The requirements are 5 years of legal residence and 1 year ILR, so earliest would be Dec 2006 I suppose.

I am EU citizen and we get ILR automatically after 5 years, sicne 30th April 2006 there is even no need to apply for a ILR certificate, but rang today and they told me that I can only submit my applicatton on or after 30th April 2007, even if I have been living here since 1998. Still find it a bit odd, since I have been here for 7 years now.

There is no rush for me, as EU citizen I have most of the civic rights anyway, just a matter of formalising my situation here.

Passed my test on Thursday!By the way the validity of the test doesn't expire.

Ed