Pipefitter licensing in Michigan

There is no Michigan fitter card to bring or to get — we read the whole mechanical article and the words 'journeyman' and 'master' appear in it ZERO times. The only instrument is the MECHANICAL CONTRACTOR'S license, issued per work classification — and PROCESS PIPING is a named classification ('piping that is not part of an air conditioning or refrigeration system'), alongside hydronic heating and cooling.

Your employer holds it; you hold nothing. Michigan also reciprocates with NO state at contractor level — the exam is always required — but out-of-state EXPERIENCE counts in full toward the 3-year/6,000-hour bar, which is the part people misread.

Nothing is ever pending for you — no personal license exists. The statute is satisfied when the person OR AN EMPLOYEE OF THE PERSON holds the contractor's license, so the crew works as soon as the employer's license and permits are in order.

Contractor-level, per classification: 3 years or 6,000 hours of experience IN EACH classification applied for, proven by employer statements signed under penalty of perjury, then the Michigan exam — never waived for anyone. A cross-classification ladder opens additional classes after 3 continuous years. This is the path if you ever want your own Michigan shop; as a hand, none of it touches you.

No apprentice tier — no individual tier of any kind exists in the article. Time accumulates as an employee and is proven later by perjury-backed employer statements if you ever apply for the contractor license.

NONE — and it is statutory preemption: a municipality shall not establish or maintain local licensing for these classifications. No Michigan city fitter card exists or can exist. Preemption removes the local license, not the local permit.

The company's license must carry the classification matching the work — PROCESS PIPING for industrial lines, hydronic heating and cooling for comfort piping — with a designated contractor of record behind it. Verify the classification, not just the license, at LARA's search. Plants may run their own qualified maintenance crews (the act says so expressly), and a 1099 fitter working for themselves needs the license personally — the classic trap.