R -- Application Support Centers (ASC) Operations and Facilities Services

APPLICATION SUPPORT CENTERS (ASC) Operations and Facilities Services. The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (DHS/USCIS) has a requirement to operate, lease, and maintain facilities for the Application Support Center Program. Requirements include biometrics collection, mobile route operations, application collection, local scheduling, facilities leasing/ maintenance, special projects, and project/administrative support to process USCIS customers seeking immigration benefits. Currently, biometrics capture and other services for approximately 3.5 million applicants are performed at 136 government or contractor-leased ASCs through the USA and its territories. The prime vendor must assume all leases for contractor-leased space (currently 81 leases), and may be required to obtain leases for and operate a new domestic scheduling center and potentially overseas sites. DHS anticipates significant ASC organizational and process changes during the life of the contract to meet future workload and homeland security issues. Sites may be added, moved, or deleted as needs change. Significant workload lulls and surges are expected. All contractor staff must be U.S. citizens and must be able to obtain a T-2 (mid-risk) or T-1 (high-Risk) clearance. Labor categories will vary by site and may consist of site supervisors, quality assurance specialists, quality assurance processors, biometrics technicians, unarmed guards, armed guards, schedulers, and other labor categories that cover the work listed above. The projected date for issuance of the solicitation is within the first week of November 2005. USCIS encourages the use of teaming arrangements or mentor/protege agreements in this acquisition, however, mentor/protege agreements must be approved by DHS prior to proposal submission. The RFP will be issued on an unrestricted basis (full & open competition). The Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract period of performance will be for a base year and four one-year option periods. A reference library CD will be available to all potential offerors after the RFP has been posted. To request this reference library CD, potential offerors shall forward their request by email to kristie.nestle @dhs.gov and [email protected]. The CD will be sent via DHL, therefore potential offerors will need to include their express mail delivery address in their email requests. All questions concerning this competition must be directed in writing via email to [email protected] and [email protected] or facsimile to (802) 951-6455. No questions or inquiries will be accepted by telephone. The distribution of the resulting solicitation will be accomplished solely through the Federal Business Opportunity (FedBizOpps) website http://fedbizopps.gov. Hard copies of the solicitation documents will not be available, therefore, no written, telephone, or facsimile requests for the documents will be accepted. The FedBizOpps site provides downloading instructions. All future information about this acquisition, including the solicitation and any amendments, will be distributed solely through the FedBizOpps site. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring the FedBizOpps site to assure that they have the most up-to-date information about this acquisition. Please contact the FBO Support group at [email protected]; phone (877) 472-3770 (toll free) regarding any download problems.