Bureau of Consular Affairs Global Support Strategy for Overseas Consular Support Services 2. 0 (GSS 2. 0)

This Amendment Number 0003 is to provide DoS' reponses to questions submitted by Interested Firms; a revised Solicitation, dated 10/24/2018 with revised Attachments in Section J.

The proposal due date shall be extended no later than 1:00 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday, November 13, 2018.

Note: Please ignore/delete previous Amendment No. 0003 that was posted on 10/24/2018. The Amendments 3-5 posted on 10/24/2018 were posted in error due to system errors. This solicitation is not cancelled.

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Please see the Amendment Number 0003 with Attachments, to include the Questions from Companies and DoS' Responses, changes/additions/clarifications to RFP, Revised RFP in its entirety with revised Attachments in Section J.

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Please see the attached Amendment Number 001 for Site Visit information.

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This is the official announcement of Solicitation Number, 19AQMM18R0311, Bureau of Consular Affairs for Global Support Services 2.0

The U.S. Department of State (DOS), Bureau of Consular Affairs, has a requirement for a qualified Contractor to provide services to support its Global Support Strategy (GSS) 2.0. The GSS 2.0 contract will provide support services for nonimmigrant and immigrant visa operations at United States consulates and embassies abroad, including but not limited to public inquiry services, appointment services, fee collection services, biometric enrollment services, document delivery services and data collection services. The GSS service provider(s) will perform non-inherently government activities associated with consular affairs and provide data collection and delivery to the United States Government. The contract will be performed entirely outside of the United States and its outlying areas.

Proposal submissions will be due no later than 3 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on November 6, 2018. All dates are subject to change and any change will be posted on this site. No electronic proposal submissions will be accepted.

The Department of State will provide a Site Visit for prospective Offerors at a GSS service location outside the continental United States. After official posting of this solicitation, Site Visit details, such as location, exact times and dates, will be posted to the web site (http://www.fbo.gov) as Amendment Number One. The Department of State will provide a one-on-one Due Diligence Session in the Washington, DC area, following the Site Visit, for each prospective Offeror, upon vendor's request.

Offerors are responsible for entry visa (if required), all travel arrangements, local transportation, and accommodations. Due to space limitations, only two (2) representatives from each firm will be allowed for the site visit. Participation in any Site Visit is mandatory for any prospective Offeror, and an Offeror not attending would be eliminated from the competition.

PHONE CALLS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Offerors shall have an active registration on the System for Award Management at https://www.SAM.gov.

The Government will make award to the responsive and responsible Offeror(s) whose offer conforms to the requirements of the solicitation and is evaluated as being the most advantageous to the Government, cost or price and other factors considered.

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THIS NOTICE IS PROVIDED FOR PLANNING AND INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. ALL DIRECTLY BILLABLE SERVICES WILL BE PERFORMED OVERSEAS, OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES, WITH ONLY PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION ACTIVITIES OCCURRING IN THE UNITED STATES.

The Department of State (DoS), Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) Global Support Strategy for Overseas Consular Services (GSS) program plays an essential role in providing non-inherently governmental consular support services in 120 countries, supporting 175 consular sections in U.S. embassies and consulates, representing 98 percent of total visa volume in Fiscal Year 2017. In 2017, GSS vendors collected nearly $2 billion in consular fees, prior to scheduling more than 10 million appointments and delivering over nine million documents.

GSS delivers a globally integrated and fully auditable solution of six distinct, yet critically inter-connected, categories of service: information, appointment scheduling, consular collection in a variety of methods to include local currency, delivery of issued travel documentation, onsite "greeters" who verify applicants appearing for their appointments and handle crowd management, and offsite biometric collection in certain countries. The collection of consular fees, which funds the overwhelming majority of CA's consular operations, is a critical component to this contract.

DoS awarded the current 10-year GSS Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts (GSS 1.0) in 2010 to two U.S.-based companies, Stanley Associates (since acquired by CGI Federal) and CSC (since acquired by CSRA, since acquired by General Dynamics Information Technology). Subsequently, DoS awarded twenty-three (23) individual task orders, with follow-on task orders competed and awarded as well. CA's need for GSS services will continue into the foreseeable future, and DoS will contract these services under the subject of this acquisition, GSS 2.0. The current IDIQs expire on February 25, 2020, and the Government expects a full and seamless transition to occur before the end of FY 2021 to ensure the continuity of these essential consular support services. The following objectives and future task order activities will need to be fulfilled during contract performance:

Objective 1 - Provide business process support services for consular-related operations at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad under a performance-based arrangement, which will effectively and efficiently facilitate processing of all customers in accordance with existing procedures and business requirements. Anticipated services include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

a. Provide customers with accurate, up-to-date information regarding consular services and fees according to the population served by a given post, country, and/or region in the appropriate local language.

b. Provide customers with the ability to schedule appointments for consular services at their local U.S. embassy or consulate, in coordination with local consular management.

c. Collect consular fees from applicants prior to appointment scheduling and subsequently, timely, and accurately deposit these funds into a Government account.

d. Provide customers with the ability to submit required documentation and receive their issued travel documents at distributed points of service outside of their local U.S. embassy or consulate.

e. Coordinate with local U.S. embassy or consulate staff to facilitate customer entry into and movement through U.S. embassy or consulate facilities.

Objective 2 - Provide local, Offsite Facilitation Center (OFC) standalone facilities to offer a range of visa support services, in Government-designated countries, that either require and/or would benefit from the personal appearance of the visa applicant. In addition to potentially providing any or all of the services above, anticipated services include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

a. Capture visa applicants' biometrics and facilitating secure transmission of captured data to the Government.

b. Provide visa applicants with the ability to schedule appointments at a standalone facility.

c. Deliver the physical documentation provided by a visa applicant to their local U.S. embassy or consulate in advance of the applicant's interview.

d. Provide visa applicants with the ability to receive their issued travel documents at standalone facilities.

Objective 3 - Provide skilled oversight and management of worldwide operations for all contract customer support services. Anticipated services include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

a. Implement a comprehensive program, quality and risk management approach and methodology that is flexible and adaptable to allow for the implementation of GSS services in different regions around the world.

b. Obtain and maintain all local licenses, permits, certifications, and other documentation to operate in foreign environments.

c. Ensure all services are provided in a manner that is consistent with U.S. foreign policy.

d. Provide service and performance related data to the Government to allow monitoring, auditing, oversight, and performance measurement of support services.

e. Provide the ability to transition services to/from another provider efficiently and with little or no impact to ongoing operations.

f. Provide a designated single point of contact who oversees contract customer operations for one or more posts and maintain designated on-site management personnel in all locations, as required by the Government.

g. Ensure that all Contractor personnel involved in providing or supporting services under the GSS program meet vetting requirements established by the Government.

h. Implement appropriate controls to prevent and detect cases of fraud, malfeasance, misfeasance, or other criminal or negligent activity and for notification to appropriate Government personnel.

i. Provide a robust capability to diagnose and correct the root causes for systemic and situational circumstances that result in substandard service delivery, while maintaining open and frequent communications and full transparency with the Government.

j. Conduct continuous improvement activities to realize improved service delivery capabilities and performance.

k. Implement appropriate security controls to protect employees, information, and physical assets (e.g., facilities, computers, etc.).

Objective 4 - Provide customers with a positive experience by treating them professionally and with courtesy at all times, in an efficient manner. Anticipated services include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

a. Provide customer services (including standalone facility operation) at agreed upon times and in accordance with Government expectations for an appropriate customer experience.

b. Provide service accessibility to applicants who possess physical disabilities.

c. Provide customers with the ability to review accurate, real-time information on the status of in-transit documents, pending inquiries, and any service outage or degradation.

d. Provide a dedicated service support function to log and report on customer complaints and suggestions.

e. Provide customers with tailored notifications throughout a service lifecycle to maintain customer engagement and deliver timely information and reminders.

f. Implement a comprehensive quality control approach and methodology for all operational and customer-focused services provided, including a robust customer satisfaction assessment program.

Objective 5 - Provide seamless delivery and integration of all contract support services via a robust and dynamic suite of underlying technologies that will be capable of enabling all objectives under this IDIQ, of interacting with consular technologies, and of adapting to changes as services and technologies evolve. Anticipated services include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

a. Maintain physical and logical security controls to ensure data security, integrity and availability for customers, consular staff, and other Government staff.

b. Maintain compliance with minimum specifications as detailed in, but not limited to, Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and Series 800 Special Publications (SPs) published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce.

c. Provide a dynamic, customizable, management dashboard solution and reports for consular and contract managers.

d. Develop and continuously improve tools and techniques that will enhance the quality, efficiency, and overall performance of contract support processes and, to the extent possible, consular processes as well.

e. Enable continuous, up to and including real-time, interactions between consular and Contractor technologies for data transfer, integration, and program support.

f. Maintaining robust role-based access to separate permissions, at a minimum, by location and type of individual (e.g., Locally Employed Staff vs. Foreign Service Officer, etc.).

The Government is contemplating a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with multiple awards based on best value to the Department of State. The Department contemplates the contract period will be for a base one-year period with nine (9) one-year option periods. Performance-based task orders will be competed amongst the IDIQ awardees. The estimated ceiling of the GSS Contract is $3.1B.

A Department of Defense (DoD) SECRET facility security clearance (FCL) issued in accordance with the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), DoD 5220.22-M is required prior to contract award for the GSS prime contractor, including all entities which comprise a joint venture, and the joint venture itself. Prime contractors must be U.S. firms incorporated in the United States. Non-U.S. firms will not be eligible to bid on this effort.

A business participating in this acquisition must participate in a potential group Industry Day to a Department of State (DoS) selected Consulate and Offsite Facilitation Center (OFC) outside the Continental United States at a to-be-determined site, at its own expense. Industry Day details, such as exact times and dates, will be posted to the solicitation's web site (http://www.fbo.gov).

Any business entity wishing to do business with the federal government must be registered in the System for Award Management (www.sam.gov).

The pre-solicitation notice is not a Request for Proposal (RFP), but merely informational, as a solicitation for this procurement will be available via FedBizOpps (http://www.fbo.gov) on or about August 10, 2018. No paper copies of the solicitation or solicitation amendments will be issued. The Government does not intend to respond to questions regarding this pre-solicitation notice at this time, but will answer questions regarding the solicitation in accordance with the instructions provided when the solicitation is released. Contact information regarding this solicitation is as follows: Tandra A. Jones, Contracting Officer (email: JonesTA3@state.gov); and Rosalind M. Hicks, Branch Chief and Contracting Officer (email: HicksRM@state.gov) , A/LM//AQM/IP, Office of Acquisition Management, U. S. Department of State, SA-6A, Arlington, VA 22209.

The proposed solicitation number is SAQMM18R0311. THIS ACQUISITION WILL BE AN UNRESTRICTED ACQUISITION. The NAICS code for this requirement is 541513 with a size standard of $27.5 million.

Potential bidders MUST register at FedBizOpps (www.fedbizopps.gov) in order to receive notifications and/or changes to the solicitation. Potential bidders are responsible for monitoring this site for the release of the solicitation package and any other pertinent information.

The solicitation will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria described in the solicitation. Award will be made to those responsible Offeror(s) whose proposal conforms to all solicitation terms and conditions and whose proposal is determined to represent the overall best value to the Government.

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