Welders can immigrate to Canada, and welding belongs to the group of trades that the Federal Skilled Trades Program accepts. Two authorities are involved. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the federal immigration department, decides whether you may settle permanently, and the province or territory where you live sets the rules for doing the work. For welders, those rules depend heavily on the province: Job Bank, the Government of Canada's job site, lists welder certification as compulsory in Alberta and available, but voluntary, in all other provinces and the territories. Quebec's construction industry is an exception: everyone working there needs a work permit from the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ), which lists welder among the specialized occupations with their own competency certificate. Pressure welding is a different matter again, with its own regulators in several provinces.

Do you need a licence to work as a welder in Canada?

In Alberta, yes. Welding is a compulsory certification trade there, and its restricted activities, the tasks only authorized people may perform, are limited to registered apprentices, certified journeypersons and holders of a recognized trade certificate. Welders with experience but no Alberta certificate may be eligible for the Trades Qualifier Program. Its work-experience route asks for 54 months and 7,020 hours of verifiable welding work, a theory exam and a practical exam; its route for people holding a recognized trade certificate from outside Alberta asks for a theory exam and a practical exam.

Outside Alberta, Job Bank lists the trade certificate as voluntary, although the Quebec construction rule above still applies. Welding is a non-compulsory trade in Ontario, which Skilled Trades Ontario says means you do not have to be certified to work in it. Its certificate of qualification for welders is still available after the certifying exam, and it does not have to be renewed. Skilled Trades Ontario puts the time needed to become competent in the trade at about 6,000 hours, roughly three years.

The Red Seal is the national layer on top of provincial certificates. Job Bank describes it as an endorsement on your trade certificate that lets employers know you meet the national qualification standards for your trade, and you get it by passing the interprovincial Red Seal exam.

Immigration routes for welders

Express Entry is the online system IRCC uses to manage skilled workers' applications for PR (permanent residence, the right to live in Canada permanently). Candidates in its pool receive a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score, and IRCC invites those with the most points in rounds. Our Express Entry guide explains the process, and the CRS calculator estimates your own score.

Within Express Entry, the Federal Skilled Trades Program takes people who are qualified in a skilled trade. Its work rule is 2 years of full-time work in the trade, or 3,120 hours, in the 5 years before you apply. It also asks for either a full-time job offer of at least 1 year or a certificate of qualification from a Canadian province, territory or federal authority. For welders, that second option is where an optional certificate can still make a difference. The program also sets minimum English or French test scores in all four language abilities, and it is only for people who plan to live outside Quebec.

IRCC also runs rounds for particular groups of jobs, and welders appear on its list of trade jobs for them. These rounds look for 12 months of full-time welding, or equal part-time work, within the past 3 years, done in Canada or abroad, and candidates must also qualify for one of the Express Entry programs. Our guide to category rounds explains how they work.

Provinces pick people for PR through their own nominee programs, which our guide to provincial nominee programs describes. British Columbia's program lists welders among the construction trades its invitations may target. To receive such an invitation, you must hold a trade certificate issued by SkilledTradesBC, or have an apprenticeship registered with it, that corresponds to the job you have been offered (British Columbia).

What does Ontario's welding test involve?

Welders who come through Ontario's Trade Equivalency Assessment, a route open to people with trade experience gained outside Canada, take a hands-on test at welding test centres set up for them. The Ontario Welder Practical Examination covers four welding processes (FCAW, SMAW, GMAW and GTAW), five plate assemblies checked by measurement, visual inspection and bend tests, and three oxy-acetylene cutting tests. You get six hours for the projects and two more for bending the test pieces. You bring your own safety gear, including a helmet, gloves and approved work boots, plus hand tools and an angle grinder, and only one retest is allowed across the five welded assemblies.

Welder is also a Red Seal trade in Ontario, and the Red Seal Welder exam has 125 multiple-choice questions, 54 of them about welding processes. The rest cover common occupational skills, layout and fabrication of components, and cutting and gouging.

Is pressure welding regulated separately?

In several provinces, yes, by a body other than the trades authority. Job Bank's list of regulators for welders names separate bodies for pressure welders: the Alberta Boilers Safety Association, Technical Safety BC, Manitoba's Office of the Fire Commissioner and the Technical Safety Authority of Saskatchewan. In Nova Scotia, it names the province's Technical Safety Division for welders and pressure vessel welders alike. In Ontario, Skilled Trades Ontario notes that certain tasks a welder may perform legally require certification from the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA). If your experience is in pressure work, check the safety authority as well as the trade certificate in the province you choose.

A common mistake welders make

Skipping certification because the trade is voluntary. Job Bank lists welding as voluntary in Saskatchewan, yet Saskatchewan's nominee program asks welders applying through its Express Entry sub-category for a certificate of qualification from the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission (SATCC), or a copy of another Canadian province's certificate or of a Red Seal certification. Applicants in its Occupations in Demand sub-category need a SATCC letter confirming that they completed the first step of the trade qualifier assessment and may write exams in Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan). The federal trades program, too, accepts a Canadian certificate as the alternative to a job offer.

First steps

1. Choose a province and check its welding rules, including any pressure welding body, on Job Bank's requirements page for welders.
2. For Ontario, read the practical examination guide before you apply for a Trade Equivalency Assessment.
3. For Alberta, compare your hours with its Trades Qualifier Program.
4. Prepare for the Red Seal exam with the Red Seal Welder exam breakdown and the sample questions on the Red Seal Welder page.