United States Photo Requirements
The US publishes two photo specifications and they contradict each other in both directions. A visa or DV lottery photo must be square — height equal to width, which a normal portrait crop is not — JPEG only, and 240 KB or less. An online passport renewal states no dimensions and no square rule at all, accepts five formats, and sets a 54 KB minimum instead of a maximum. Build to the wrong one and the form rejects you.
Requirements by application
These are different requirements, not variations of one. Find the form you are applying with.
DV lottery, DS-160 and DS-260 visa applications
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 600 × 600 px minimum, 1200 × 1200 px maximum
- File size
- ≤240 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Square — height must equal width
- Format
- JPEG, color, 24 bits per pixel, sRGB
“The image must be less than or equal to 240 kB (kilobytes)”
The square aspect ratio is mandatory and is the most common reason a correctly sized US photo is rejected. Beyond that, the spec says "the compression ratio should be less than or equal to 20:1", which sets a lower bound on file size that the Department never writes as a KB figure — and this next part is our arithmetic rather than theirs: a 600 × 600 image at 24 bits per pixel is about 1,055 KiB uncompressed, so a 20:1 ratio works out to roughly 53 KB. Treat that as a sanity check, not a published limit. The point it makes is real either way: an over-compressed US photo can breach the rules without ever exceeding the 240 KB ceiling.
Passport — online renewal
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- Not specified
- File size
- 54 KB – 10 MB
- Aspect / orientation
- Not specified — head and shoulders centered
- Format
- JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC or HEIF
This one has a minimum. A file under 54 KB is rejected for being too small, so compressing as hard as possible fails the check.
“The file size should be between 54 KB and 10 MB”
This is a genuinely different specification from the visa one, not a variation of it, and the differences run in both directions. It publishes a real minimum where the visa spec has none, accepts five file formats where the visa spec demands JPEG only, and states no pixel dimensions or square requirement at all — so a photo built to the 600 × 600 visa spec is not what this form asks for. It is also the strictest US form on editing: State asks for "the original, unedited photo without filters or digital changes", says not to use a photo created or edited with artificial intelligence or other digital tools, and states that it checks every photo for AI use. You can crop and reposition, but inside the application itself. One coincidence to ignore: the 54 KB floor here is published, and lands within a kilobyte of the roughly 53 KB we derive for the visa form from its compression cap — the two are unrelated.
Where these figures come from
Read from two US Department of State pages: the digital image requirements for visas, and the guidance on uploading a digital photo for online passport renewal. Both require a plain white or off-white background and both require glasses to be removed — a rule that changed in 2016. The visa page also covers scanning an existing print: 2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm) at 300 pixels per inch. State says unacceptable photos are the single most common reason a passport application is put on hold.
Two things worth knowing beyond the numbers. First, the editing rules differ sharply by form. For a visa photo, resizing, cropping and compressing are fine — State publishes its own tool that crops to exactly 600 × 600, and tells you to compress under 240 kB — with only appearance changes banned. For an online passport renewal, State wants "the original, unedited photo without filters or digital changes", says not to use a photo created or edited with artificial intelligence, and states it checks every photo for AI use; it will even reject an AI-cleaned version of a photo that was otherwise fine. If a renewal photo has red-eye, State says retake it rather than edit it. Second, no photo is guaranteed either way: an employee reviews every one, and for visas acceptance is at the discretion of the embassy or consulate.
All 2 of these United States specifications were read on 2026-08-08, and United States can revise any of them without announcing the change.
Check your own form before you submit
Some figures here were read from official government pages and others are widely reported but unconfirmed — each one says which it is. Governments and exam boards revise United States photo specifications without announcing the change, and many publish a different specification for each form — so the page for your application is the only authority that counts. Open it, check the numbers there, and if they differ from ours, use theirs: you can type any dimensions and any file size into our tool by hand, so you are never limited to the presets.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many photo requirements does United States have?
2. United States sets a separate requirement per application and they differ from each other: DV lottery, DS-160 and DS-260 visa applications; Passport, online renewal. So there is no single "United States photo size" to look up. The table below is per form: DV lottery, DS-160 and DS-260 visa applications publishes pixel dimensions and Passport, online renewal does not, so read the row for the form you are actually filing.
United States photo size for DV lottery, DS-160 and DS-260 visa applications?
600 × 600 px minimum, 1200 × 1200 px maximum, square — height must equal width. File size: ≤240 KB. Format: JPEG, color, 24 bits per pixel, sRGB. The square aspect ratio is mandatory and is the most common reason a correctly sized US photo is rejected. Beyond that, the spec says "the compression ratio should be less than or equal to 20:1", which sets a lower bound on file size that the Department never writes as a KB figure — and this next part is our arithmetic rather than theirs: a 600 × 600 image at 24 bits per pixel is about 1,055 KiB uncompressed, so a 20:1 ratio works out to roughly 53 KB. Treat that as a sanity check, not a published limit. The point it makes is real either way: an over-compressed US photo can breach the rules without ever exceeding the 240 KB ceiling.
United States photo size for Passport: online renewal?
Not specified, not specified — head and shoulders centered. File size: 54 KB – 10 MB. Format: JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC or HEIF. This is a genuinely different specification from the visa one, not a variation of it, and the differences run in both directions. It publishes a real minimum where the visa spec has none, accepts five file formats where the visa spec demands JPEG only, and states no pixel dimensions or square requirement at all — so a photo built to the 600 × 600 visa spec is not what this form asks for. It is also the strictest US form on editing: State asks for "the original, unedited photo without filters or digital changes", says not to use a photo created or edited with artificial intelligence or other digital tools, and states that it checks every photo for AI use. You can crop and reposition, but inside the application itself. One coincidence to ignore: the 54 KB floor here is published, and lands within a kilobyte of the roughly 53 KB we derive for the visa form from its compression cap — the two are unrelated.
Other countries
Looking for a size chart across every country instead? See the passport photo comparison.
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