US Visa Photo Requirements: The Complete DS-160 Guide
The US visa system covers three related but distinct photo requirements — the DS-160 visa application, the Green Card Lottery, and the US passport itself. They share the same core spec, but the details of how each is enforced differ in ways that matter.
The core spec (shared across all three)
- 2×2 inches (51×51mm) if printed, 300 DPI
- 600×600px minimum, 1200×1200px maximum if digital
- JPEG format, 240KB maximum file size
- Plain white or off-white background — no patterns or shadows
- Head height 50–69% of the photo, eyes 56–69% up from the bottom edge
- No glasses (since a November 2016 rule change, rare medical exceptions only)
- Taken within the last 6 months
DS-160 visa application
Uses the exact spec above. The State Department's official Photo Composition Template is where the 56–69% eye-line figure comes from specifically — it's stated for the visa photo page even more explicitly than the general passport page. See our US visa photo tool for a compliant photo built to this exact spec.
Green Card Lottery (DV Program) — the one with real stakes
The Diversity Visa lottery uses the same 600–1200px digital spec, but with one critical difference worth repeating: the entry form only checks pixel dimensions when you submit your entry. Full compliance — head size, eye line, background — is checked later, after the lottery closes, and non-compliant entries are disqualified retroactively with no appeal process. A photo that uploads successfully is not the same thing as a photo that will actually count. See our full DV Lottery photo guide for the details that matter most here.
US passport
Identical physical spec to the visa photo. In practice, a photo compliant for a US passport application is generally compliant for a US visa application too, since both derive from the same State Department standard.
What "uscis photo tool" people are usually looking for
USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) handles green cards, naturalization, and other immigration paperwork rather than visas or passports directly — but its photo requirements for things like Form I-485 generally follow the same 2×2in / 600×600px standard described above, since USCIS and the State Department both build on the same underlying US government photo specification.
Get it right the first time
MyApprovedPhoto builds your photo to the exact US visa/passport spec automatically, including the file-size compression these portals enforce.