US Passport & Visa Photo Size: 2x2 Inches, 600x600 Pixels

By NexGama Studio · Updated October 27, 2026 · 2 min read

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A US passport or visa application is often rejected because of the photo: the wrong shape, a busy background, or a digital file that is too large to upload. The rules are short and precise. This guide lists them and shows how to prepare a correct digital photo for free, without uploading it anywhere.

The official requirements

Requirement	US passport & visa
Printed size	2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm)
Head size	1 to 1⅜ inches (25–35 mm) from chin to top of head — about 50–69% of the photo’s height
Background	Plain white or off-white, no shadows or patterns
Age of photo	Taken in the last 6 months, in colour
Glasses	Not allowed — take them off
Expression	Neutral, facing the camera, both eyes open, mouth closed

Digital photo size for the DS-160 visa form

The US visa application (DS-160) asks you to upload a digital photo with these limits:

Square — width and height must be equal.
Between 600 × 600 and 1200 × 1200 pixels.
JPEG format, in colour.
240 KB or smaller.

For online passport renewal, the State Department asks for a high-resolution colour photo that is the original, unchanged image. Cropping and resizing are fine, but do not apply filters, retouching, beauty modes or artificial background replacement.

Step 1: Take the photo

Stand about 50 cm in front of a plain white wall, facing a window or soft light so there are no shadows on your face or the wall.
Ask someone to take the photo at eye level from about 1–1.5 metres away. Selfies distort the face and are often rejected.
Use your phone’s normal camera mode, not portrait mode, and keep head and shoulders in the frame with space above your head.

Step 2: Crop to a square

Open the Aspect Ratio Cropper and add your photo.
Choose 1:1.
Use the zoom and position sliders so your head (chin to top of hair) fills about half to two-thirds of the height, centred, with your shoulders visible. Download.

Step 3: Resize to 600 × 600 pixels

Open the Image Resizer and set 600 × 600 pixels (anything up to 1200 × 1200 is accepted). Keep the aspect ratio locked — because the image is already square, both numbers will match.

Step 4: Get it under 240 KB

A 600 × 600 JPG is usually already well under the limit. If yours isn’t, open the Image Compressor, choose JPG and set a target of about 200 KB. At this size there is no visible quality loss.

Need a printed 2×2 photo?

For a paper application, take the square photo you made to a pharmacy or photo-printing shop and ask for a 2 × 2 inch print on photo paper. Many shops can place several 2 × 2 photos on one 4 × 6 inch print, which is usually the cheapest option.

Common reasons photos are rejected

Shadows on the face or behind the head — use even, front-facing light.
Head too small or too large in the frame — re-crop so the head is about half to two-thirds of the height.
Glasses, hats or headphones — remove them (religious head coverings worn daily are allowed with a signed statement).
The file is not square, is a PNG, or is over 240 KB for the DS-160 — repeat steps 2–4.
Edited or filtered images — always start from the original photo.

Rules can change, so check the photo page on travel.state.gov before you submit.

Tools used in this guide

Aspect Ratio CropperCrop to 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9 and more. Image ResizerSet exact width and height in pixels, with aspect lock. Image CompressorShrink JPG, PNG or WebP files, optionally to a target size in KB.