Purpose There are obvious differences in corrosion resistance of different 2205 welding joints with different ratios of austenite and ferrite, from the top to the bottom, the austenite content decreased gradually while the ferrite increased. In each region of welded joint, the pitting resistance number of ferrite is higher than that of austenite; pitting corrosion is more likely to occur in austenite phase first on the top region of the weld and in the secondary phase precipitates on the other regions of the weld. The fluctuation of the ratio of austenite and ferrite has a great influence on performance of passive film in 3.5 per cent NaCl solution. Design/methodology/approach To study the corrosion behavior of welded joint, the samples were obtained by laser hybrid welding. Pitting corrosion was studied in different area of welded joint. The Mott–Schottky curves of welded joints were measured to study the passive film on the different welded joint area. Findings Due to the difference of heat input and the limit of filler depth of the wire, the microstructure of duplex stainless steel laser welding joint has obvious difference in the thickness direction. In addition, there will be harmful secondary phase (such as chromium nitride and σphase) precipitates in the lower part of the joint. For the welded joint, the corrosion resistance decreases with the increase in the difference of the microstructure. Pitting corrosion usually takes the two phases as the nucleation point and grows up. The surface of 2205 duplex stainless steel laser hybrid welding joint cannot form a complete passive film in 3.5 per cent NaCl solution, and the more the ratios of austenite and ferrite deviate from equilibrium position (50:50), the worse the performance of passive film is. Originality/value In this paper, the authors attempt to establish the correlation between the semiconductor electronic properties of passive film and the difference of microstructures and the component in a joint welded by laser hybrid welding. The effect of passive film on the corrosion resistance of the weld was further investigated.