US passport photo requirements

Updated September 25, 2026 · Rules checked September 25, 2026 against travel.state.gov (last updated March 24, 2026)

All the rules in one table

These rules apply to the printed photo you send with Form DS-11 or DS-82. They come from the State Department's passport photo page, last updated March 24, 2026. Online renewal uses a digital file with a few differences, covered further down.

The 2×2 layout, described

Picture a square 2 inches on each side. Draw a line across it 1 inch up from the bottom edge, exactly halfway. Your eyes belong in a narrow band just above that line: between 1 1/8 and 1 3/8 inches from the bottom. That band is only a quarter of an inch tall, which is why photos cropped by eye so often miss it.

Your head, measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head, must be 1 to 1 3/8 inches tall. That means it fills from half the photo's height to just over two-thirds of it. The rest of the height is split between a strip of background above your hair and your neck and shoulders below your chin.

The two ranges work together. A head at the large end of its range, placed with the eyes at the top of their band, pushes the hair toward the top edge. That's why the tool checks that the top of the head stays inside the photo as well as measuring head size and eye height. In metric, the photo is 51 mm square, the head is 25–35 mm and the eyes sit 28–35 mm from the bottom.

Eyeglasses

Eyeglasses aren't allowed in US passport photos, and that includes clear prescription lenses, sunglasses and tinted glasses. Don't rest them on your head for the photo either. If you truly can't remove them for a medical reason, include a signed note from your doctor with your application. For everyone else, the answer is simple: take them off for the few seconds of the shot, then put them back on.

Hats and head coverings

Hats and head coverings are not allowed, with two exceptions. A head covering worn for religious purposes is allowed with a signed statement that it's religious attire worn daily in public. One worn for medical purposes is allowed with a signed doctor's statement. In both cases, your full face must be visible, with no shadows or parts of your face blocked, and the covering should be one color, without patterns or small holes. Face coverings and medical masks come off.

Clothing, jewelry and accessories

Wear the clothes you normally wear. Uniforms, clothing that looks like a uniform and camouflage aren't allowed. Headphones and wireless hands-free devices in or on your ears aren't allowed either, so take out earbuds. Jewelry and facial piercings can stay, as long as they don't hide your face.

For a cleaner result, choose a top that contrasts with the white background. A white shirt against a white wall makes your shoulders blend into the background and the outline of your head harder to see. See what to wear for a passport photo for more on clothes, hair and makeup.

Expression and pose

Face the camera directly with your head straight, not tilted toward a shoulder and not turned. A neutral expression is always safe. A natural smile is also acceptable, as long as both eyes are open and your mouth is closed, and the State Department asks you to avoid exaggerated expressions. The colored parts of your eyes must be clearly visible, so move hair away from your eyes. Squinting into bright light or smiling so hard that your eyes narrow both work against that rule.

Background

The background must be white or off-white, without shadows, texture, objects or lines. Off-white gives you some room: a very pale cream or a white wall in slightly cool light is fine. What fails is anything with a pattern or visible edges, such as tiles, wood paneling, wallpaper, a door frame, or a wall corner behind your head. A plain wall that looks gray or yellow because the room is dim can also fail, which makes background a lighting problem as much as a paint problem.

Lighting and shadows

The light on your face must be even, with no shadows. The State Department warns that overhead lights, or lights too far off to the side, cast shadows that hide your features. Face a window or put two lamps at equal distances on either side of the camera. Stand several feet from the wall so your shadow falls behind you. Don't use a flash, which can create a hard shadow behind the head, glare on the skin and red eye.

How recent the photo must be

The photo must have been taken in the last 6 months. That rules out the picture from your previous passport and most photos you'd find in your phone's gallery. If your appearance has changed a lot, take a new photo even if the old one is less than 6 months old, so the photo looks like the person at the border.

No edits, filters or AI

The photo can't be changed with software, apps, filters or AI, and the State Department says it checks all photos for AI tools. That covers the obvious changes, like background replacement and skin smoothing, and less obvious ones, like beauty mode on a front camera, portrait mode's artificial background blur, "enhance" buttons in gallery apps and stretching or compressing the image to resize it. The page's examples also mark a photo whose background was cut out with a retouching tool as unacceptable.

This tool only crops and resizes US passport photos. It never retouches the face and doesn't offer background changes for US documents, so if your wall isn't plain, change the wall or the light.

Red eye and image quality

Photos with red eye aren't accepted, and you can't edit it out, because that changes your natural eye color and shape. Adjust or turn off the flash and retake the photo. The photo must also be high resolution: not blurry, grainy or pixelated, and a print can't show visible printer dots. Set the camera to its highest quality setting before you shoot.

Printing and paper

Print on matte or glossy photo-quality paper. Photocopies and digitally scanned photos aren't accepted, so a photo printed on ordinary office paper, or a scan of an old print, won't work. The print must be free of holes, creases and smudges. Let inkjet prints dry completely, cut them cleanly, and carry them flat in an envelope. See how to print passport photos at Walgreens, CVS or Walmart for true-size prints that cost less than $1.

Wheelchair users

If you're sitting in a wheelchair, it's OK if part of the head support shows in the photo. Include a note with your application explaining that the background isn't completely white because you're in a wheelchair. The tool's background check may flag the head support, so expect that result and check the rest.

Digital photos for online renewal

If you renew online, you upload a file instead of mailing a print. The basics stay the same, but several details change. These come from the State Department's Upload a Digital Photo page, last updated May 4, 2026:

The digital photo for US online renewal page covers the online process step by step.

Examples of photos that get rejected

• The bathroom mirror photo. Vanity lights overhead leave dark eye sockets and a shadow under the chin, and the tiles behind the head count as texture.
• The cropped wedding picture. It's more than 6 months old, the light was set up for a party, and part of someone else's shoulder is still at the edge.
• The kiosk print that was "fit" to the paper. The photo came out 1.8 inches wide, so the head and eyes are too small as well.
• The good selfie. Taken at arm's length with the front camera's beauty mode on, so the face is distorted and the skin has been smoothed.
• The work photo. A uniform, clothing that looks like one, or a camouflage jacket, in an otherwise perfect picture.
• The photo with glasses. Clear lenses, no glare and a great smile, but eyeglasses are not allowed without a medical note.
• The folded print. Carried loose in a wallet or bent in the mail envelope, so it now has a crease.

See why passport photos get rejected, and how to fix them for more examples and what happens after a rejection.

When these rules were checked

• September 25, 2026. Checked against the State Department's passport photo page (last updated March 24, 2026) and its Upload a Digital Photo page (last updated May 4, 2026), both at their current addresses. The old addresses redirect there. This page and the tool follow both pages.

Questions