US Passport Photo

About US Passport Photo

A US passport photo is a 2×2 inch square - 51×51 mm, or 600×600 pixels at print resolution - with your head between 1 and 1⅜ inches (25–35 mm) from chin to crown on a plain white or off-white background. This tool crops and sizes your own photo to exactly that, in your browser, with a head-position oval to line the face up. Getting the square and the head size right is what the State Department's automated check looks at first, and it is where most home-made photos fail. For online passport renewal the upload must be a square JPG or HEIF between 600×600 and 1200×1200 pixels; this tool outputs 600×600, inside that range. For a printed photo, print the square at 2×2 inches. The State Department's online tool rejects photos where the head is too small or too large in the square far more often than for any other reason, so the head-size band is the thing to get right. Shadows on the face or behind you are the second most common failure. Aim for soft, even, front-on light and a genuinely white wall, and keep a neutral expression with both eyes open and hair clear of the face. Everything runs in this tab - your photo is cropped, sized and handed back without being uploaded, which for a document photo is exactly right. Important: this tool sizes and frames the photo to the exact 2×2 in (51×51 mm) dimensions and shows a head-position guide, but it cannot certify that your photo meets every official rule. Always check the result against the official guidance before you submit it.