High strength low alloy (HSLA) steels are widely used in pipeline construction. However, when welded with cellulosic electrodes, these steels are known to be highly susceptible to weld metal hydrogen assisted cold cracking (WMHACC). The Welding Institute of Canada (WIC) has developed a weldability test to evaluate the risk of root pass cracking in pipeline girth welds. The WIC test precisely reproduces the geometry and welding conditions of actual pipes, however the level of the welding stress, which is one of the critical factors affecting the susceptibility of weld metal to HACC, remains largely unspecified. In this paper 3D finite element models (FEM) are developed to evaluate the welding stress for under-matched, matched, and overmatched welds. The effects of heat input, wall thickness and variable anchoring (restraint) length of WIC sample are systematically investigated. The current numerical simulations are validated against previously published results. As a practical outcome, the presented numerical solutions can help to select the appropriate anchoring length in WIC tests to simulate the actual stress conditions in the pipeline, and, ultimately, reduce the risk of HACC.