UK employment question

Pentaghost

I am a British Citizen currently applying to a position with the UKBA and one of the essential requirements states that I "Must have been resident in the UK continuously for 5 years prior to application."

In 2009 I spent 5 months in the United States (4 months working) and in 2010 I spent 3 months in the United States on vacation. Obviously my question is do I meet the above criteria? The UKBA website has this to say:

"continuous residence" means residence in the United Kingdom for an unbroken period, and for these purposes a period shall not be considered to have been broken where an applicant is absent from the United Kingdom for a period of 6 months or less at any one time.

Does this apply to both citizens and non-citizens? The fact that it says "these purposes" makes me think that the definition for a UK citizen might be different. I tried calling the enquiries helpline but the guy I spoke to sounded stoned or something, he had no idea what I was talking about. We had a good laugh though.

LaOs

What "these purposes" seems to mean to me is that an "unbroken period" could be defined in different ways throughout the government agencies (or they're just covering themselves) and they wanted to make it clear that an unbroken period allows you to have been absent from the UK for up to six months at any one time.

So, being away for five months in 2009 and being away for 3 months in 2010 would both not be considered breaks--meaning that you've resided in the UK for an unbroken period from sometime before 2009 through to now (assuming you've given accurate and complete information).

The "for these purposes" doesn't seem to be related to citizenship at all.

Jam Warrior

Yeah, it's saying as long as no individual trip went over 6 months then you cool.