Minnesota
From the 50 State Visitor Guide:
Minn. Stat. 2019 §243.166
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
5 days for initial
registration and updates.
Visitors: Presence in state for more than 14 days or
30 days per calendar year triggers obligation to register. §243.166(1b).
Registrants without a primary address register within 24 hours of entering new
jurisdiction, & provide updates in-person weekly.
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
None. Only Level 3
offenders are placed on the public website. (per NARSOL Digest, June 2018, p.7)
Duration & updates:
10 yrs – life. Updates annually (weekly for those without
permanent residence). §243.166.
Most recent visit: August 2021
For registered visitors, Minnesota is one of the easier states to get along with. Fourteen consecutive days should be enough for most visits. If for some reason you do end up on the state’s registry, only Level 3 offenders are placed on the public website. Be careful, however, because Minnesota is one of five U.S. states whose out-of-state Tier 1 (or equivalent) registration requirement ends at a specified number of years after release from prison, or at the number of years required by the offender’s state of offense – whichever is longer. So if you are thinking how to escape from your own state’s harsh registration requirements, don’t think about this state.
In August 2021 I decided to take Minnesota up on its relative hospitality, at least as it applies to visitors. Entering from Wisconsin at Duluth, it stopped at the I-35 Welcome Center to pick up brochures including one bragging about Duluth’s downtown waterfront park district. Unfortunately I soon discovered that at this moment nearly all of Downtown Duluth is completely ripped up with construction, including not just the I-35 / US 2 interchange, not just most of the main streets for some kind of underground utility and streetscape reconstruction, but also a major downtown hospital expansion that has closed most of the surrounding streets. After an hour of trying I couldn’t figure out how to even get to the waterfront park, never mind find a place to park. I had to give up!
My intension was to go as far north as U.S. registry law allows, which means right at the Canadian border. My first destination was Voyageurs National Park, which turns out to be mainly a boating and fishing paradise. There are no campgrounds in the park, and apparently people take their boats out to camp at one of the hundreds of islands in Kabetogama Lake. I’m not a boater! **Sigh** However, I camped overnight at a nearby state forest campground.
The next morning I decided I simply couldn’t go this far north without stopping in International Falls and walking right up to the border crossing – so I did! Then turning southwest I traveled through remote wilderness and two Indian reservations before ending my day at Charles Lindbergh State Park (yup – turns out he grew up in Minnesota). Hot showers – Yey!
The following day I
toured Minneapolis, which was not ripped up.
Overnight at another state park. My final day in Minnesota I stopped at
Mystery Cave, enjoyed the one hour tour, then headed home to Iowa.