The square, and why it is 51 mm
A U.S. passport photo is 2 inches by 2 inches, which the Department of State also states as 51 × 51 mm. That is a true square: the width and the height are identical, which matters because U.S. visa and immigration photographs use the same block, and a square image is what the online upload screens expect.
Photographers working in inches sometimes trim to 50 × 50 mm out of habit. It looks identical and it is not: on a form with a printed box, a photo 2 mm narrow shows a sliver of white on each side and a stray edge across the face. Print at 51 mm on both sides, or let the checker confirm the crop before you cut.
The head band: 25 to 35 mm
The head, measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head, has to sit between 25 mm and 35 mm — between 1 inch and 1⅜ inches. That is measured on the finished photo, not on the frame you shot. In practice, most rejected U.S. photos have a head that is too small rather than too large, because people step back to include shoulders.
Hair counts only as far as the actual top of the head, and volume above the skull should not be measured as head. If you are unsure, the two guide lines in the checker preset for a printed U.S. photo are draggable, so you can place them on the chin and crown and read the millimetres off the report.
Printed photo and digital upload are two different tests
For a paper application you hand over a printed 51 × 51 mm photo with a 25–35 mm head. For an online renewal or an electronic submission you upload a square file of at least 600 × 600 pixels, no larger than 1200 × 1200 in practice, in JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC or HEIF, between 54 KB and 10 MB.
The trap is the scan. A photograph of your printed photo, or a scan of it, is explicitly not accepted as the digital upload — the file has to come from the original image. This is the single item most often missed by people who already have a good print in their hand.
The most common mistake is geometrical, not photographic. A sharp phone photo whose head fills the wrong share of the frame is rejected, while a plainer one with the head inside the band passes. The checker measures exactly that.
Background, expression and recency in one pass
The background must be plain white or off-white with no shadow. The expression must be neutral with both eyes open and the mouth closed. Glasses are not allowed at all — the rule changed in November 2016, and it applies to clear lenses as well, because glare across the eye is the problem. The photograph must have been taken within the last six months.
Religious headwear is allowed provided it does not cover the face or cast a shadow on it, and no uniform may be worn. Write nothing on the front of the photo. For the whole U.S. checklist in checking order, the U.S. requirements page walks through all eight rules, and the size matrix compares this block with every other one on the site.
| 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.