Julio and I went to Seguro Social, CAJA, to get my Costa Rican social security card. FAIL. After 2 hours of waiting, we found out that first we need a letter from the lawyer stating that we are a real couple, then we need to take the letter back to the Seguro Social, then an inspector comes around to the casa to inspect our relationship, and then finally the decision will be made.
This whole process takes a few weeks and several hours of waiting in lines, BUT I’m glad I even have the option and opportunity to apply for Social Security in Costa Rica without being a citizen. The biggest benefit is legitimate access to the free health care system.
I snapped a photo of the stamps on the lawyer’s letter while Julio and I waited in line to hand it over to Seguro Social.
I have to admit that I am little curious about the details of your situation.
I waited until I had my resident cedula to apply for Seguro Voluntario. No inspector came to validate our marriage relationship and the entire process required a ten minute interview and my signature on one document.
My monthly payment for the medical attention only plan is about c8,000 because my spouse has a full time job.
I understand that under the new residency law it is required to sign up for the caja after you get the resolution from immigration on the residency application.
So, my question is are you trying to accelerate the caja insurance apply prior to the residency resolution?
Or are you required to go through this inspection process subsequent to your residency resolution?
We were trying to get me entered into the system before marriage or the residency process, but we ultimately failed in acquiring Seguro Social for myself because Julio told them I had a job. They apologetically told us that if he had only kept his mouth shut and told them I was unemployed, I could have been entered into the system. Julio disclosed that I had a job because it was online for the States and not on Costa Rican soil, so he thought it wouldn’t count. It did.
All they required was my passport and a letter from a lawyer verifying our relationship was real and also detailing the amount of time we had been in the relationship. Never made it to the proposed inspection process.
Actually they might have done you a big favor not to process your application at this time based on his statements.
Once goal of the interview is to determine if you should receive Seguro Voluntario or Trabajadora Independiente. The first is for students, pensioners and the unemployed and usually costs between $20 and $30 per month for medical attention.
The later is 33% of your earned income, meaning any work you do even if it comes from abroad. This is identical to FICA for the self employed in the United States expect that it provides the medical attention along with the pension.
If you fall into the independent worker scenario you will end up paying hundreds of dollars per month for a theoretical pension that you will receive in Costa Rica after age 65 if you pay into the system long enough.
This particular issue has become a problem in the last couple of years. Be careful what you say to the Caja employees.
That does sound like a huge problem. Their original intent was to put me in the system as a dependent of Julio, who was working full-time and already paying into the system, so the monthly payments would have been minimal. At least that was what they told us.
Thanks for the great comments with all the useful info. I’ll be sure to watch my step when the time comes to do this over again. lol of course by then there will be a whole different set of rules and problems to deal with, pura vida!