There is no single passport photo size. Two standards cover most of the world — the square 2 × 2 inch photo the United States uses, and the 35 × 45 mm portrait used by the UK, the Schengen states and several Asian countries — and every online application portal layers its own pixel spec on top. The chart below puts the official numbers in one place, each row transcribed from the issuing government's own page. Where a government publishes no accessible spec — or leaves it to individual consulates — the row says so rather than guessing.
US: 2×2 IN · UK & SCHENGEN: 35×45 MM · DS-160: 600×600 PX MIN
The chart
The document name links to the page where we make that photo; spec links to the full rulebook for that document:
| Document | Print size | Digital upload | Background | Recency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US passport · spec | 2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm) · head 1–1⅜ in (25–35 mm) | Online renewal: 600×600 to 1200×1200 pixels, square | Plain white or off-white | Last 6 months |
| US visa (DS-160) · spec | 2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm) | 600×600 to 1200×1200 pixels, square JPEG, 240 KB or smaller | Plain white or off-white | Last 6 months |
| DV lottery entry | Two identical 2 × 2 in prints, if selected | Exactly 600 × 600 px JPEG — no range | White or off-white | Current appearance (last 6 months) |
| UK passport · spec | 45 mm high × 35 mm wide · head 29–34 mm | At least 600 × 750 px, 50 KB – 10 MB | Plain cream or light grey (print) | Last month |
| Schengen visa · spec | 35 × 45 mm (member-state spec) | Varies by country portal | Plain, light-coloured | Max 6 months |
| Australian passport · spec | 35–40 mm × 45–50 mm · chin to crown 32–36 mm | — | Plain white or light | Less than 6 months |
| Canadian passport | 50 × 70 mm · face 31–36 mm chin to crown | Studio-taken only — no self-made photo | Plain white or light-coloured | Max 6 months |
| China visa · spec | 48 × 33 mm (h × w) · head height 28–33 mm | Portal upload: 354×472 to 420×560 pixels, 40–120 KB | Plain white | Within 6 months |
| India OCI · spec | 2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm) | Square JPEG up to 900 × 900 px, max 200 KB | Plain, light-coloured background | — |
Two rows deserve a flag. The Schengen 35 × 45 mm figure is set at member-state level — the Netherlands publishes it verbatim — while the EU-level guidance specifies only a 35–40 mm width and a face filling 70–80% of the frame. And Canada is the honest exception: IRCC's rules make a self-taken photo unusable, so no online service — ours included — can make one. Here is exactly why.
If the US row is yours, the photo spec is only half the budgeting — the full list of passport prices 2026 covers every fee the application itself charges.
More destinations
These specs are official but come from a single national page or a specific consulate — noted per row, because posts differ:
| Document | Photo size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Japan visa | 45 × 35 mm | Dimension printed on the application form itself |
| South Korea visa | 35 × 45 mm · face length 25–35 mm | Within the last 6 months, plain light background |
| Singapore ICA (digital) | 400 × 514 px for e-Services uploads | Colour photo taken within the last 3 months |
| Philippines passport | 4.5 × 3.5 cm | DFA consular posts; last 6 months, white background |
| UAE (ICP passport services) | 3.5 × 4.5 cm | White background; visa checklists ask only for “one personal photo” |
| Mexico visa | 39 × 31 mm or 2 × 2 in | Boston consulate; white background, no eyeglasses — consulates differ |
| Brazil visitor visa | 2 × 2 in | Miami consulate; white background — requirements vary by consulate |
Reading the rules
Three numbers decide whether a photo passes, and the frame size is the least important of them.
The frame is the easy part. Any print shop can cut 2 × 2 in or 35 × 45 mm.
The head band is what actually rejects photos. The US wants the head — chin to top of the head — at 1 to 1⅜ inches, or 50–69% of the image height; the digital spec adds an eye-line band. The UK band is 29–34 mm, Australia's 32–36 mm, Canada's 31–36 mm; China bounds head width too. A photo can be cut to exactly the right frame and still fail because the head sits too large or too small inside it — the part no ruler-and-scissors method controls.
The clock runs faster than most people expect. Six months is the norm — US, Schengen states, Australia, Canada, China, South Korea. Singapore wants three months. The UK wants a photo from the last month, which quietly rules out reusing anything you already have.
Two more wordings worth reading literally: background and glasses. The US asks for plain white or off-white; the UK asks for plain cream or light grey — a photo staged for one is off-spec for the other. And eyeglasses are no longer allowed in new US visa photos except for documented medical reasons, a rule Mexico's Boston consulate mirrors.
Applying online
Applying online adds a second, separate spec. The print size tells you nothing about what the upload portal will take — each one publishes its own pixel window:
The US print size and the US digital minimum are the same photo in different units, and the 600x600 photo page works through the scanning rule behind that — and the DS-160/DV difference noted above.
Failure modes
Three failure modes, in rising order of cost.
The portal refuses the file. A DS-160 upload outside the square window, over the byte cap, or in the wrong format doesn't go through. If that's the screen you're looking at, the fix is usually the file, not the photo — walk through DS-160 photo upload failed.
The portal takes the file, then fails the photo. The dimensions were fine; the composition wasn't — head too large, eyes outside the band, background not clean. That's the “photo does not meet requirements” rejection, and it's the one a plain resize can never prevent, because resizing doesn't move the head inside the band.
The print comes back later. A wrong-size or off-composition print isn't caught at upload time — it's caught after you've submitted, when it is slowest to fix. If that already happened, here is the recovery path.
Skip the measuring
Pick the document and upload one photo. The crop lands the head inside that document's band, the background is replaced to its spec, and the file comes out inside the portal's pixel-and-kilobyte window:
Not sure which destination applies, or starting from the size instead? Begin at convert a photo to passport size. Already have a photo? Run it through the free checker first — it measures the file as-is against the spec and alters nothing.
Questions
Yes, in centimetres: 3.5 × 4.5 cm is 35 × 45 mm — the portrait frame the UK, the Schengen states, the Philippines and the UAE all specify. It is not the US size; US passport and visa prints are a 2 × 2 inch (51 × 51 mm) square.
The photo is 2 × 2 inches. 4 × 6 is the sheet of photo paper labs print it on — several 2 × 2 photos on one sheet, cut down after printing. Our US, UK, Schengen and Australian flows output both the digital file and a print-ready 4 × 6 sheet; the China and OCI flows are digital-upload-only, because those portals take a file, not paper.
There is no universal pixel size — each portal sets its own. The DS-160 accepts a square JPEG from 600 × 600 to 1200 × 1200 px; a DV lottery entry must be exactly 600 × 600 px; the UK’s online service wants at least 600 × 750 px; India’s OCI upload caps at 900 × 900 px; Singapore’s ICA e-Services uses 400 × 514 px.
No. The US photo is a 51 × 51 mm square; 35 × 45 mm is a smaller portrait rectangle, and the two specs also put the head at different heights inside the frame. A photo composed for one needs recropping — not trimming — to serve the other.
Six months is the most common window — the US, Schengen member states, Australia, Canada, China and South Korea all use it. Singapore requires a photo taken within the last three months, and the UK is the strictest: taken within the last month.
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