In this paper the effect of welding on the strength of connections in cold-formed stainless steels is presented. The main objective of the research was to study the strength of austenitic stainless steel joints (AISI 304 and 316L) in transverse fillet welds and in butt welds (gas metal arc and manual metal arc welding). Two design codes tor stainless steel structures were used for the prediction of the failure loads: Eurocode 3 Part 1.4 and ANSI/ASCE 1991. Eurocode 3 Part 1.4 does not give explicitly any design rules for welded connections, but it gives a reference to provisions given in Eurocode 3 Part 1.1. Comparisons between specifications were made. The tensile properties in the formulas of the codes were characterised by material strength, measured tube strength and typical weld metal strength. The other aim of the study was to investigate the failure criteria. Two criteria were compared, i.e. the ultimate strength and the yielding of the connection. The ultimate strength was chosen for the design criteria and subsequently, the safety factor was determined for the design in butt welds. The results show that Eurocode 3 seems to be rather conservative in design of groove welds in butt joints when compared with the test results. When the fracture does not occur in the weld metal, the best criterion is the ultimate strength in the parent material. The results obtained from the transverse fillet weld tests agreed quite well with the results from the butt weld tests.