My personal experience is such that wanting to have a caldari character now comes in two separate parts

Wanting my identity to be caldari as after playing a few months in beta, I came to the realisation that I preferred caldari visual style, as well as enjoying caldari lore/characters the most, but I didnt want to start over
Yes they did allow me to move to a Caldari Station and merc quarters

I also prefer caldari style gameplay, being skilled into their dropsuits weapons,equipment and vehicles 58m sp. Id like to have access to the caldari starter fits for when I want to play cheap (I ended up getting a lot of caldari BPO in the end but still)

Overall I understand if you feel you can't afford the manpower/time to do race changes
After allowing respecs...perhaps a one off free race change



Declaring for a faction sounds like a good idea
Simple, bonus LP/Standing, for your declared faction, slightly less for their allies and a negative bonus for enemy factions epic cooldown timer of 1-3 months?

Get some text of your char info, perhaps standing related rank for whichever faction you declare for
And a mercenary type designation for those who dont declare, that rank/title related to their combined standing levels accross factions