DV lottery photo — the 600 × 600 px JPEG for a Diversity Visa entry

For a Diversity Visa (DV) entry, the State Department asks for one digital image of each person: a JPEG of 240 kB or less, square, 600 × 600 pixels, in color and in focus, taken within the last six months, against a plain white or off-white background. The head, measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head, must take up 50% to 69% of the image height. No eyeglasses, and never the same photo you sent in an earlier year: the instructions say that can make you ineligible.

Is a DV entry period open?

No entry period was open on October 26, 2026. The latest program instructions are for DV-2026, whose registration ran from October 2 to November 7, 2024. On November 5, 2025 the department announced changes to the entry process and said it would publish the DV-2027 start date “as soon as practicable”. The timing has since been the subject of litigation, so treat any date you read elsewhere as unsettled until travel.state.gov announces it. DV-2028 has no published dates at all.

Two rules adopted since the last entry period also matter:

• A 1 dollar registration fee, effective September 16, 2025 and collected at the moment you register.
• Passport details and a scan of the passport’s biographic page for each entrant, effective April 10, 2026, which the department applies from DV-2027.

The entry form exists in one place only, dvprogram.state.gov. The State Department warns that websites and emails pose as official sources, sell forms that are free on travel.state.gov, or offer to “keep” your confirmation number and later demand money for it. Fill in the form yourself, or stay present if someone helps, and keep the confirmation page.

The DV photo rules, item by item

DV entrants are held to the same quality and composition standards as other US visa photos. The instructions list the head size twice, as “1 inch and 1 3/8 inches (22 mm and 35 mm)” and as a percentage; the 22 mm figure does not match 1 inch (25.4 mm), so the tool follows the inch and percentage figures, which agree.

One photo for every person on the entry

Your entry includes a photo of you, of your spouse, and of every unmarried child under 21, including adopted children and stepchildren, whether or not they live with you or plan to immigrate. Each photo has to meet the same rules as yours. Leaving out an eligible spouse or child, or listing someone who is not, can make the whole family ineligible. Before you start the form, make all the files and name them clearly, because the form must be finished in one sitting of 60 minutes or it is discarded.

Making each entry image here

1. Shoot a fresh photo in daylight, facing a plain white wall a little behind you, with the camera at eye height and far enough back that the head and shoulders fill the frame without wide-angle distortion.
2. Choose the file. Photo type already reads US Diversity Visa (DV lottery) entry — 600 × 600 px.
3. Keep Show face-position guides ticked. On the 600-pixel square, the yellow line (top of the head) sits about 84 pixels from the top, and the chin belongs in the blue band, so the head spans roughly 300–412 pixels.
4. Move and scale with Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position, or drag the picture. The eye line is only an estimate.
5. Leave Background on Keep the original. A manipulated photo is one of the reasons the instructions give for ineligibility.
6. Press Make passport photos. The result includes a file ending in “-dv-lottery-digital-600x600.jpg”; that is the one to upload. The print file and the 4 × 6 inch sheet are extras for a later interview.

Repeat for each family member, one photo at a time.

How the 240 kB limit is met

A 600 × 600 color image holds 1,080,000 bytes before compression. The 20:1 ceiling means the JPEG should not fall below 54,000 bytes, and the entry form caps it at 240 kB. The tool tries the highest JPEG quality that lands inside that window and prints the size it reached. A noisy, dim photo may not fit under the cap; reshoot it in better light rather than shrinking it further. iPhone HEIC pictures should be turned into JPEG first with HEIC to JPG.

What this page cannot check

• It does not find faces. The guides are fixed lines and you place the head.
• It does not judge focus, exposure, shadows, glare, expression or whether eyes are open.
• It cannot tell whether a photo was used in an earlier entry, or whether it is under six months old.
• It cannot submit anything. Only the E-DV form at dvprogram.state.gov accepts entries, and the department alone decides on eligibility.

Photos the State Department turns down

The DV instructions and the visa photo pages name these problems: photos older than six months; snapshots, magazine pictures, low-quality vending-machine prints and full-length shots; copies or scans of a driver’s license or other official document; eyeglasses; hats or head coverings that hide the hair or hairline, unless worn daily for religious reasons, or that shade the face; headphones or wireless devices; uniforms, other than religious clothing worn daily; a background that is not white or off-white; and any manipulation of the image. For a baby, the instructions suggest laying the child on a white sheet, or covering a car seat with one, so that nobody else appears in the frame.

If you are selected

Selected entrants who are invited to an interview need two identical 2 × 2 inch prints instead, and those rules are on the US visa photo page. Other countries’ sizes are compared on the photo sizes table, and the US passport photo page covers the passport rules for anyone who later becomes a citizen.