Visa and Passport Photo Size Calculator

US visa and passport photo requirements

The United States is the strict one: a square photo exactly 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm), with your head filling a specific slice of it. Everything below comes from the US Department of State's official photo requirements.

• Printed size: 2 x 2 in (51 x 51 mm).
• Head height: 1 inch to 1 3/8 inches (25 to 35 mm) from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head.
• Head as a share of the photo: 50% to 69% of the image height.
• Background: plain white or off-white, no shadows.
• Pose: full face, directly facing the camera, neutral expression, both eyes open.
• No glasses: since November 1, 2016, glasses are not allowed, even prescription ones.
• Freshness: taken within the last 6 months.

If you upload a digital image instead of printing one, the rules change shape: it must be square, at least 600 x 600 pixels, no more than 1,200 x 1,200 pixels, JPEG, 24-bit color, and no larger than 240 kB. Get the head size wrong and the photo is rejected even if everything else is perfect.

How to turn millimeters into pixels for printing

Print shops and photo tools think in pixels, but every government spec is written in millimeters or inches. One conversion bridges them:

pixels = millimeters ÷ 25.4 × DPI

DPI means dots (or pixels) per inch, and 25.4 mm is one inch. A standard print is 300 DPI, and the US State Department specifically asks for scanning at 300 DPI, which is 12 pixels per millimeter.

Run the US format through it: 51 mm ÷ 25.4 = 2.008 inches, × 300 DPI = 602 pixels. So a US visa photo is 600 x 600 pixels at 300 DPI. At 600 DPI it doubles to 1,200 x 1,200, which is exactly the upper limit the State Department allows. The calculator above does this for any size and any DPI, so you can match whatever the print service asks for.

Passport and visa photo sizes around the world

There is no single global photo size. These are the formats US travelers run into most, with the head-height rule and background for each.

Three families cover almost everything: the 35 x 45 mm rectangle used across the Schengen area, the UK, Japan, Australia and Germany; the US 51 x 51 mm square; and Canada's oversized 50 x 70 mm. A photo made for one will not fit the others, which is the single most common mistake, an Irish or European passport photo is not a valid US visa photo. Check the specific rule before you pay for prints.

Worked example: printing a US visa photo at 300 DPI

Say a print service asks you for pixel dimensions and you know the US rule is 2 x 2 inches. Work it out:

• Size in inches: 2 x 2 in.
• At 300 DPI: 2 x 300 = 600 pixels on each side.
• At 600 DPI: 2 x 600 = 1,200 pixels on each side, the maximum the State Department accepts for a digital upload.
• Head size to aim for: 25 to 35 mm, which at 300 DPI is 295 to 413 pixels tall.
• File size: keep the JPEG under 240 kB.

Now do the same for a Schengen visa. 35 × 45 mm at 300 DPI: 35 ÷ 25.4 × 300 = 413 pixels wide and 45 ÷ 25.4 × 300 = 531 pixels tall. So the same printer that wants 600 x 600 for a US visa wants 413 x 531 for a Schengen visa, a different rectangle, which is why getting the country right first matters more than any other step.

Why photos get rejected, and how to avoid it

Most rejections are not about the photo being ugly, they are about the head size and the background.

• Head too big or too small. The US wants the head at 50% to 69% of the photo height. A cropped-too-tight or too-zoomed-out face is the number one failure.
• Shadows. A shadow behind the head, or a wall that is off-white rather than white, fails the background rule.
• Glasses and hats. No glasses at all for US visas; head coverings only for religious reasons, and they must not cast a shadow on the face.
• Expression and angle. Smiling, squinting, or a slightly tilted head can all be rejected. Face the camera straight on with a neutral expression and both eyes open.
• Stale photos. Anything older than 6 months, or that no longer looks like you, is refused.

The safest routine: stand a few feet from a plain white wall in even light, have someone shoot straight on, then crop to the exact millimeter size for your country and check the head height before printing. The Canadian passport photo rules and the UK passport photo rules are good examples of the level of detail each country expects.

Digital vs printed: which spec applies to you

Whether you print or upload changes which numbers matter.

For a US online application the digital image is what counts, so the pixel limits and file size matter more than the printed size, but the head-size rule applies to both. For a Schengen application you almost always hand in a printed 35 x 45 mm photo at the consulate, so the physical size and the light grey background are what get checked. When in doubt, make the printed photo correct first, then scan or export it at 300 DPI so both versions match.

Everything here runs in your browser; no photo and no personal detail is ever uploaded.