United States Passport Photo Maker

United States passport photo at a glance

What the rules actually say

US passport photo rules are published in 22 CFR 51.27 and detailed at travel.state.gov. The photo must be a clear, sharp, full-color image of you (no other person, no group photos), with both ears visible if not religiously covered, against a plain white or off-white backdrop. The official guidance explicitly disallows digital retouching beyond cropping, contrast, and brightness — beauty filters, skin smoothing, and AI portrait modes on phones can trigger rejection.

The head-height band is the single most-cited rejection reason in the 2023 OIG audit. At 600 × 600 pixels, your head from chin to crown should occupy between 295 and 413 pixels of vertical space. Frame so that your eye line sits roughly 56-69% from the bottom of the image. This tool draws the compliant band on the preview canvas — fit your head inside it before downloading.

For mail-in applications you'll print two identical photos on thin photo-quality paper. CVS, Walgreens, Costco, and USPS will print them from your digital file for $15-25, but the file from this tool is the same resolution and DPI that those services use internally, so you can also print at home on photo paper if you have a calibrated printer.

If your application is rejected, you'll get a yellow card in the mail with the specific issue circled. Most rejections are head-height, shadows, or glasses (still the third most common reason five years after the rule changed). Re-shoot, don't argue.

Top reasons United States passport photos get rejected

• Head height outside the 25–35 mm range
• Shadows on the face from overhead light or flash
• Not taken within the last six months (visible age difference)
• Wearing glasses (banned for US passport photos since November 2016)
• Background not plain white or off-white

Where to apply for your United States passport

Apply for a US passport at travel.state.gov. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply.html →

Studio alternative: $15 to $25 at CVS, Walgreens, or USPS. The photo from this tool meets the same published spec — print on photo paper at home or at a drugstore for the same compliance result.

Related countries

If you also need a passport photo for a neighbouring or related country, the spec usually differs slightly. Here are the closest matches:

• Canada passport photo — 50 × 70 mm, plain white or light-coloured
• Mexico passport photo — 35 × 45 mm, fondo blanco
• United Kingdom passport photo — 35 × 45 mm, light-coloured

Privacy: what we do with your photo

The United States passport photo maker runs entirely in your browser. Cropping, scaling, and background colour replacement happen on your device using the Canvas API. The background-removal step uses our private worker server, processes the image in memory only, and deletes it immediately after returning the cutout — no logs, no storage, no training data.

Page URL: https://freeheadshot.org/tools/passport-photo/united-states. Spec verified against travel.state.gov on 2026-05-22.