Passport Photo at Home

How to take a passport photo with an iPhone

Take it with your camera or choose one you have. We crop it to the exact size and check it against the rules.

3 things for a photo that passes

  1. Plain white wall2 ft behind you
  2. Look straightmouth closed
  3. Even lightface a window

Glasses and hat off.

or drop a photo here

  • Free
  • No sign-up
  • Stays on your device
  • Not a government site

Buttons not working? Reload the page. On a very old iPhone or iPad, use a newer phone or a computer.

Drawing of a phone photo: a person in a dark top in front of a light wall, with plenty of room around the head and shoulders
Your photo
The same drawing cropped by this tool to a 2 × 2 in photo: head and shoulders centered on a plain white background
2 × 2 in, ready
Drawn example, not a real person
Rules for this document
Size
2×2 in
Head, chin to crown
1–1⅜ in
Eyes above bottom edge
1⅛–1⅜ in
Background
White or off-white
Glasses
Not allowed
Taken within
The last 6 months

Source: travel.state.gov ↗ · checked Sep 25, 2026

Open this page in Safari and tap Take photo. Either a helper holds the iPhone and uses the back camera, or you prop it at eye level and tap Hands-free. The tool crops the photo to 2 × 2 in and checks it; you keep it with Save Image in the share menu and print the 4×6 sheet from the Walgreens, CVS or Walmart app.

Updated

By Passport Photo at Home · Rules checked against the State Department's passport photo page, Apple's camera basics, Take portraits, Use Photographic Styles and Take Live Photos · How we check

In Safari, on this page

Nothing to install: the camera, the crop and the checks run in Safari, and the photo stays on the iPhone. If you opened the link inside Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, open it in Safari first, because saving may not work in those apps' browsers.

With a helper

  1. Stand a step or two in front of a plain white or off-white wall, facing a window.
  2. Your helper taps Take photo, then Someone else is taking it? Use the back camera. The helper then sees the oval and the hints on the screen while you look at the lens.
  3. They hold the iPhone at your eye level, about 4 feet away. The State Department asks for the camera to be several feet (1.2 m) from you (passport photo page).
  4. You look into the lens, not at the screen, and they tap the shutter when the hint says you're lined up.

On your own

  1. Prop the iPhone upright at eye level, for example against books on a shelf, with the screen facing you.
  2. Tap Take photo, step back until your head and shoulders fit the oval, then tap Hands-free. The tool takes the picture once you're lined up and holding still.
  3. Skip the arm's-length selfie: from that close, the front camera makes your nose look bigger.

Saving it

On an iPhone, the save button opens the share menu. Tap Save Image and the photo or the 4×6 sheet goes to your Photos app. For the Letter PDF, tap Save to Files or Print instead. If you close the menu without saving, the page tells you nothing was saved; tap the button again.

With the Camera app instead

You can also take the photo with the iPhone's own Camera app and then tap Choose a photo on this page. HEIC photos from the Camera app open in Safari. A few settings change the picture before you see it, so check them first:

  • Zoom: tap 2x, or the telephoto button your model has, and have your helper stand about 4 feet away, so your head fills more of the frame without the camera coming closer (zoom in Camera).
  • Portrait mode off: it blurs the background with a depth effect, and the State Department rules out changes made with phone apps or filters. Shoot in Photo mode (Portrait mode).
  • Photographic Styles on Standard: a style applies to every photo you take, and on iPhone 18 Pro models a texture such as Soft Skin can smooth the face. Go to Settings › Camera › Photographic Styles and choose Use Standard (Photographic Styles).
  • Live Photos off: Live Photo is on by default and records what happens just before and after the shot. You only need the still: in Photo mode, open the camera settings, tap Live, then Off (Live Photos).

Then use the photo as it came out of the camera. The Photos app's edit tools count as edits too.

For a paper application (DS-11 or DS-82), save the 4×6 sheet with Save Image. Open the Walgreens, CVS or Walmart app, start an order of regular 4×6 prints (not the passport photo service), pick the sheet from Photos and turn off any crop or fill. One print holds two 2 × 2 in photos and costs $0.18 at Walmart (photos3.walmart.com, read Oct 7, 2026), $0.39 at Walgreens (photo.walgreens.com, read Oct 7, 2026), $0.42 at CVS (cvs.com, read Oct 7 or 2026), prices read on October 7, 2026. Measure one photo when you pick it up: exactly 2 inches. The print guide has the details, and renewing online needs only the JPG.

On an Android phone

The steps are the same in Chrome: open this page, tap Take photo, and use the back camera with a helper or Hands-free with the phone propped up. If you take the photo with the phone's own camera app instead:

  • Turn off beauty mode, face retouching or skin smoothing if your camera app has it. The rules exclude filters, and these smooth the face before you see the photo.
  • Use the main lens (1x) or 2x, never the 0.5x ultra-wide one, which stretches faces near the edges of the frame.
  • Turn off Portrait or Live focus mode, which blurs the background.

Printing works the same way from the Walgreens, CVS or Walmart app on Android.

Questions

Do I need an app to take a passport photo on an iPhone?

No. This page works in Safari: it opens the camera with a guide for your face, crops the photo to 2 × 2 in, checks it against the State Department's rules and saves the files to your Photos app. The store's app is only for ordering the print.

Can I take my passport photo alone with an iPhone?

Yes. Prop the iPhone at eye level, tap Take photo, step back until you fit the oval and tap Hands-free. The tool takes the picture when you're lined up and still.

Should I use Portrait mode for a passport photo?

No. Portrait mode blurs the background with software, and the passport rules don't allow photos changed with apps or filters. Use the regular Photo mode, or this page's camera.

Where does the photo go when I tap Save Image?

To the Photos app, like any other photo. From there, the Walgreens, CVS and Walmart apps can pick it up for a 4×6 print, and the online renewal form can take the JPG.