Your Photograph Must Be:

The processing of your passport application may be delayed if you do not submit a photo that meets the requirements below. To avoid processing delays, we recommend you use a professional passport photo service.

NO EYE GLASSES PERMITTED IN PASSPORT PHOTOS. Neutral smile. For special circumstances visit travel.state.gov

Passport Photos

You must provide one photo with your passport application.

• Your head must face the camera directly with full face in view.
• You must have a neutral facial expression or a natural smile, with both eyes open.
• Taken in clothing normally worn on a daily basis
• Taken in the last 6 months
• Use a plain white or off-white background
• Be sized correctly
  
  • 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm)
  • Head must be between 1 -1 3/8 inches (25 – 35 mm) from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head
• Printed on matte or glossy photo quality paper
• Printed in color
• You cannot wear glasses.
  
  • If you cannot remove your glasses for medical reasons, please include a signed note from your doctor with application.
• You cannot wear a hat or head covering.
  
  • If you wear a hat or head covering for religious purposes, submit a signed statement that verifies that the hat or head covering in your photo is part of recognized, traditional religious attire that is customarily or required to be worn continuously in public.
  • If you wear a hat or head covering for medical purposes, submit a signed doctor’s statement verifying the hat or head covering in your photo is used daily for medical purposes.
  • Your full face must be visible and your hat or head covering cannot obscure your hairline or cast shadows on your face.
• You cannot wear headphones or wireless hands-free devices.

You can get new passport photographs from:

Justin Document Service. See hours of operation. $20.00 for a set of two passport 2×2 photos.

CVS, click for office near you. Suggestion: take application with you so the people at CVS can see head size.

Want to use your own digital photo? (The processing of your passport application may be delayed if you do not submit a photo that meets the requirements. To avoid processing delays, we recommend you use a professional passport photo service.)
Use the Department of State’s free photo tool to:

Start Photo Tool
select a digital image stored on your computer
resize and rotate it if necessary
crop it to a square image of exactly 600 x 600 pixels, and
save it to your computer for printing

This tool requires Adobe Flash Player 10 or later.

You can send this via email to your visa representative using the following guidelines, JIDS charges a fee of $25.00 to print the photos for you.

Want to take a photo of yourself?
While we recommend you use a professional passport photo service to ensure your photo meets all the requirements, you may take the photo yourself. Hand-held self portraits are not acceptable. Photos must not be digitally enhanced or altered to change your appearance in any way. If you take the photo yourself with a digital camera, the digital image must adhere to the following specifications:

Dimensions 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.
Color The image must be in color in sRGB color space which is the common output for most digital cameras.