US passport photo — 2 × 2 inches, with head-height guides and a 6-photo print sheet

The US Department of State wants one color photo, 2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm), with your head measuring 1 to 1 3/8 inches (25–35 mm) from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head. It must be taken within the last six months, against a plain white or off-white background, printed on matte or glossy photo paper, and left unedited: no software changes, app retouching or filters. Eyeglasses come off. The State Department says unacceptable photos are the most common reason it puts applications on hold, so the size is worth getting exactly right.

US photo rules at a glance

The applicant pages also rule out uniforms or clothing that looks like one, camouflage, headphones and wireless earpieces, and face masks. Jewelry and facial piercings are fine if they do not hide your face.

Making the photo here, step by step

1. Take the picture first. Stand a few feet in front of a white or off-white wall in even daylight. Have someone else hold the phone at your eye level, and frame from just above your head to below your shoulders.
2. Choose the file. The Photo type list opens on US passport — 2 × 2 in. The rules and their official links appear under it, followed by a reminder about digital edits.
3. Line up your head. With Show face-position guides ticked, the yellow line marks the top of your hair, about 7 mm below the top edge. Your chin belongs inside the blue band, roughly 32.5 to 42 mm down. The green dotted line is only a rough eye position.
4. Adjust. Drag the picture, or use Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position. On a keyboard, arrow keys move it, Shift moves it further, plus and minus zoom, and 0 resets. The −, Reset and + buttons do the same under the preview.
5. Leave Background on “Keep the original”. The other two choices replace the wall using an on-device model, which is a digital change the US rules do not allow.
6. Pick the Print sheet format (4 × 6 in JPEG, 4 × 6 in PDF or Both) and press Make passport photos.

You get a 600 × 600 pixel JPEG, which is exactly 2 × 2 inches at 300 DPI, plus the sheet. Everything runs in your browser and the photo never leaves your device.

Checking the head size yourself

The tool does not find your face; the guides are fixed lines drawn from the official range. After saving, open the 600 × 600 file: at 300 pixels per inch, the head from chin to crown should span 300 to about 412 pixels. On paper, lay a ruler on one printed square. If the head is under an inch, zoom in; if the top of the hair touches the edge and the chin is near the bottom, zoom out or step back and retake the shot.

What this tool cannot judge

• Expression and eyes. It cannot see whether your eyes are open, whether you are squinting, or whether hair covers them.
• Light. Uneven lighting, shadows behind your head, overexposure and odd skin tones all get photos refused. Only a better original fixes them.
• Sharpness. A blurry or noisy phone shot stays blurry at 300 DPI. Use the camera’s highest quality setting, and do not send the file to yourself by text message, which compresses it.
• Age and likeness. It cannot tell when the photo was taken.
• Acceptance. A State Department employee makes the final decision on every photo.

Printing six photos on a 4 × 6 inch sheet

Two 2-inch squares fit across a 4-inch width and three fit down 6 inches, so the sheet holds six with no gaps and no margin. The tool draws thin grey lines to cut along. Because nothing is spare, ask for a borderless print at 100% or “actual size”. Never choose “fit to page”, which shrinks the photos.

Most places that print ordinary 4 × 6 snapshots can handle the JPEG: a photo counter in a pharmacy or a big store, a self-service kiosk, or an online print service that takes uploads. The PDF suits a home printer, since its page is exactly 4 × 6 inches. Load photo paper and turn off any “auto-fit” or “borderless enlargement” option. You need only one photo per application, so the spares cover a retake or a second form.

Why US photos get sent back

The State Department pages and 8 FAM 402.1 list the problems examiners look for:

• the head too large or too small because the camera was too close or too far away;
• a tilted head, a face turned away, or shoulders not square to the camera;
• glasses worn or resting on the head, or hair across the eyes;
• shadows on the face or background, or a blue, patterned or textured wall;
• blur, grain, pixels or visible printer dots;
• a photocopy, a scan, or a photo printed on plain paper;
• filters, retouching or red-eye removal;
• creases, holes or smudges on the face area of the print.

The manual adds a deadline that matters if a photo is refused. If the State Department asks for a new one and none arrives within 90 days, the application is denied and the fees are not refunded.

Related tools

If your phone saved the picture as HEIC, convert it with HEIC to JPG before printing elsewhere. DPI Checker reads the print resolution stored in a file. For other countries’ sizes, use the general Passport Photo Maker.