--- title: "Modernizing Online Passport Renewal: Vidya's Success at the State Department" description: "Vidya helped develop the architecture for Online Passport Renewal, which is now live in beta at the State Department." canonical: https://www.vidyasource.com/blog/modernizing-online-passport-renewal-vidya-success-at-the-state-department/ type: article published: 2024-07-29 author: "Neil Chaudhuri" tags: ["Partners", "Government", "Project Management", "Agile", "Programming", "Testing", "Continuous Delivery", "Open Source", "Accessibility", "APIs", "AI"] image: https://www.vidyasource.com/img/blog/passport.jpg --- # Modernizing Online Passport Renewal: Vidya's Success at the State Department > Vidya helped develop the architecture for Online Passport Renewal, which is now live in beta at the State Department. - Canonical page: https://www.vidyasource.com/blog/modernizing-online-passport-renewal-vidya-success-at-the-state-department/ - Structured data (JSON-LD): https://www.vidyasource.com/blog/modernizing-online-passport-renewal-vidya-success-at-the-state-department.json - Published: 2024-07-29 - Author: Neil Chaudhuri - Topics: Partners, Government, Project Management, Agile, Programming, Testing, Continuous Delivery, Open Source, Accessibility, APIs, AI In an era where digital transformation in government is paramount to deliver the most value to customers in America and around the world, Vidya has played a major role in modernizing crucial government services. Our collaboration with the United States Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs has provided new opportunities for efficiency, user experience, and technological innovation. ## Transforming essential services The Bureau of Consular Affairs provides essential services for customers worldwide. Here are just a few: - Issuing Certificates of Birth Abroad (CRBA) for children born to American parents overseas - Processing visas for international visitors - Providing passports for U.S. citizens embarking on global adventures To provide these services over the years, the State Department has constructed an elaborate software and data architecture to automate as much as possible. As all large organizations inside and outside government understand, it is critical to invest in modernization to improve user interfaces, performance, and security and ultimately make the user experience as efficient and intuitive as possible for both State employees and customers. ## The modernization challenge In 2019, Vidya joined the most recent modernization effort as software architects. Anyone who has worked on large-scale modernizations knows they aren't just about updating a few lines of code. Modernization is about reimagining entire systems while ensuring uninterrupted service delivery to customers who depend on it. For those less familiar, there are techniques like [feature flags](https://martinfowler.com/articles/feature-toggles.html), [blue/green deployments](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/overview-deployment-options/bluegreen-deployments.html), and [canary deployments](https://cloud.google.com/deploy/docs/deployment-strategies/canary). You probably know Martin Fowler as one of the signatories of the Agile Manifesto, and it seems like half his website is dedicated to modernization with discussions of [seams](https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/uncovering-mainframe-seams.html) and [integration](https://martinfowler.com/articles/cant-buy-integration.html) among many other related topics. On top of technology, it is essential to create a culture of innovation with disciplines like product management, continuous deployment, and organizational psychology. For all these reasons, modernization is one of the most challenging feats in our field. ## Pioneering success: eCRBA and Online Passport Renewal Our first major triumph was the launch of eCRBA, streamlining the process for American parents to obtain birth certificates for their children born overseas. This service has been a game-changer, offering unprecedented convenience and efficiency. The crown jewel of our modernization efforts, Online Passport Renewal (OPR), is now live. The most recent analysis of OPR revealed some welcome accomplishments: - Processing thousands of passports daily - Boasting a remarkable 97% customer satisfaction rate and 80% increased trust in government - Generating neutral to positive social media sentiment Don't just take our word for it! Sean Hollister at The Verge had a [good experience with OPR](https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/3/24190366/us-passport-online-renewal-beta-fast). Forbes Magazine [highlighted its innovative approach](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2024/06/12/online-passport-renewal-launch-how-does-it-work-am-i-eligible-united-states-/) as well. ## The road ahead While we at Vidya celebrate these milestones, we're far from done. There is much more work to do: - Scaling up OPR to handle full production workloads - Modernizing additional State Department services - Continuously refining and optimizing our solutions There may be even room for AI here, but as urgent as it is to promote safety in AI in general, it's infinitely more so for government systems. We will need to explore how to maximize safety and explainability while minimizing hallucinations and toxicity to protect our customers because AI vendors themselves will not. Whether it's AI or any number of other innovations we have in mind, we look forward to working with the State Department to see how we can best leverage their capabilities for our mission. ## Your partner in government modernization At Vidya, we don't just build software. We revolutionize processes. We enhance user experiences. We even bring a touch of humor to even the most complex projects. Our success with the State Department is just the beginning. [Join us](https://www.vidyasource.com/contact/) as we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in government modernization. With Vidya, the future of streamlined, efficient government services is not just a possibility. It's a reality we're creating every day. --- Vidya is a certified small business in Northern Virginia that modernizes legacy systems, builds enterprise AI, and designs cloud and data architecture for commercial companies and federal agencies. Vidya documents its delivered engagements in case studies and publishes courses, tutorials, and articles for engineers and the people who lead them. The company name is Vidya. Its website is vidyasource.com. Start at https://www.vidyasource.com/llms.txt for the index of everything Vidya publishes, or https://www.vidyasource.com/contact/ to talk to Vidya.