U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has ordered remote document authentication software worth up to $9.18 million, according to a federal award record, as the agency moves to check identity documents without requiring people to appear in person.
The delivery order, for “remote enterprise document authentication software and support services,” was signed on September 16 and runs from September 28 to September 27, 2027. USCIS has committed $2.45 million so far, with options that would bring the total to $9.18 million. The order was placed with reseller Thundercat Technology through NASA’s SEWP government-wide contract, which agencies use to buy information technology products, so the record does not name the company that makes the software. It was set aside for small businesses and drew three offers.
In March, USCIS issued a request for information describing what it wanted from such a system. The notice said many USCIS processes “have relied on manual, in-person document review” and that the agency was looking for a remote document authentication and identity verification tool that could run on all major mobile phones and web browsers.
According to that notice, the software would need to authenticate U.S. and foreign identity documents, compare a user’s selfie to the document photo with presentation attack defense, and extract document data for USCIS systems in real time. Presentation attack defense, often called liveness detection, is meant to catch spoofing attempts such as printed photos, masks or replayed video. DHS has measured how commercial products handle the same tasks in its Remote Identity Validation Rally, which has tested selfie-to-ID matching and liveness detection.
Other listed requirements included guided capture of documents and selfies with checks for glare and blur, machine-readable zone and barcode scanning, support for chip-based documents where applicable, and handoffs between devices using QR codes. USCIS said a solution should handle at least 10 million transactions a year, be entirely software-based, and hold FedRAMP Moderate authorization if hosted in the cloud.
Separately, the Transportation Security Administration placed a $469,707 order on September 23 for what its record describes as “liveness software.” That order, also placed through a reseller under SEWP, drew three offers and does not identify the product.
Sources: USAspending (USCIS), SAM.gov, USAspending (TSA)
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
