2 N.Va. Firms Win Immigration Document Deals

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded two contracts worth $225 million each to a pair of Northern Virginia companies for document management at four immigration services centers.

SI International of Reston and Stanley Inc. of Arlington received the three-year contracts from the department's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. Each company will support two centers that process visa applications and other immigration petitions.

The four centers together handle more than 5 million paper applications a year. Many of the documents come in from U.S. embassies around the world. SI will support centers in Dallas and Lincoln, Neb., while Stanley will support centers in Laguna Niguel, Calif., and St. Albans, Vt.

The contractors will run mailrooms and provide data entry, fee collection and records management services. They also will be responsible for ensuring that application files contain all the information needed to make a decision on a petition, officials with both companies said.

For SI, the contract is a role reversal. During the past six years, the company has been a subcontractor at the centers with JHM Research and Development of Silver Spring as the prime contractor. JHM won the previous contract through a small business set-aside, but the new contract was awarded through an open competition that allowed any business to bid, said Brad Antle, SI's chief executive.

Under the new award, JHM is on SI's team as a subcontractor. Other team members include Lockheed Martin, Zimmerman Associates, HeiTech Services, iDox Solutions, Unisys and Base One Technologies.

SI officials estimated that their two centers could require up to 800 employees, including subcontractors.

Being the prime contractor gives SI an opportunity to build a closer relationship with the immigration agency, Antle said. Homeland Security is an important customer for the company, representing up to 20 percent of its revenue, Antle said. In 2006, SI reported $462 million in revenue.

For Stanley, the contract is its first with the immigration agency, said Pat Flannery, vice president of corporate development. "This is a new customer for us so we are very excited," he said.

The award will help the company expand its business with Homeland Security, Flannery said. About 3 percent of Stanley's revenue comes from the cabinet agency, through work performed for the Coast Guard. For fiscal 2007, ended March 31, Stanley reported $409.4 million in revenue.

Stanley has started a 60-day transition as it takes over work at its two centers from JHM, said Kristen Moulin, Stanley's transition manager and deputy program manager for the contract. The change should be completed by the end of November.

Moulin said Stanley will draw from its experience at the State Department, where it processes passport applications. "It is a high-volume environment," she said.

Stanley officials declined to name their partners on the contract but estimated that as many as 1,000 people could be working on the project between their two centers.

Nick Wakeman is editor of Washington Technology magazine. For information

on this and other contracts,

go to www.washington

technology.com.