Interesting Caja story. We moved to San Jose from San Ramon where we had lived for a year. When we moved to SJ, I needed to affiliate with my new EBAIS which turned into quite and adventure.
Trip #1
I went to the EBAIS to understand what they needed. Old cards from San Ramon, an application with a signature of my landlord, a utility bill, copy of my landlord’s Cedula.
Trip #2
I brought all the completed forms and copies back. They process my affiliation but said there was something wrong with my wife’s but they don’t tell me what. They said I could either have them send her card back to San Ramon to fix or start over. I choose send back to SR.
Trip #3
I return in a week and they said no one would pick up the phone in SR to make the changes so they suggested I start over. I am freaking out on what paperwork I will need again. They give me a sheet with the requirements, which include another application for BOTH of us, copies of our cedulas, utility bill and our marriage certificate. Fortunately, we got married in CR and I just needed to go downtown and pick up a copy. We went over to the ARCR office and got some help filling the forms out.
Trip #4
Returned with the completed paperwork and were rejected because we had crossed out our US phone number and wrote in our CR phone number. No marks or corrections allowed so she gave us another form and we went to the waiting room and filled it out again and returned and turned it in. They said to come back in a week.
Trip #5
We came back in a week and I anxiously sat while they clicked on the computer and shuffled papers and eventually pulled my wife’s paper file which had all the original paper work from Trip #4 (miracle) and printed out her new card.
The problem with my wife’s affiliation was with her Caja number. Apparently, while we were living in San Ramon we originally applied during a confusing time involving confusion on dependent expat spouses that took a while to clear up. I did not think we were affected since my wife’s card says she is my dependent.
Turns out that CR Caja numbering system is rooted in the man working and the woman being the dependent. I understand that is signified by the man getting a Caja number that begins with a “1” and the dependent woman getting a Caja number starting with a “2”. The San Ramon EBAIS inadvertently assigned my wife a number starting with a “1” even though she was not a male and was marked on the card as my dependent. So, it blew up their computer and was the reason we had to reapply. I understand they are having problems with these changing times where more women are working and more men are staying home with the kids thus messing up their old patriarchal numbering system. So, as long as we stayed in San Ramon everything was cool and it was only by changing EBAISs did the error get flagged.
Costa Rica By Bus 