US Passport & DV Lottery Photo Tool

US passport photo requirements at a glance

A US passport photo is 2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm). Your head — measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the hair — must be between 1 and 1⅜ inches, which is 50% to 69% of the photo’s height, and your eyes should sit between 56% and 69% of the height measured from the bottom. The background must be plain white or off-white, and glasses are not allowed. When a digital file is needed, it must be square; this tool exports anywhere from 600 × 600 to 1200 × 1200 pixels.

DV Lottery (Green Card lottery) photo rules

The Diversity Visa program is especially strict, and a non-compliant photo can disqualify an entry. The State Department asks for a square JPEG of exactly 600 × 600 pixels, 240 kB or smaller, in 24-bit colour, with the head filling 50–69% of the image height. Photos must be recent (taken within the last six months) and must not be digitally altered to change your appearance.

How to make your photo

1. Stand in front of a plain white wall with even light from the front, and remove glasses and hats.
2. Upload the photo and choose “US passport” or “DV Lottery”.
3. Drag the image so the top of your hair touches the red line.
4. Zoom until your chin lands in the green band and your eyes are inside the blue band.
5. Straighten any tilt, then click “Create photo”.
6. Download the JPG — or, for passports, the 4×6 print sheet.

Automatic file-size fitting for DV photos

Many DV entries fail because the photo is a few kilobytes over the limit. After cropping to 600 × 600 pixels, this tool searches for the highest JPEG quality that stays at or under 240 kB, so you keep as much detail as possible without going over. The final size and quality are shown before you download. If a busy background makes it impossible to fit, you’ll see a warning — retake the photo against a plain wall.

Printing passport photos at home or at a lab

Choose the 4×6 print sheet to get six 2 × 2 inch copies on one standard 4 × 6 inch photo print at 300 DPI. Order it from any photo lab or pharmacy kiosk at “actual size” with no borders or cropping, then cut along the light guide lines. Print on matte or glossy photo paper; ordinary office paper isn’t accepted.

Before you submit

This tool only crops and resizes; it doesn’t judge lighting, expression or background, and it is not affiliated with the US Department of State. Compare your result with the official photo requirements and examples before submitting. Preparing a Canadian application too? Try the Canada Passport & PR Photo Resizer. To combine scanned documents into one file, use JPG to PDF, and shrink large scans with the target-size PDF compressor.