US Passport Photo: Size, Requirements, and How to Get It Right
The US State Department's passport photo rules are specific about size, background, and expression. Here's what they actually require and how to meet them without a photo studio.
US passport photos get rejected more often than people expect — not because the photo looks bad, but because it misses a specific technical requirement most people don't know to check.
The core requirements
- 2×2 inches (51×51mm), with the head sized between 1 and 1⅜ inches from chin to crown.
- Plain white or off-white background — no texture, no shadow, no furniture or wall detail behind you.
- Taken within the last 6 months, reflecting your current appearance.
- Full face, front view, neutral expression, eyes open, looking directly at the camera.
- No glasses as of the current rules — a change from older requirements that used to allow them.
- Color photo, not black and white.
If you're submitting online (via the State Department's digital photo tool or a renewal service), there's also a file size limit — typically listed as needing to stay under a specific KB/MB threshold, and a minimum pixel dimension requirement (commonly 600×600px minimum, up to 1200×1200px).
Where people actually get rejected
- Shadow behind the head from a single off-angle light source — the background needs to be evenly lit, not just plain-colored.
- Photo taken too close, cutting off the correct head-size proportion, or too far, leaving the head too small relative to the frame.
- Glasses worn in the photo — still a common rejection reason since the rule changed.
- File too large for the online submission tool, or saved in a format (like HEIC straight off an iPhone) the tool doesn't accept.
Getting it right without a studio visit
- Take the photo against a plain white wall or sheet, in even daylight (face a window rather than using a single lamp), full face, neutral expression, no glasses.
- Crop to the exact proportions. A passport/ID photo tool that crops to the correct aspect ratio and composites a clean white background handles this in one step — no photo-editing software needed.
- Compress to the file size the submission tool accepts, if you're uploading digitally rather than printing. Compress to a specific KB target rather than guessing at a quality slider.
- Double check before submitting: does it genuinely look like you, right now, with no shadow and a plain background?
A note on accuracy
Passport photo requirements are set by the US State Department and can be updated — always check the current official specification before submitting, especially the exact pixel and file-size limits for whichever online tool you're using, since those details change more often than the core 2×2-inch, plain-background rules.