The eight rules, in checking order
One: the photo is a true square of 51 × 51 mm, which the Department of State also states as 2 × 2 inches. Two: the head, measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head, sits between 25 mm and 35 mm. Three: the background is plain white or off-white, with no shadow behind the head or the shoulders. Four: the expression is neutral, both eyes are open and the mouth is closed.
Five: no glasses, including clear lenses — the rule changed in November 2016 because glare across the eye breaks the match between the photograph and the face. Six: the photograph was taken within the last six months. Seven: nothing is edited — no filter, no red-eye removal, no skin smoothing, and no photograph of a printed photo. Eight: no uniform, with religious headwear allowed only where it does not cover the face or cast a shadow on it.
Why the head band causes most refusals
The band is measured on the finished photograph, not on the frame you shot, and it is easy to miss in both directions. A phone held at arm’s length usually puts the head at roughly half the frame height, which is too small; a photo taken close up can fill so much of the frame that the top of the head is cut off, which is also a refusal. Hair volume above the skull is not part of the measurement, so a high-volume style can hide where the top of the head actually is.
Two numbers make the band easy to aim for: 25 mm is one inch, and 35 mm is one and three eighths of an inch. In a square photo that means the head should occupy around half to two thirds of the height. If you are unsure, measure the finished photo with a ruler rather than trusting the framing on a screen — a photo that looks right on a phone can be several millimetres off on paper.
A sharp photo can still be a rejected photo. The rules that send applications back are measurements — the block, the head band, the background lightness — so the fastest check is a measurement, not a second opinion from a friend. The checker takes that measurement from your own file.
Printed and digital are two different tests
A paper application takes a printed 51 × 51 mm photo with a 25–35 mm head. An online renewal takes a square digital file of at least 600 × 600 pixels, in JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC or HEIF, between 54 KB and 10 MB. The photograph behind both is the same; the file rules are not.
The single most-missed rule sits here. A digital scan of your printed photo, or a phone photograph of it, is not accepted as the upload — the file has to come from the original image. People who already hold a good print are the ones most often caught, because the print looks perfectly adequate and the upload screen rejects it anyway.
What to do when a photo comes back
Read the notice first and fix only what it names. Nearly every U.S. refusal is one of three things: a head that is too small in the frame, a shadow behind the head, or a photograph older than six months without any visible date on it. Re-shoot rather than edit, because editing an existing photo is itself on the list of disqualifying faults.
If you want the numbers before you spend anything, the US size page breaks the square and the band down by unit, the rejection page lists the ten failure modes in order of frequency, and the checker preset for a printed U.S. photo measures your own file against the same eight points.
| Requirement | What the official rule says | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ('Country / document', 'United States — U.S. passport — printed photo') | ('Printed size', '51 × 51 mm (2 × 2 in)') | ('Head height', '25–35 mm chin to top of head') | ('Digital upload', 'Not applicable — this one is filed on paper') | ('File format & size', 'Photo paper, no file limits') | ('Background', 'Plain white or off-white, no shadows') | ('Recency', 'Taken within the last 6 months') | ('Glasses', 'No glasses — the rule changed in November 2016') | ('Official source', 'Official page') |
| ('Country / document', 'United States — U.S. passport — digital upload') | ('Printed size', '51 × 51 mm') | ('Head height', '25–35 mm chin to top of head') | ('Digital upload', '600 × 600 px minimum, up to 1200 px') | ('File format & size', 'JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC, HEIF, under 10 MB') | ('Background', 'Plain white or off-white, no shadows') | ('Recency', 'Taken within the last 6 months') | ('Glasses', 'No glasses') | ('Official source', 'Official page') |
Specification source: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/photos.html · checked October 2026 · DS-11, DS-82 by mail, and any paper application.
Specification source: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/photos.html · checked October 2026 · Online renewal and other digital submissions.