign for it. Method competence versus code authority. Most senior inspectors carry both.
Hold the two credentials against a single question: whose name is on the disposition? An ASNT NDT Level II sets up the technique, runs the examination, interprets the indications and reports them against an acceptance criterion inside a written procedure. The scope ends at the procedure. A code inspector reads that report alongside corrosion rates, service history, design data and a governing code, then decides whether the vessel, piping circuit or tank keeps operating, at what interval, and under what repair. API 510 examines that judgment directly: 170 questions across a 7.5-hour sitting, 110 closed book and 60 open book, of which 140 are scored. The employer certifies the Level II under a written practice; API certifies the code inspector centrally against an ANSI-accredited scheme. Different issuer, different scope, different liability, and most experienced fixed-equipment inspectors carry both because the two roles meet on the same equipment.
Source: ASNT NDT Level II certification programme page, certification.asnt.org (per-method training days, in-method and total experience days, employer-administered practical and vision examinations, five-year renewal). ASNT Recommended Practice No. SNT-TC-1A, employer-based certification framework. API Individual Certification Programs, api.org — API 510, 570 and 653 certification pages (eligibility by education and experience, 170-question format with 140 scored, 110 closed book and 60 open book, 7.5-hour sitting, three-year term); ICP Program Document ICP-PD-102-Inspector, revision date 15 September 2025 (24 CPD hours per cycle, 6-year web quiz, 90-day grace period); ICP schedules and fees page. API 510 definition of the authorized pressure vessel inspector as an employee of an authorized inspection agency. AWS Certification and Education Price List 2026, aws.org, and AWS B5.1 recertification provisions (80 professional development hours). National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors, commissioned inspector and Authorized Inspector definitions, nationalboard.org.
| Credential | Who issues it | What the holder is authorised to do | Renewal cycle | Typical signature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASNT NDT Level II (SNT-TC-1A route) | Your employer, under its written practice | Set up, calibrate, perform, interpret and report one NDT method | Employer-set; ASNT's own Level II programme renews every five years | Examination report; indication accepted or rejected to a procedure |
| ASNT NDT Level III | ASNT central examination plus employer certification | Write and approve procedures, qualify and examine Level I and II personnel, own the written practice | On ASNT's published cycle | Procedure approval; written practice; personnel certification |
| API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspector | API ICP, ANSI-accredited to ISO/IEC 17024 | Judge pressure vessels against the code: intervals, repairs, alterations, rerating | 3 years, 24 CPD hours, web quiz every 6 years | Inspection interval; repair or alteration acceptance; return to service |
| API 570 Piping Inspector | API ICP | Same judgment for in-service metallic piping systems | 3 years, same requirements | Piping circuit interval; repair acceptance |
| API 653 Tank Inspector | API ICP | Same judgment for aboveground storage tanks, including reconstruction | 3 years, same requirements | Tank inspection interval; reconstruction sign-off |
| AWS CWI | American Welding Society | Verify welding conformance to a welding code or specification | Renew at 3 and 6 years; 9-year recertification by exam or 80 PDH | Weld acceptance against the governing welding code |
| National Board commission (NB / AI) | National Board, for a jurisdiction | Inspect in-service boilers and pressure vessels; AI covers construction and repair | Annual recertification with continuing education | Jurisdictional inspection certificate; repair sign-off |
The difference in one signature line
Put both credentials against a single question: whose name goes on the disposition? An ASNT NDT Level II signs an examination report — this weld, this technique, these indications, accept or reject against the criterion in the procedure. That is a technical statement about a test. An API 510 inspector signs something categorically different: this vessel continues in service, on this interval, with this repair accepted. That is a statement about the equipment, and it carries the code, the owner-user programme and the insurer behind it.
The confusion arises because both people say 'accept' and 'reject'. The Level II accepts an indication against a procedure written and approved by a Level III. The code inspector accepts the equipment against a published code and a documented integrity case. One judgment is bounded by a procedure; the other is bounded by a code and by professional judgment about degradation the procedure never anticipated. Identical vocabulary, entirely different exposure when the decision is examined afterwards.
Every downstream difference follows from that split: who issues the certificate, what the examination tests, how long it stays valid, what happens when it lapses, and whose professional liability responds if a disposition proves wrong. Career paths diverge there too — method depth leads toward Level III and procedure ownership, while code authority leads toward fixed-equipment inspection, integrity engineering and programme ownership. The ASNT certification path and the API ICP path are parallel ladders, not two rungs of one.
Who issues the certificate is the tell
An ASNT NDT Level II under the SNT-TC-1A route is certified by the employer, not by ASNT. SNT-TC-1A is a recommended practice that tells an employer how to build its own certification programme through a written practice covering training hours, experience, examinations and vision testing. The certificate travels with the employer, not the person. Change employers and the new one re-certifies you under its written practice, normally on the strength of your documented training history and logged experience.
ASNT also runs a central examination programme carrying the ASNT NDT Level II name, with published prerequisites per method. Ultrasonic and radiographic testing each require 12 days of training, 120 days of experience in the method and 229 days of total NDT experience, against 2 days of training and 30 days in method for penetrant testing. That programme renews every five years, and the employer still administers the visual acuity, practical and job-specific examinations under its own written practice. Central examination does not remove employer responsibility.
API ICP works the other way round. API certifies the individual centrally, the certificate is portable between employers, the programme is ANSI-accredited to ISO/IEC 17024, and the term is a fixed three years regardless of who you work for. The difference between an employer-based scheme and a central one is the whole subject of SNT-TC-1A versus CP-189, and the same axis explains why a code inspector's certificate follows the person while a Level II's often does not.
What an ASNT Level II can and cannot sign
A Level II selects the technique, calibrates the equipment, performs the examination, interprets and evaluates the results against the code, standard or specification named in the procedure, and writes the report. In practice they also brief Level I technicians and verify their work. In a plant, a UT Level II is the person whose thickness data feeds every corrosion rate the integrity programme uses, which makes their competence load-bearing for decisions they themselves do not make.
A Level II cannot approve the procedure they work to, cannot certify another technician, and cannot set an inspection interval or accept a repair on the equipment itself. The first two belong to a Level III; the third belongs to a code inspector. Nothing in SNT-TC-1A grants a Level II any authority over the equipment, because the certificate scope runs to the examination method and stops there. Training hour requirements differ sharply by method for exactly this reason — the technique is what is being certified.
That boundary is why method choice matters so much on a CV. Twelve training days and 120 in-method days for UT or RT against two or three days for PT and MT reflects the difficulty of the interpretation, and it maps straight through to pay. The full breakdown sits in NDT training hour requirements by method, and the pay consequence of that difficulty gradient shows up clearly in the NDT Level II salary data for the US market.
What a code inspector can and cannot do
An API 510 holder judges a pressure vessel against the code: whether inspection findings support continued service, what the next internal or on-stream interval should be, whether a repair or alteration meets the code, whether a rerating is justified. API 510 defines the authorized pressure vessel inspector as an employee of an authorized inspection agency, qualified and certified under the code, which means the authority is organisational as well as personal. The certificate alone does not confer it outside that structure.
What the certificate does not do is qualify anyone to perform an NDT method. An API 510 holder with no UT certification cannot take the thickness readings their own decision depends on. This surprises people who assume the higher-authority credential contains the lower one. It does not, at any point. The two are examined separately, recorded separately, and expire on different cycles — a fixed three years for API ICP, an employer-set or five-year cycle for the method certificate.
The same non-containment applies to welding. An API 570 inspector judging a piping repair relies on weld acceptance work an AWS CWI performs against a welding code, and on metallurgy knowledge that API 577 covers as a supplemental certification. Where those three credentials overlap and where they emphatically do not is set out in the comparison of AWS CWI, API 577 and ASNT Level II, which is the fastest way to see the boundaries side by side.
The stack senior fixed-equipment inspectors actually hold
The common stack in a US refinery or terminal is a code certification against the equipment class, at least one NDT method certification at Level II, and a welding inspection credential. A tank specialist carries API 653 plus UT Level II plus CWI. A piping specialist carries API 570 plus UT and often RT interpretation, plus CWI. Each addition buys a different signature rather than a better version of the same one, which is why the stack grows sideways instead of upward.
Above that, API 571 for corrosion and materials and API 580 for risk-based inspection turn an inspector into someone who can design the programme rather than execute it, while an ASNT Level III turns them into the person who owns the procedures and certifies the technicians. Those are two different careers heading in different directions, and the NDT Level III salary data separates the procedure-ownership track cleanly from Level II execution work.
Stacking carries a maintenance cost that policies routinely underestimate. Each credential runs its own clock: API ICP renews every three years with 24 CPD hours and a web quiz every sixth year, AWS CWI renews at three and six years with a nine-year recertification requiring an examination or 80 professional development hours, and method certificates renew independently. A three-credential inspector has three unrelated expiry dates, which is why holding them in a certification tracking register beats a spreadsheet.
Should QA inspectors hold both a vessel and a piping certification?
Cross-training and certification are not the same thing, and the question usually conflates them. If your internal QA inspectors sign dispositions on both pressure vessels and piping circuits, they need both API 510 and API 570, because the certificate is what the code and your owner-user programme point at. Cross-training without the certificate produces a person who is genuinely competent and cannot sign, which is the worst of both worlds — you have paid for the capability and still cannot use it.
If they sign on one class and support the other — reviewing data, coordinating scope, escalating findings — then one certification plus documented cross-training is sufficient, provided the programme names who signs for the second class and that person is reachable on the timescales your intervals demand. Build the coverage matrix first: equipment classes down one axis, shifts and turnaround phases across the other, certified signatories in the cells. The certification requirement falls out of the empty cells rather than out of a headcount rule.
The overlap argument for holding both is real and worth acting on. API 510 and API 570 share substantial ground in damage mechanisms, NDE selection, welding and repair rules, and both examinations are 170 questions over 7.5 hours with the same closed-book and open-book split. A candidate who has just passed one is at their strongest for the second, and taking them in consecutive exam windows costs considerably less preparation time than spacing them years apart.
The time and cost decomposition, in published third-party figures
API publishes its ICP fees openly, which makes half the budget easy to fix. Initial certification for API 510, 570 or 653 is $875 for API members and $1,125 for non-members; recertification is $745 and $855. API 1169 and 1184 are $435 and $580 initially, $310 and $435 to recertify. Those figures cover the examination and the certification, and nothing else — not preparation, not travel, not the standards the open-book half is sat against.
AWS publishes its own list. The CWI nine-year recertification course is $2,130 for members and $2,395 for non-members, and the Prometric endorsement examinations for MT and PT sit at $1,295 for members and $1,560 for non-members each. ASNT's Level II prerequisites are counted in training days and experience days rather than dollars, and that is where the real cost sits: 12 training days plus 120 in-method days for UT is most of a year of deliberately assigned work.
That asymmetry is the planning insight most employers miss. The code certification is a money-and-scheduling problem measured in weeks. The method certification is a time-and-supervision problem measured in months of logged experience against a written practice. Employers who treat both as 'send them on a course' get the first and miss the second entirely, and the missing piece is documented on-the-job hours — the mechanics of which are in our guide to OJT hours log requirements.
Writing the distinction into job descriptions and the written practice
Job descriptions cause most of this confusion in the market. A posting asking for an 'API 510 certified NDT inspector' collapses two roles into one line and attracts applicants who hold one credential and assume it implies the other. Split the requirement into two statements: the code certification required for the dispositions the role signs, and the method certifications required for the examinations the role performs, each marked required or preferred. Recruiters screen better, candidates self-select accurately, and the audit file matches the posting.
Your written practice does the same job internally. It defines your qualification levels, training and experience requirements, examinations and recertification intervals for NDT personnel, and it is the document an auditor reads to test whether your Level II certifications mean anything at all. Code certifications sit outside it and are evidenced by the API certificate itself. Keeping the two documents distinct is what stops an auditor finding a Level II signature on a code decision, which is a finding nobody argues their way out of.
The third document is the coverage matrix, and it is the one most programmes lack. Certificates in a folder prove individuals are qualified; a matrix proves the programme is covered, and auditors ask the second question. Building or rewriting all three is what written practice development covers, and where a company has no internal Level III to hold the technical pen, an outsourced ASNT Level III can sign and maintain them.
Which one to get first
Get the method certification first, in almost every career. It is the entry credential, it generates the field experience API eligibility counts, and it pays from the first day. API ICP eligibility is written in years of experience: one year of inspection activity for a candidate with an engineering degree or three-plus years of technical military service, two years with a two-year technical degree, three years with a high school diploma, five or more with no formal education — all acquired within the last ten years while employed by or under contract with an authorized inspection agency.
The exception is the engineering graduate entering integrity work directly. With a degree and one year of qualifying inspection activity, API 510 or 653 is reachable early, and a method certification added afterwards makes that person credible in the field rather than only on paper. That order is unusual and it works only where the employer can supply supervised inspection experience quickly, which most contract shops cannot and most owner-operators can.
For welders moving across, the sequence is method certification, then CWI, then code certification once the experience clock has run — the route mapped in the welder to NDT inspector career path. Whichever order you take, the credentials never substitute for one another. Atlantis delivers ASNT method training and employer programme support rather than API ICP training; see NDT training in the USA for the method side of that path.
What is the practical difference between an ASNT Level II and a code inspector certification?
A Level II is qualified to set up, perform, interpret and report one NDT method against a written procedure. A code inspector is qualified to accept or reject the equipment against a published code and sign the disposition: interval, repair acceptance, return to service. Test scope versus equipment scope. The Level II report is an input to the code inspector's decision.
Who issues each certificate?
Under SNT-TC-1A your employer certifies you as a Level II through its written practice, covering training, experience, examinations and vision. ASNT's own Level II programme supplies central general and specific examinations while the employer still runs the practical and job-specific ones. API certifies code inspectors centrally under an ANSI-accredited scheme, and that certificate travels with the person.
Can an API 510 inspector perform the ultrasonic testing themselves?
Only if they separately hold a UT certification. The API certificate examines pressure vessel code knowledge and grants no method qualification. An inspector who wants to take their own thickness readings needs a UT Level II under a written practice or an equivalent central certificate, held and renewed on its own cycle alongside the three-year API term.
Should internal QA inspectors hold both a pressure vessel and a piping certification?
Both, if they sign dispositions on both equipment classes: the code and your owner-user programme point at the certificate, and cross-training without it produces someone competent who cannot sign. One certification plus documented cross-training is sufficient where the second class has a named, available signatory. Build the coverage matrix before setting the rule.
How do the renewal cycles compare?
API 510, 570 and 653 run a three-year term requiring 24 CPD hours, continued inspection experience and an online open-book quiz every six years, with a 90-day pre-expiry application window and a 90-day grace period. AWS CWI renews at three and six years and requires nine-year recertification by examination or 80 professional development hours. Method certificates run their own clocks.
Which certification should a technician pursue first?
The method certification, in almost every case. It is the entry credential, it pays immediately, and the field time it generates is what API eligibility counts: one year of inspection activity with an engineering degree, three years with a high school diploma, five or more with no formal education, all within the last ten years.
How the in-service code itself divides the work: inspector and examiner
Direct answer: API 510 does not leave the Level II versus inspector question to custom. It names two roles. The examiner performs specific NDE and does not evaluate the results under the code unless the owner/user has trained and authorized them to. The inspector evaluates and accepts all NDE results. The examiner needs method competence, not API certification; the inspector needs API certification, not method certification.
The definitions are worth reading in your licensed copy of the current API 510 edition (the eleventh edition of October 2022, with errata), because they settle most arguments on site. In our own words, API 510 says the following about the examiner role:
- The examiner supports the inspector by carrying out specified NDE on vessel components.
- Evaluating those results against API 510 is not part of the examiner role unless the owner/user has specifically trained and authorized the person to do it.
- An examiner is not required to hold API 510 certification and is not required to be an employee of the owner/user.
- The examiner must be trained and competent in the NDE procedures being used, and the owner/user may ask for certifications as proof. API 510 gives ASNT SNT-TC-1A, ANSI/ASNT CP-189 and AWS welding inspector certification as examples.
- The inspector's employer keeps the examiners' certification records, and those records must be available to the inspector.
On the inspector side, API 510 makes the inspector answerable to the owner/user for making sure inspection, NDE and pressure testing meet the code, expects the inspector to be directly involved in the field, and allows the inspector to be assisted by examiners and operating personnel, while keeping evaluation and acceptance of all NDE results with the inspector. API 570 and API 653 use the same structure for piping and tanks. That is the code-level reason a Level II's report is an input, and the inspector's evaluation is the decision.
Two consequences follow for owners. First, an owner can legitimately staff a vessel inspection with a contractor's NDT examiners and its own (or a contracted) API 510 inspector; nothing in the code requires the same company, or the same person, to do both. Second, the owner decides what proof of examiner competence it requires. "SNT-TC-1A Level II in UT under the contractor's written practice" is a common answer; "ASNT central Level II" or "CP-189" are others; in Canada it is usually NRCan certification to CAN/CGSB-48.9712.
One vessel, two roles: walking through an on-stream inspection
Direct answer: On a typical on-stream vessel inspection the inspector plans the work and decides afterwards; the Level II examiners produce the measurements in between. The hand-off point is the NDE report. Following one job end to end shows where each credential's authority starts and stops.
Before the job. The owner's API 510 inspector reviews the inspection plan for a carbon steel separator: the credible damage mechanisms for that service, the condition monitoring locations (CMLs), the previous thickness data and corrosion rates, and whether an on-stream inspection may substitute for an internal one under the code's conditions. The inspector specifies what NDE is needed and where: UT thickness at the CMLs, a scan of the bottom head and boot where water may collect, and a shear-wave or phased array examination of a nozzle weld flagged at the last turnaround.
During the job. The UT Level II checks the procedure, calibrates the instrument and probe on a reference block of suitable material and thickness, verifies calibration at the intervals the procedure requires, takes the readings and records them against CML identifiers. The PAUT examiner sets up the scan plan, confirms coverage, and records and sizes any indications to the procedure's rules. Neither examiner calculates remaining life or comments on fitness for service.
The report. The examiners' report lists equipment and serial numbers, calibration, procedure and revision, examiner name and certification level, readings, scan coverage, indications with location and size, and any limitations (for example, surface condition or access).
After the job. The API 510 inspector compares the new readings with history, calculates short-term and long-term corrosion rates, checks the minimum required thickness, calculates remaining life, and sets or confirms the next inspection date within the code's limits and the owner's quality system. If the nozzle weld indication needs more than the code's inspection rules can resolve, the inspector refers it to the owner's engineer for evaluation. If a repair is needed, the inspector authorizes and accepts the repair inspection under the code.
Every decision in the last paragraph rests on the quality of the data in the paragraph before it. That is why owners care just as much about the examiner's certification as the inspector's, even though only one of them signs for the equipment.
Advanced UT: where examiner qualification goes beyond Level II
Direct answer: For crack detection and sizing, a general UT Level II may not be enough. API 510 lets the owner/user call for industry-qualified UT shear wave examiners for certain flaw detection and sizing work, and API runs QUTE programs for manual UT, phased array UT and thickness measurement examiners. These are examiner qualifications, not inspector authority.
API's Individual Certification Programs list includes QUTE (Manual), QUTE (Phased Array) and QUTE-TM (thickness measurement). They test whether an examiner can detect and size flaws, or measure thickness, under performance-demonstration conditions. Owners typically specify them for higher-consequence work: sizing cracks in wet H2S service, monitoring known flaws between inspections, or examining welds where UT is substituting for radiography. A QUTE-qualified examiner is still an examiner under the code: the API 510 or 570 inspector evaluates the results.
From a career point of view, this is a third path that sits between "Level II" and "API inspector": method depth that is portable and recognized by owners. It pairs naturally with ASNT Level III in UT for people who want to own procedures. Where these overlap and differ is covered in our comparison of ASNT Level III and API QUTE ultrasonic scopes.
Regulatory overlay: OSHA PSM, state laws and Canadian provinces
Direct answer: Neither credential is a government license on its own. They gain force because regulations require inspection to follow recognized practice and be documented, and because some jurisdictions name their own inspector credentials. Check the jurisdiction before assuming either certificate is sufficient.
OSHA PSM. For covered processes, 29 CFR 1910.119(j)(4) requires inspection and testing to follow recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP), at frequencies consistent with manufacturers' recommendations and good engineering practice, and requires each inspection to be documented with the date, the name of the person who performed it, the equipment identifier, a description of the work and the results. Employers that adopt API 510, 570 and 653 as RAGAGEP inherit the codes' inspector/examiner split, and auditors will check that NDE was performed by qualified examiners and evaluated by the inspector. 1910.119(j)(3) separately requires training for employees involved in maintaining the ongoing integrity of process equipment.
State boiler and pressure vessel laws. Many states require jurisdictional inspection of certain pressure vessels by National Board commissioned inspectors, and some recognize owner-user inspection organizations. Whether an API 510 inspector satisfies the state requirement for a given vessel depends on the state law. Confirm with the state chief inspector's office.
Canada. NDT certification in Canada is generally through Natural Resources Canada, which certifies personnel to CAN/CGSB-48.9712 and states that the standard satisfies ISO 9712. SNT-TC-1A certification is seen on some projects, especially with US-based owners, but should not be assumed to be accepted. In-service pressure equipment inspection is regulated provincially. In Alberta, ABSA's AB-526 sets the requirements for the In-service Pressure Equipment Inspector certificate of competency, which applies to people who conduct or certify integrity assessments of in-service pressure equipment, and AB-506 sets inspection and servicing requirements for owner-user programs. Ontario regulates through TSSA. An API certificate may be valued by employers in Canada but does not replace a provincial requirement.
What API eligibility asks of an NDT technician
Direct answer: NDT field work can count toward API inspector eligibility, but API decides what counts. For API 510, 570 and 653, API's program pages list education and experience combinations, and every combination requires at least one year in supervision or performance of inspection activities as described in the relevant code.
API's published combinations run from one year of experience for a bachelor's degree or higher in engineering or technology, through two years for a two-year technical degree or certificate and three years for a high school diploma, up to five or more years for candidates with no formal education. API 570 additionally states that experience must have been gained within the last 10 years. Read the current program page before applying, because the tables are revised.
For a Level II, the practical question is whether the work you do is "inspection activities as described in" the code, or only examination. A UT technician who also reviews CML data, records condition, participates in inspection planning or supports the inspector's evaluation is building that experience; someone who only collects readings on instruction may have a harder time documenting it. Keep a log as you go: equipment, dates, activities, and a supervisor or inspector who can verify them.
The reverse also applies. An API-certified inspector who wants to perform NDE needs method certification under an employer's written practice (or a central program), with the training hours, experience hours, vision exam and practical exam that requires. Neither path shortcuts the other.
Common mistakes when comparing or combining the two
- Treating Level II as "junior API". They are separate ladders. A UT Level III is not an API inspector, and an API 570 inspector is not a UT examiner unless separately certified.
- Letting the examiner evaluate by default. Under API 510, evaluation against the code is not the examiner's role unless the owner/user has specifically trained and authorized it. If your program does authorize examiners to evaluate certain results, write it down.
- Missing examiner records. The code expects examiner certification records to be maintained and available to the inspector. Ask for them before mobilization, not after a finding.
- Specifying "Level II" without the method. A Level II in MT cannot perform the UT survey.
- Using the wrong API program. API 510 covers vessels, 570 piping, 653 tanks. A tank evaluation signed by someone holding only API 510 may not meet the owner's program.
- Ignoring the jurisdiction. State commissions and provincial certificates can be required for the same work.
- Letting clocks drift. API's three-year cycle carries a work-activity requirement; method certifications renew on their own cycle. Track both.
Verifying both credentials before work starts
Direct answer: API certificates are verified centrally; NDT certifications under SNT-TC-1A are verified through the employer's records. Owner QA teams should check both before mobilization.
API offers a public Inspector Status Verification tool, searchable by last name or certification number, and an ICP directory searchable by program and, in the US and Canada, by state or province. For an SNT-TC-1A Level II, ask the contractor for its written practice and the individual's certification record: method and level, training and experience hours, examination results, vision exam date and the Level III who approved the certification. ASNT central certificates and NRCan certificates can be checked with the issuing body. A clean file for each examiner, plus a verified API status for the inspector, is what an auditor will look for when the PSM documentation trail is tested.
How Atlantis supports both sides
Atlantis NDT works on the examiner side of this split. Our technicians are ASNT-certified under ASNT Level III oversight and perform UT thickness and CML surveys, corrosion mapping, PAUT, TOFD, MT, PT and VT, with certification records available to owner QA. Results go to the owner's API-certified inspector, who stays inspector of record; we are not the authorized inspector or inspection agency. For technicians building the NDT side of a career, we deliver ASNT SNT-TC-1A training online, live-virtual or onsite, with 1,000+ technicians trained. We do not offer API certification training or exam prep. See NDT Level II training and ASNT certification paths, ask for a Level II training plan, or book ASNT-certified NDE examiners. We reply to quote requests within 24 hours.
Related guides: API inspector guide, which inspector certifications operators require, API 510 vs 570 vs 653, verifying an API inspector certificate.
More questions about Level II and code inspector roles
Does an NDT examiner need API 510 certification?
No. API 510 says examiners need not hold API 510 certification or be employed by the owner/user, but must be trained and competent in the NDE procedures used. The owner/user may require proof such as SNT-TC-1A or CP-189 certification.
Can a Level II evaluate results against API 510?
Only if the owner/user has specifically trained and authorized them to. Otherwise evaluation and acceptance of NDE results belong to the inspector.
Is ASNT Level II accepted in Canada?
Canadian NDT certification is usually through NRCan to CAN/CGSB-48.9712, which NRCan states satisfies ISO 9712. Some projects accept SNT-TC-1A; confirm with the owner. Provincial rules, such as ABSA's AB-526 in Alberta, govern who may certify in-service pressure equipment inspections.
Does PSM require API-certified inspectors?
OSHA's PSM standard does not name API certifications. It requires RAGAGEP-based inspection, documentation and training. Employers that adopt API 510, 570 and 653 as RAGAGEP follow the codes' inspector requirements.
What is QUTE and do I need it as a Level II?
API's QUTE programs qualify UT examiners for manual or phased array flaw detection and sizing, and QUTE-TM for thickness measurement. Owners specify them for certain scopes. They add to, rather than replace, employer certification.
Does NDT field experience count toward API 570?
It can, if it includes inspection activities as described in API 570. API requires at least one year of such activity in every eligibility route, with experience gained in the last 10 years. API decides what qualifies.
Next step
Atlantis trains to ASNT SNT-TC-1A, live online or onsite at your facility. To go further, request a training plan. We reply within 24 hours.