US visa photo — a 600 × 600 px JPEG for the DS-160 and 2 × 2 inch prints

A US visa photo has two forms. For the DS-160 and DS-1648 nonimmigrant applications, and for Diversity Visa entries, you upload a square JPEG of 600 × 600 to 1200 × 1200 pixels, 240 kB or less, in color, with your head filling 50% to 69% of the image height. Printed photos, needed at immigrant visa interviews and at some posts for nonimmigrant ones, are 2 × 2 inches with a head of 1 to 1 3/8 inches. Either kind must be taken within six months, on a plain white or off-white background, with a neutral expression, both eyes open, no glasses, and no digital enhancement.

Which photo your application needs

Check the instructions of the embassy or consulate where you will apply, since local requirements can add to these.

The digital image specification

The paper template gives the same proportions in inches: eyes between 1 1/8 and 1 3/8 inches from the bottom of a 2-inch photo. One note on the source: the main requirements page writes the head range as “22 mm and 35 mm”, but 1 inch is 25.4 mm, and the template and FAQ both say 25 mm. The tool uses the inch figures.

Making the visa image with this page

1. Start with a good original. The State Department recommends a professional visa photo service and warns that most webcams and many phones cannot give enough quality. If you shoot it yourself, use a real camera or a recent phone on its highest quality setting, in soft daylight, a few feet from a white wall.
2. Choose the file. Photo type is already set to US visa — 2 × 2 in / 600 × 600 px.
3. Fit your head to the guides. Keep Show face-position guides on. Put the top of your hair on the yellow line, about 7 mm from the top, and your chin in the blue band. Your eyes should end up between about 16 and 22 mm below the top edge; the green dotted line, at about 22 mm, is only an estimate.
4. Fine-tune with Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position, by dragging, or with the arrow keys, plus and minus, and 0 to reset.
5. Keep “Keep the original” under Background. Visa photos must not be digitally enhanced or altered to change your appearance.
6. Choose a Print sheet option if you need prints, then press Make passport photos. The button keeps that name on every photo type.

The download gives you three things: a 600 × 600 pixel digital file (its name ends in “-us-visa-digital-600x600.jpg”), the same photo as a 300 DPI print file, and a 4 × 6 inch sheet of six 2-inch prints.

How the file size is handled

The tool searches for the highest JPEG quality that keeps the 600 × 600 file at or below 240 kB, and never lets it drop under 54 KB, the size below which the compression would pass the 20 to 1 ratio the State Department allows. The result line shows the final size. Most portraits land well inside that window at high quality. If yours is reported as too large, the photo is unusually noisy or busy: retake it against a plain wall in even light rather than squeezing it further. If it is reported as too small, start from a sharper original. If your camera saved HEIC, convert it first with HEIC to JPG, because the DS-160 takes JPEG only.

Limits worth knowing

• No face detection. The yellow line and blue band are fixed positions. You decide where your head goes.
• No quality scoring. Focus, exposure, shadows, glasses, red-eye and expression are not checked.
• Not a replacement for the post’s judgment. Acceptance of any photo or image rests with the embassy or consulate.
• Editing. Red-eye must not be removed in an editor; only your camera’s red-eye reduction during the shot is allowed. Background replacement is an alteration too.

Prints for an interview

When you need paper copies, print the sheet on matte or glossy photo paper at its true size, with no border, because the six squares fill the 4 × 6 inch page completely. Any store photo counter, kiosk or online service that prints standard 4 × 6 snapshots can do this; ask for no cropping and no enhancement. Cut on the grey lines and check one square measures 2 inches on a side.

Common reasons visa photos are refused

From the State Department’s requirements and FAQ:

• snapshots, magazine pictures, full-length shots, and low-quality vending-machine or phone photos;
• copies or scans of photos from a driver’s license or other official document;
• eyeglasses without a medical statement, or any tinted lenses;
• hats or head coverings that hide the hair or hairline, unless worn daily for religious reasons, or that shade the face;
• headphones or wireless hands-free devices, while a hearing device you normally wear is allowed;
• uniforms, except religious clothing worn daily;
• black-and-white images, profile shots, unusual expressions or squinting;
• a background that is not plain white or off-white.

For other countries’ sizes, the Passport Photo Maker lists every preset, and Resize Image in KB handles uploads that set their own size limits.