US Passport Photo Size: The Exact 2x2 Spec

A US passport photo is 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm). If you upload it digitally instead of printing, the image has to be a square between 600 x 600 and 1200 x 1200 pixels. Inside that square, your head has to measure 1 inch to 1 3/8 inch (25 to 35 mm) from the bottom of your chin to the top of your head, on a plain white or off-white background, with a neutral expression, taken within the last 6 months.

That is the whole spec in two sentences. The rest of this post is about the one number people get wrong, why it gets photos rejected, and a rule the State Department does not actually enforce that half the internet treats as gospel.

What is the exact US passport photo size?

The exact US passport photo size is 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm) for a print, or 600 x 600 to 1200 x 1200 pixels for a digital submission. Here is the full published spec in one place, straight from the US State Department passport photo requirements:

Requirement	Specification
Print size	2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm)
Digital size	Square, 600 x 600 to 1200 x 1200 pixels
Head height (chin to crown)	1 inch to 1 3/8 inch (25 to 35 mm)
Background	Plain white or off-white
Color	Full color
Expression	Neutral face or a natural smile
Recency	Taken within the last 6 months
Glasses	Not allowed (removed since November 2016)
Head covering	None, except for religious or medical reasons with a signed statement
File type (digital)	JPEG

The 2 x 2 inch dimension is the part everyone knows. It is the part almost nobody gets wrong, because photo booths, drugstore kiosks, and phone templates all crop to 2 x 2 automatically. The dimension people actually fail is the one hiding inside the square.

How big should my head be in a US passport photo?

Your head has to measure between 1 inch and 1 3/8 inch (25 to 35 mm) from the bottom of your chin to the very top of your head. That works out to roughly 50 to 69 percent of the 2-inch frame. This is the single measurement that sinks the most passport photos, and it is worth saying plainly: a photo that is a perfect 2 x 2 inches can still be rejected because the head inside it is the wrong size.

The failure happens in two directions. Stand too far from the camera or use a wide zoom, and your head shrinks below the 25 mm floor, so you look like a small figure floating in a large white square. Take a tight arms-length selfie, and your forehead or chin gets cropped, or your head blows past the 35 mm ceiling. Both get bounced.

Chin to crown means exactly that: from the bottom of the chin to the top of the skull. If your hair is piled up, the measurement still runs to the crown of your head, so a tall hairstyle can throw the number off. The State Department also asks that your head be centered and facing the camera squarely, with both eyes open and looking straight ahead.

Here is the frustrating part. You cannot eyeball 28 millimeters. The difference between a 24 mm head (too small, rejected) and a 26 mm head (passes) is about the width of a pencil lead in a printed photo, and no human can judge that by looking. This is exactly the gap that gets people a rejection letter three weeks after they thought they were done.

That measurement problem is the reason we built our app. Passport & Visa Photo, a Steradian Labs iPhone app, measures your head height in millimeters against the government's published 25 to 35 mm band and shows you the exact number next to the allowed range, so you know your head is the right size before you submit instead of finding out by mail. It reads the photo with Apple's Vision framework entirely on your phone, and it edits nothing: no AI, no background swap, no retouching, just a crop and a measurement of your real photo.

Does the US have an eye-height rule for passport photos?

No. The US State Department publishes a head-height range for passports but does not publish a fixed eye-line position, so where your eyes sit in the frame is helpful guidance rather than a pass-or-fail measurement. This trips people up because plenty of passport-photo blogs list an "eye height" number as if it were law. For a US passport, it is not.

This is a real difference from other document types. ICAO-based specs and many national visa photos define exactly where the eyes should fall (often expressed as a distance from the bottom of the image). US visa photos and green card photos follow the tighter digital rules. But for a standard US passport, the enforceable geometry is head height and centering, full stop.

The practical upshot is reassuring: if you nail the 25 to 35 mm head height and center your face, your eyes land in a sensible position on their own. You do not have to hit a secret eye-line target that the government never published. Focus your effort on the head size and the background, which are the things that actually get checked.

What are the other US passport photo requirements?

Beyond size, six things get a US passport photo accepted or rejected. In rough order of how often they cause problems:

1. Background. Plain white or off-white, evenly lit, no shadows and no texture. A shadow cast on the wall behind you is one of the most common rejection reasons, and it is easy to miss on a phone screen. The wall behind you is a bigger deal than most people realize.
2. Recency. The photo has to be from within the last 6 months, so it reflects your current appearance. Using a flattering shot from two years ago is a rejection.
3. Expression. A neutral face or a natural smile, both eyes open, mouth closed or lightly smiling. Big open-mouth grins can fail.
4. Glasses. Not allowed. The State Department stopped permitting eyeglasses in November 2016 because glare and frames obscured too many faces. Take them off.
5. Head coverings. None, unless worn daily for religious reasons or temporarily for medical reasons, and then you need a signed statement and your face must be fully visible.
6. Quality. In focus, true color, no filters, no digital alterations to your features. If you want the full rundown of what fails and why, why passport photos get rejected breaks down each rejection reason with the fix.

One number worth remembering across all of this: the State Department reissues millions of passports a year, and a rejected photo is one of the more common reasons an application stalls. A photo mistake does not just cost a reprint. It can cost you weeks of processing time you were counting on for a trip.

Can I take a US passport photo at home?

Yes, and most people should, because the spec is public and a modern phone camera clears the resolution bar easily. A 600 x 600 to 1200 x 1200 pixel image is trivial for any iPhone or Android photo. What is not trivial is judging the head height and the background evenness by eye, which is where home attempts usually go wrong.

The winning approach: use even, indirect daylight, stand about 3 to 4 feet from a plain light wall, have someone else take the shot at eye level (arm's-length selfies distort your face and blow the head size), and then verify the head-height measurement before you commit. Our full walkthrough lives in how to take a passport photo at home, and if you are wondering how much editing is allowed, can you edit a passport photo covers exactly what you may crop and scale versus what counts as a prohibited alteration.

Here is a quick pre-submit checklist you can run in 30 seconds:

• Square crop, 2 x 2 inches or 600 to 1200 px per side.
• Head measures 1 inch to 1 3/8 inch (25 to 35 mm) chin to crown. Actually measure this.
• Background plain white or off-white with zero shadow.
• Neutral expression, both eyes open, no glasses.
• Taken within the last 6 months, in color, no filters.

Get those five right and your photo passes. The 2 x 2 inch size is the easy part. The head height is the part that fails quietly, so measure it, then submit with confidence.