North Dakota
From the 50 State Visitor Guide :
N.D. Century Code 2021 §§12.1-20-25, 12.1-32.15, 12.1-34-06
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
3 days for initial
registration of “residence” (not defined).
3 days for registration of “temporary domicile,” defined as being
physically present in state for more than 10 consecutive days, present in state
for more than 30 days in a calendar year, or at a location for longer than 10
consecutive days. §12.1-32.15(1)(h), (2).
Visitors: Per N Dak. SOR office, visitors must register if in state
10 consecutive days or 30 days per calendar year.
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
Residency
Restriction: “High-risk”
offenders may not reside within 500 ft. of a public or private school. §12.1-32-13.
Presence
restriction: May not
knowingly enter school without permission, subject to exceptions. §12.1-20-25.
Duration & updates:
15 to life.
Frequency of updates determined by AG. §12.1-32.15.
Updates: Homeless – every 3 days. §12.1-32.15(2). Others vary.
Most recent visit: September 2025
North Dakota’s visitor rules are about average and not too tough to live with. You get ten consecutive days or 30 days per calendar year, which should be enough for most visits – unless you’ve come seeking your fortune as an oil worker, in which case you’re establishing a residence anyway and will need to abide by North Dakota’s relatively mild residency and presence restrictions.
In early September 2025 I was in and out of North Dakota twice. I entered the state on Sunday and left Tuesday morning, so that’s three days (including partial days). Tuesday night I stayed in Ft. Peck, MT but returned to North Dakota the next afternoon, Wednesday, and stayed that night at the International Peace Garden, which I will report on in my next blog entry. Thursday night I was at a motel in Fargo, and left the state on Friday morning.
That means I was in North Dakota for six consecutive days from Sunday to Friday – two whole days (Mon & Thurs) and four partial days. But even with all this in and out, I was still well within the state’s ten day limit.
Roosevelt National Park and Little Missouri National Grassland
Taken together, Roosevelt National Park and Little Missouri National cover an enormous area of western North Dakota at least as large Yellowstone. With the exception of the scenic loop roads in the national park, this whole area is roadless and wild shortgrass prairie, punctuated by the badlands of the Little Missouri River Valley. It’s all public land so it’s been preserved in as close to its original state as you can find anywhere.
This is also where a young Theodore Roosevelt came for solitude and solace after his mother and first wife died in rapid succession. Later as president he remembered this beautiful place as he was creating our national parks system. So when you come to see this preserved piece of original prairie and badlands, be sure to thank him.
My previous visit in 2022 was on the weekend after Labor Day. It turns out that each year at dawn on Sunday of that weekend they have a hot air balloon event in the town of Medora, where the Roosevelt park entrance is. So you might want to keep that in mind.
So far, so good for North Dakota. But I have to say – at least in 2022, after Teddy Roosevelt everything was downhill. The closest town to the North Unit is Watford City which, like Minot which I also passed through, is an oil boom town where a seemingly endless collection of crappy mobile homes, strip commercial garbage, truck stops and equipment maintenance companies have been vomited across the landscape.
I stayed at two state parks while in North Dakota (Fort Stevenson & Graham’s Island) and I have to say they were both very nice, clean and well equipped with hot showers and flush toilets.
International Peace Garden
If you want to dip your toe into Canada and pretend you have beaten the restrictions on international travel we registered citizens face, there is the International Peace Garden, which straddles the border between North Dakota and Manitoba.
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