US visa & DV lottery photo · 600 × 600 px
Checked and laid out to the official U.S. Department of State specification for DS-160 and DS-1648 uploads and Diversity Visa entries. Rules quoted from travel.state.gov, checked by us on 2026-08-16.
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Head and shoulders in frame, with clear space above the hair — the head should fill about half the photo, not all of it.
This document needs a wider shot: include your chest, not just head and shoulders — the head can fill at most 57% of the photo height.
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Official specification
| Finished size | 51 × 51 mm |
| Head height (chin to crown) | 25 – 35 mm |
| Eye height | not published by this authority |
| Background | plain white or off-white |
| File formats | JPG / JPEG |
| File size | up to 240 KB |
| Taken within | the last 6 months |
Full rules
- Taken within the last 6 months to reflect your current appearance.
- Sized so the head is between 1 inch and 1 3/8 inches (22 mm and 35 mm), or 50% and 69% of the image's total height, from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head.
- Taken in front of a plain white or off-white background.
- In colour, in full-face view directly facing the camera, with a neutral facial expression and both eyes open.
- Eyeglasses are no longer allowed in new visa photos, except in rare medical circumstances — for example recent ocular surgery — and then a medical statement signed by a health practitioner must be provided.
- No hat or head covering that obscures the hair or hairline, unless worn daily for a religious purpose, and then the full face must be visible with no shadows. Headphones and wireless hands-free devices are not acceptable; a hearing device may be worn.
- Wear clothing you normally wear day to day. No uniforms or clothing that looks like a uniform, except religious clothing worn daily.
- Digital images must be square — height equal to width — at least 600 x 600 pixels and at most 1200 x 1200 pixels.
- JPEG format, 240 kB or less, in colour at 24 bits per pixel in the sRGB colour space, with a compression ratio of 20:1 or less.
- Diversity Visa entry: the uploaded image must be JPEG, 240 kB or less, square, and exactly 600 x 600 pixels.
- For an immigrant visa (DS-260) or a DV interview you must also bring two identical photos printed on photo quality paper at 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm).
- If you are scanning an existing print, it must be 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm) scanned at 300 pixels per inch (12 pixels per millimetre).
- Photos must not be digitally enhanced or altered to change your appearance in any way. Photos copied or scanned from driver's licences or other official documents are not acceptable, and neither are snapshots, magazine photos or low quality vending machine or mobile phone photos.
- Acceptance of your digital image or photo is at the discretion of the U.S. embassy or consulate where you apply — a Department of State employee makes the final decision.
Sources
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/photos.html
U.S. Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs · we checked it 2026-08-16
U.S. Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs · we checked it 2026-08-16
Your photos or digital images must be: In color; Sized such that the head is between 1 inch and 1 3/8 inches (22 mm and 35 mm) or 50% and 69% of the image's total height from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head; Taken within the last 6 months to reflect your current appearance; Taken in front of a plain white or off-white background ... Eyeglasses are no longer allowed in new visa photos, except in rare circumstances when eyeglasses cannot be removed for medical reasons ... If you are entering the Diversity Visa (DV) Program online, you must upload your digital image as part of your entry. Your digital image must be: In JPEG (.jpg) file format; Equal to or less than 240 kB (kilobytes) in file size; In a square aspect ratio (height must equal width); 600x600 pixels in dimension ... Photos must not be digitally enhanced or altered to change your appearance in any way.https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/photos/digital-image-requirements.html
U.S. Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs (Digital Image Requirements) · we checked it 2026-08-16
U.S. Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs (Digital Image Requirements) · we checked it 2026-08-16
The image dimensions must be in a square aspect ratio (the height must be equal to the width). Minimum acceptable dimensions are 600 x 600 pixels. Maximum acceptable dimensions are 1200 x 1200 pixels. ... The image must be in color (24 bits per pixel) in sRGB color space ... The image must be in JPEG file format ... The image must be less than or equal to 240 kB (kilobytes). ... The compression ratio should be less than or equal to 20:1. ... In addition to the digital image requirements, your existing photo must be: 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm); Scanned at a resolution of 300 pixels per inch (12 pixels per millimeter).Questions
What are the US visa photo requirements?
In colour, taken within the last 6 months, on a plain white or off-white background, in full-face view with a neutral expression and both eyes open. The head must be between 1 inch and 1 3/8 inches, or 50% to 69% of the image height, from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head. Digital images must be square, 600 x 600 to 1200 x 1200 pixels, JPEG, and 240 kB or less.
What size does the DV lottery photo have to be?
Exactly 600 x 600 pixels, square, JPEG, and 240 kB or less. That is why we output 600 x 600 and never enlarge it — the DS-160 upload accepts anything from 600 to 1200 pixels, so 600 x 600 is the only size valid for both.
Can I wear glasses in a US visa photo?
No. Eyeglasses are no longer allowed in new visa photos, except in rare medical circumstances such as recent ocular surgery — and then a medical statement signed by a health practitioner must be provided.
Is this the same as the US passport photo specification?
No, and the differences matter. A visa image is capped at 240 kB with a maximum of 1200 x 1200 pixels, while a passport upload has a 54 kB minimum and a 10 MB ceiling. Glasses are banned outright for visas but merely have to be removed for passports.
Can I edit the photo to fix the background?
No. The State Department says photos must not be digitally enhanced or altered to change your appearance in any way, and it screens photos for AI use on the passport side. We only crop, position and size, and we tell you plainly when a background will not pass.
Do I still need printed photos?
For an immigrant visa (DS-260) or a Diversity Visa interview, yes — two identical prints at 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm) on photo quality paper. Some embassies also ask nonimmigrant applicants to bring one print to the interview, so check the instructions for where you apply.
Our own assumptions
- We output exactly 600 x 600 px and never raise the resolution, because the Diversity Visa entry requires exactly that size while the DS-160 upload accepts 600–1200 px. 600 x 600 is the only size valid for both.
- ⚠️ The official head-size sentence contradicts itself: it converts 1 inch to 22 mm, but 1 inch is 25.4 mm and the 50% figure it gives in the same sentence is 25.5 mm on a 51 mm photo. We work to the stricter, self-consistent reading — 25–35 mm, or 50–69% of the height — rather than the 22 mm in the parentheses.
- The State Department publishes no minimum file size for visa images, but it does cap the compression ratio at 20:1, which at 600 x 600 and 24 bits per pixel works out to roughly 53 kB. We encode at high quality, so a normal photograph lands well above that; we do not treat it as an official minimum because it is not published as one.
- The head is laid out 29.3 mm tall, biased below the middle of the official 25–35 mm so that even our worst-case estimate stays inside the official range.
- The chin is measured by 68-point facial landmarks; the crown comes from the top of the cut-out outline. Assumed accuracy ±5%, calibrated only on synthetic fixtures.
- Acceptance is always at the discretion of the embassy or consulate; nothing we check changes that.
Where the authority does not specify something, we say so rather than pretending it does. The points above are our engineering choices, not official requirements.