He left briefly to play for Atlas in Mexico in 2020, before returning to the MLS with Cincinnati in 2021. He has lived in the United States for six of the last seven years. Federal law dictates that U.S. green card holders, of which Acosta is one, must continuously reside in the U.S. for five years in order to be eligible for citizenship.
This section does a pretty terrible job of explaining how he is still able to pursue naturalization without the clock completely resetting after his stint with Atlas. Did his wife stay in the U.S. and earn naturalization herself while he went down to Mexico? If not, shouldn't the earliest moment that he could apply for citizenship be 2025?
(a) Residence
No person, except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, shall be naturalized unless such applicant, (1) immediately preceding the date of filing his application for naturalization has resided continuously, after being lawfully admitted for permanent residence, within the United States for at least five years and during the five years immediately preceding the date of filing his application has been physically present therein for periods totaling at least half of that time, and who has resided within the State or within the district of the Service in the United States in which the applicant filed the application for at least three months, (2) has resided continuously within the United States from the date of the application up to the time of admission to citizenship, and (3) during all the periods referred to in this subsection has been and still is a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States.
(b) Absences
Absence from the United States of more than six months but less than one year during the period for which continuous residence is required for admission to citizenship, immediately preceding the date of filing the application for naturalization, or during the period between the date of filing the application and the date of any hearing under section 1447(a) of this title, shall break the continuity of such residence, unless the applicant shall establish to the satisfaction of the Attorney General that he did not in fact abandon his residence in the United States during such period.
So it looks like there are some provisions there for being gone between 6 months and a year, with nothing really said either way for being gone under 6 months, and ultimately only needing to be physically present at least half of the five years. Not sure the exact time frame he was gone for though.
Yeah, I suppose if he kept his official residence, that would also be possible. Thanks for looking into that. It just seems like the author has no better clue than the rest of us how exactly this works. By his own words, he isn't sure if the stint in Atlas reset the clock or not.
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