US passport photo requirements 2026 — 2×2 inch DOS checklist
Every US passport-photo rule — 2×2 square, 25-35 mm face, white background, no glasses since 2016, no digital retouching. Pass DOS first try.
What the US Department of State actually requires
US passport, visa and Green Card photos follow the Department of State spec at travel.state.gov. The single biggest difference from European specs: the photo is 2×2 inches square (51×51 mm), not the EU 35×45 mm rectangle. A photo cropped for any EU country fails on the spot. Live spec on our US passport photo page.
The numbers
- Print size: 2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm). The only major-country square format.
- Face height: 1 inch to 1-3/8 inch (25–35 mm) from chin to top of head. The widest face- height range we cover.
- Resolution: 300 DPI minimum (so 600 × 600 px at 2 inches).
- Background: plain white or off-white. NOT coloured. Off-white accepted if evenly lit.
- Maximum age: 6 months.
- No glasses since 1 November 2016by 22 CFR § 51.27. Medical exemption requires a doctor's signed statement.
- No hats or head coverings unless worn daily for religious reasons (with letter from religious authority).
Common rejection reasons
- Wrong format (rectangular, not square). Travelers crop a Schengen-style photo and submit it — the DOS scanner rejects it instantly.
- Glasses on.A photo from before November 2016 might pass; anything taken since definitely doesn't.
- Background isn't pure white. Light blue, pale yellow, faint grey all fail. White or off-white only.
- Heavy digital retouching.DOS explicitly bans “heavy digital editing” — identity-preserving processing only.
Where you submit it
Apply at a passport-acceptance facility (post offices, county clerks, public libraries) listed on travel.state.gov. You bring printed photos — DOS does not accept digital upload for passport applications (unlike the UK). Online renewal under the new pilot accepts digital uploads at 600 × 600 px minimum.
Take it at home
Daylight at a window, plain white wall behind you, phone at eye level. Our AI measures face height in mm, crops to the unusual 51 × 51 mm square (NOT 35 × 45 — the passport-acceptance facility will reject that), replaces the background with white, and ships at 300 DPI on glossy photo paper — start your US passport photo.