United States passport photo
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The requirements
| Print size | 51 x 51 mm (2 x 2 in) |
|---|---|
| File size | 9.5 MB |
| File formats | JPEG, PNG |
| Head height, chin to crown | 25-35 mm Chin to top of the head 1 to 1 3/8 inches (25 to 35 mm) on the printed 2x2 inch photo. Hair may extend past the edges as long as the whole head is shown at the right size. |
| Background | Plain white or off-white background, free of shadows, textures, objects or lines |
| Glasses | Not allowed. Remove them for the photo. |
| Expression | Neutral or a natural closed-mouth smile. |
| Head covering | Only for religious or medical reasons, and the face must be visible from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead. |
| Photo age | 6 months |
| Also required |
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travel.state.gov sits behind Cloudflare and refuses automated fetches; these values were read from the live pages in a normal browser on 2026-09-02 and cross-checked against the DS-11 form instructions. The passport pages deliberately publish no eye-line rule. For reference, the Department's Photo Composition Template, which covers the same 2x2 inch frame on the visa side, puts the eye height 1 1/8 to 1 3/8 inches (28 to 35 mm) from the bottom edge; that figure is not repeated in the passport guidance, so it is not encoded here. Paper applications (DS-11, DS-82) need one printed 2x2 inch photo; online renewal needs a digital file instead.
Applying in United States
The United States has moved its centre of gravity online. Renew Online is now the default route for anyone eligible, and it wants a digital photograph rather than a print. The State Department accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC and HEIF files between 55296 and 10000000, taken within the last six months. What it will not take is a scan, or a photograph of a photograph, which rules out the old habit of buying prints and capturing one of them with a phone.
Two rules are stricter than people expect. Glasses are banned: the instruction is to remove anything covering your face, including eyeglasses, unless you have a documented religious or medical reason. And digital alteration is a named rejection cause, with filters, editing software and background removal listed together. That second one matters for a tool like ours. The safest American photo is one taken against a genuinely plain white or off-white wall, with background replacement used to check your framing rather than to manufacture a backdrop.
The paperwork is lighter than in Canada or the United Kingdom. There is no countersignature and no studio attestation, and the photo may be taken by a friend, a family member, a photo company or an acceptance facility. One colour photo is enough. A first-time applicant on form DS-11 pays USD 130 for the book plus a USD 35 acceptance fee at the facility as of September 2026, while a renewal on form DS-82, by mail or online, is USD 130 with no acceptance fee.
Why photos get rejected here
A background that is not plain
The requirement is plain white or off-white. Texture in the wall, an object behind your head or a shadow cast onto the surface all break it, and shadow is the one people cannot see at the time.
Any digital alteration, background removal included
Filters, editing software and removing the background are grouped together as reasons a photo is refused. This is the most important caveat on this page for anyone using a background-replacement tool, ours included.
Wearing glasses
The instruction is to remove anything covering your face, eyeglasses included, unless you have a documented religious or medical reason. There is no glare-free exception as there is in Canada.
A scan, or a photo of a printed photo
The online route excludes both. Photographing a print you bought at a pharmacy in order to upload it is a specific thing the guidance rules out, not an oversight.
Head the wrong size, or tilted
Head height runs from 25 to 35 on the printed size, and the bottom of the frame sits at the edge of your shoulders. A head tilted even slightly reads as a non-frontal pose.
A photo older than six months
The six-month limit applies to the online route as well as the printed one, so a good photo taken for another purpose earlier in the year does not carry over.
What helps
Find out which form you are on first
DS-82 renewals, by mail or online, carry no acceptance fee. DS-11 first-time applications add USD 35 at the facility as of September 2026. The photo requirements are the same; the cost and the route are not.
Use a real white wall if you can
Because background removal is named among the digital alterations that get photos refused, an actual plain white or off-white wall is the lower-risk option here. Use the tool to check your head size and eye line against the template.
Take the glasses off before the first frame
There is no glare condition to satisfy, because glasses are excluded outright. Removing them before you start saves discovering the rule after you have taken twenty photographs.
Send yourself the original file
Messaging apps recompress images. The upload accepts HEIC and HEIF as well as JPEG, so there is no need to convert anything on the way out of your camera roll.
Add the mailing time to the processing time
Routine processing runs 4 to 6 weeks and expedited 2 to 3 weeks as of September 2026, and the State Department counts up to 2 weeks for post in each direction on top of that.
Babies and young children
The general rules apply to babies: the child must be alone in the frame, with a plain white or off-white background and no other person visible. The State Department's photo guidance carries a dedicated section for babies, but travel.state.gov blocks automated access and we could not read that section in full, so we are not going to summarise wording we have not seen. Read it on the official page before you photograph a very young child, and treat the general method as the starting point: lay the baby on a plain white sheet and photograph from directly above, keeping your hands out of shot.
Glasses
Glasses are not allowed. The wording is to remove anything covering your face, including eyeglasses, unless you have a documented religious or medical reason. This is an outright exclusion rather than a condition about glare, which makes the United States stricter than Canada, Ireland or the Netherlands, where clear lenses without reflection are accepted. We could not confirm what form the documentation for a medical exception has to take, so ask the acceptance facility rather than assuming a note from an optician will do.
Head covering
A head covering is permitted for documented religious or medical reasons and not otherwise, so hats and hoods are excluded. The same sentence that bans glasses governs this: remove anything covering your face unless it is worn for one of those two documented reasons. What counts as documentation is not something we could confirm from an official page, because the site blocks automated access, so treat the word documented as meaning you should expect to be asked and check the requirement before your appointment.
Applying online
Online renewal requires a digital photograph and is now the default route for those eligible. Accepted formats are JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC and HEIF. Scans and photographs of printed photographs are both excluded, as are filters, retouching and background removal. First-time applications on form DS-11 are made in person at an acceptance facility, where a printed photo is used instead.
Questions about United States photos
Is there a minimum pixel size for a US digital passport photo?
Not one that is published. The official guidance sets a file size range and a list of accepted formats but states no pixel minimum. The 600 by 600 figure repeated on many sites is not something we could confirm on a State Department page, so we do not treat it as a rule.
Can I photograph a printed passport photo and upload it?
No. The online route excludes both scans and photographs of photographs. The file has to originate as a digital image from a camera.
What counts as a documented reason to keep glasses on?
A religious or medical reason that you can document. The instruction is to remove anything covering your face, including eyeglasses, unless you have one. Unlike Canada, there is no exception for clear lenses with no glare.
Do I have to pay the USD 35 acceptance fee?
Only on a first-time application using form DS-11, which is made in person. A renewal on form DS-82, by mail or online, carries the USD 130 application fee with no acceptance fee, as of September 2026.
Can a friend take my passport photo?
Yes. The photo may be taken by a friend or family member, by a photo company, or at an acceptance facility. There is no countersignature and no studio attestation, which is a real difference from Canada.
Where these numbers come from
Official sourceEvery measurement on this page comes from the issuing authority's own published requirements.
- Passport Photoschecked September 2, 2026
- Uploading a Digital Photo (online passport renewal)checked September 2, 2026
- Form DS-11, Application for a U.S. Passport (instructions, 04-2025)checked September 2, 2026
Reviewed by Editorial teamHow we check our numbers