Not getting prompt for villager to move in?

[YETIspaghetti]

I bought a villager off of someone and I went into their village where they were in boxes and I only had 8 villagers in my town, but they wouldn't ask to move in. The villager I bought had already been in my town before. Is that the issue?

 

[Valeris]

It's been a long time but it's my understanding that when a villager leaves your town they remain in a sort of storage/limbo, what have you. That's why you see them visiting on the street at times; it's an indication they're there. Said space contains the last fifteen or so villagers that have moved out(I might be off on the number) and you won't be able to invite those villagers back until you remove them from said void. You essentially have to cycle them out by having so many villagers move out and push them out of the space in which they're stored. It's one of the rare downsides to New Leaf unfortunately.

 

[LadyDestani]

@Valeris is correct. It's called the 16 villager cycle in New Leaf. Unfortunately, you will have to move out 16 villagers before you can invite the one you want back to live in your town. This rule applies to inviting villagers from other towns, inviting them from your campsite (I don't think they'll show up in your campsite if you can't invite them, but don't quote me on that), and random move-ins. The only way to get a villager to move back in without going through the 16 villager cycle is to scan them in with an Amiibo card, but you have to do this directly in your town. Inviting an Amiibo villager from another town doesn't work the same way.