Can job application forms ask about criminal history? In Minnesota there is a recent statute that’s called Ban the Box and that statute prohibits you from asking about criminal history before you provide a conditional offer of employment. It used to be that most applications had a little box on there, would say have you ever been convicted of a crime? And you have to check the box and say if so, what? We can’t do that anymore, so now applications cannot ask that question until a conditional offer has been made.