How to take a US visa or passport photo at home

What a US photo has to look like

A US passport or visa photo is a square of 2 × 2 inches, which is 51 × 51 mm. In the maker it is the same entry for both documents: choose ‘United States’ under ‘Country’ and the passport or visa line under ‘Document and size’.

Head height runs from the crown of your hair down to the bottom of the chin, and it must fill between 25 and 35 mm of the 51 mm square. That is roughly half to two thirds of the picture height. A face that looks small in the frame is the most common reason a home photo fails, so the size matters more than the exact shot.

• Square picture, 2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm)
• Head from hair top to chin: 25–35 mm
• Plain white or off-white background
• Facing the camera, mouth closed, natural expression
• No glasses, no hat, no retouching

Choose the wall and the light

Stand about one step in front of a plain, pale wall with no pattern, curtain or door frame behind your head. White paint works best; a cream wall is fine, because off-white is allowed. Do not use a bedsheet that creases, since every fold casts a shadow line.

Face a window in daylight so the light falls evenly on both cheeks. Direct sun on one side leaves half the face dark, and a lamp above you puts shadows under the eyes and the nose. If the only light is overhead, turn towards a window or a lit wall until both sides of the face look the same brightness.

Shoot it: distance, height and posture

Prop the phone at eye level, about an arm’s length or a little more away, and use the rear camera if a friend can press the button. The front camera works too, but hold it level and do not tilt it up, because that changes the shape of the chin and the nose.

To use the guided camera, press ‘Open the camera’ in the maker. The guide outline shows where the head and shoulders belong, and the picture is taken after a three-second countdown only when position, facing, expression and light are right. If you prefer your own camera, add the photo as JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC instead.

Sit straight with both shoulders level and visible. Look into the lens, keep your chin level and your mouth closed. A broad smile or raised eyebrows can make a photo unusable, so aim for a calm, ordinary face.

Clothes, glasses and accessories

Wear what you would wear every day, in a colour that differs from the wall. A white shirt against a white wall makes the shoulders vanish and the officer sees a floating head. Dark or mid-tone tops give a clean edge.

Glasses are not allowed on the US rule card in the maker, so take them off and check that no reflection or red mark from the nose pads is left. Hats, headbands and earphones come off too. Religious or medical head coverings are handled case by case by each office, so read the current instructions for your application.

Bangs and hair

Hair may not hide the eyes or sit across the eyebrows. If your bangs fall low, brush them aside or pin them so both eyes are fully visible. Hair behind the ears is fine, and so is hair on the shoulders as long as it does not cover the face.

Because the US counts the hair in head height, voluminous hair eats into the 25–35 mm. That is why the maker offers a ‘Head size’ slider under ‘Fine-tune’ that keeps you inside the allowed range.

Check it, then save the right file

Go to ‘Checks’ and work down the lines. Each item listed under ‘Some things need a new photo’ gives its reason plus a retake tip, while light levels, tint and the wall are fixed automatically. Retouched or composited photos are not accepted, so for a passport or visa set ‘Face, hair and clothes’ to ‘No touch-ups’.

Submitting online? Press ‘Save file’ to get a square JPG, with the quality reduced only as much as needed to fit limits like 240 KB for the DS-160 visa form. Submitting on paper? Press ‘Save print sheet’ and choose from 10 × 15 cm, 4 × 6 in or 89 × 127 mm paper, which puts several copies on one sheet.

Common reasons a photo is sent back

Refusals usually trace back to a handful of mistakes. Skim these before submitting, and hold on to the first shot in case a retake is needed.

• Head outside the 25–35 mm range, either undersized or oversized
• Shadow on the wall or on one side of the face
• Glasses glare, or a hat and headband still on
• Filters, smoothing or a changed background
• A wall that is grey, patterned or not evenly lit
• An old photo that has stopped resembling you