Passport and Visa Photo Size by Country (2026)

By the DocEpic team · Updated 13 November 2026 · 4 min read

Every country asks for its own passport and visa photo: a different size, a different background, and a different rule for how big your head should be. A photo that is perfect for a UK passport is the wrong shape for a US visa, and a Canadian passport needs a much larger print than a Canadian visa. This guide lists the sizes for the most common applications in one table, explains the rules they share, and shows how to make a correct photo from a phone picture and print it at home or at a photo shop.

Photo sizes at a glance

Each row links to a page of our Passport Photo Maker with that size already chosen. The head size is measured from the chin to the top of the hair.

Rules change, and embassies sometimes add their own. Before you print, compare these numbers with the checklist of the office you are applying to.

Digital photos: DV Lottery and the DS-160

Some applications want a file, not a print. The US Diversity Visa (Green Card) Lottery and the DS-160 visa form both ask for a square colour JPG of at least 600 × 600 pixels and at most 1200 × 1200, no larger than 240 KB, with the head taking up 50–69 % of the photo's height.

The DV Lottery Photo tool makes exactly 600 × 600 pixels under 240 KB from any photo: you choose the crop, it sets the pixels and the file size. Entries themselves are made only on the US State Department's official website, which is free.

Rules almost every country shares

The sizes differ, but passport offices around the world reject photos for the same reasons. A photo that follows these rules is accepted almost everywhere:

1. Recent: taken within the last six months, and looking like you do today.
2. Plain background with no pattern, shadows or other people.
3. Facing the camera straight on, with a neutral expression, eyes open and mouth closed.
4. Evenly lit, sharp and in colour, without filters, beauty mode or red eyes.
5. No glasses in US and Australian photos, and elsewhere only if your eyes are clearly visible without glare; head coverings only for religious or medical reasons, with the whole face visible.

Make your photo at home

All you need is a phone and a plain light wall. Stand facing a window in daylight, about a metre from the wall so there's no shadow behind you, and ask someone to take the photo at your eye level from one to one and a half metres away.

1. If the wall isn't plain, put yourself on a white background with Remove Background.
2. Open the Passport Photo Maker, or the page for your country from the table above, and add your photo.
3. Move and resize the box so your face fits the oval guide, with a little space above the hair.
4. Choose a 4 × 6 inch sheet or A4 and download it. Tick Also download the single photo if your application also needs a file.

Print it at the right size

Order the 4 × 6 inch sheet as a normal photo print at a pharmacy, supermarket photo counter or photo shop, and ask for no cropping or resizing. On a home printer, print the A4 or 4 × 6 sheet at 100 % or actual size, never fit to page, on photo paper. Check one photo with a ruler before you cut them out.

Canadian passport photos must also have the photographer's name and address and the date on the back. Australian passport photos need your guarantor's endorsement. For these, check whether a home-made photo is accepted where you apply.

Questions people ask