I'm trying to get a joint venture to show up in SAM.gov as 8a certified. The JV is owned by two certified 8a companies.

For a non-JV company, the process is to certify with the SBA, and it will sync to SAM.gov.

However, SBA says they no longer manage the 8a certifications for joint ventures (we have verified this with SBA's help desk twice) and that we have to self-certify in as 8a in SAM.gov. However, SAM.gov (via FSD) says that we have to certify in SBS and it will sync to SAM.gov (we have also verified this twice with FSD).

This appears to be a fairly recent change - has anyone else encountered this? If so, have you found a workaround to get the 8a certification to appear in SAM.gov? Or is there an alternative to demonstrating 8a certification for a JV that you’ve had success with?

Thanks in advance.

3 hours ago, zmahshie said:

This appears to be a fairly recent change - has anyone else encountered this? If so, have you found a workaround to get the 8a certification to appear in SAM.gov? Or is there an alternative to demonstrating 8a certification for a JV that you’ve had success with?

A JV for pursuing sole source 8(a), competitive 8(a) or both? Noting as SBA still approves for sole source. Reference - https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs/joint-ventures

And then there is this. Pay attention to the discussion about "UEI".

https://buy.gsa.gov/interact/community/6/activity-feed/post/4c2720db-e527-4b54-9189-b0aabe9c42be/Joint_Ventures_will_now_be_able_to_see_socio-economic_set-aside_opportunities_in_eBuy

My only other suggestion is to contact someone in the 8(a) Program itself not the help desk as all my research suggests SBA has to help with with letting SAM know the JV is legit.