Admission on Motion

Please visit our Eligibility and General Requirements and Application Submissions FAQs for additional information.

Rule 7A (Eligibility by Practice): The application is evaluated based only on the 60-month period immediately preceding the application.  Your practice history during that period of time must meet the qualifications.

Rules 7B (MBE score) and 7C (UBE score):  You must apply within 36 months of the date of the qualifying exam being used as the basis for admission.

If your educational requirements qualify under Rule 4A, there are three ways you can be admitted on motion in Minnesota:

• If you have been practicing law for at least 1000 hours per year for at least 36 of the past 60 months, you may be eligible. See Rule 7A for additional requirements.
• If you received a scaled score of 145 or higher on the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) in the past 36 months and you were admitted in another jurisdiction on the basis of the examination in which you obtained that score, you may be eligible. See Rule 7B for additional requirements.
• If you received a scaled score of 260 or higher on the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) in the past 36 months, you may be eligible. See Rule 7C for additional requirements.

Please visit our Application Submissions FAQs for additional information.

Read the language of Rule 7A(1) and 7A(2) and the Policy Statement on Admission without Examination, Eligibility by Practice carefully to determine if your work history qualifies.

It does not matter. There is no benefit to applying by one rule instead of the other.

Once you’ve checked the jurisdiction in which you are admitted for rules regarding release of score information, visit the NCBE’s website for information on transferring your score.

Visit the NCBE’s website for information on transferring your UBE score.

Yes. As long as you meet the eligibility requirements of Rule 4A, you received a UBE score of 260 or higher that has been certified by the NCBE as a UBE score, and you apply to Minnesota within 36 months of the date of the qualifying exam.

No.  See Rule 7B.

If you are registered for the next administration of the UBE or are awaiting exam results in a UBE jurisdiction, you may submit a concurrent UBE application pursuant to Rule 7C(2) in anticipation of receiving a UBE score of 260 or higher once those results are released.  If you do not obtain a UBE score of 260 or higher on the pending exam, you will have 12 months from the date of application to submit a qualifying score or you will be deemed ineligible and your file will be closed.

For motion applicants, an application typically takes an average of 3 to 6 months to process, but can take longer in some circumstances.  See the Applicant Portal and Other Follow-Up FAQs for information about how to avoid common causes of delay and respond to requests from the Board office.

Yes. The Lawyer Registration Office organizes monthly admission ceremonies in the courtroom of the Supreme Court.

You may also be admitted in absentia through the Lawyer Registration Office. You may contact the Lawyer Registration Office for additional assistance.

Applicants for admission on motion may NOT attend the ceremonies that are held for those applicants that sat for and passed the most current bar exam.

Due to changes in the Board’s Rules over time, the application requirements and fees for the two application types are functionally equivalent, but while an in-house counsel license expires upon leaving the qualifying employment, Rule 7A offers permanent licensure in Minnesota.  Most applicants prefer to have this future career flexibility since it involves no extra requirements or cost.  Feel free to contact the Board office for additional details about this topic.

No. As advised by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) on June 1, 2020, the October 5-6, 2020 emergency remote exam included a limited set of questions rather than the full-length Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), so scores earned on that exam were for use in local admission decisions only and are not eligible to be transferred by NCBE as UBE or Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) scores. Minnesota did not administer the October 5-6, 2020 emergency remote exam and there is not a mechanism under the Board’s Rules to apply for admission on motion on the basis of having taken the October 5-6, 2020, exam in another jurisdiction.