SAM.gov registration and the Unique Entity ID (UEI)
To be eligible for a federal contract or grant, an entity generally must have an active registration in SAM.gov and a Unique Entity ID. Registration is free and it expires, so it has to be renewed.
This guide is a map, not the rule. It tells you what the identifiers are and where the government's own instructions live.
The identifiers
- SAM.gov is the government-wide System for Award Management. An entity registers there to be eligible for federal awards, and the registration must be renewed on a recurring basis (currently annually).
- Unique Entity ID (UEI). Since 4 April 2022 the UEI — a 12-character alphanumeric identifier generated in SAM.gov — has been the government-wide entity identifier for federal awards, replacing the DUNS number. The U.S. General Services Administration documents the change in its Unique Entity ID information page.
- CAGE code and the entity's registration record live alongside the UEI in SAM.gov.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation ties eligibility to the registration at FAR Subpart 4.11 (System for Award Management).
Why it matters for your next bid
An expired registration is a bid-killer: an agency cannot make an award to an ineligible entity, and reinstatement is not instantaneous. Our desks watch the registration and identifier questions, the recurring data-integrity stories, and the rule changes that touch how entities identify themselves to the government.
Where we cover it
The Decisions Desk reports registration and eligibility items as they happen; the monthly issue and archive collect them.