US Visa Photo for DS-160: Size, Pixels and KB

These are the requirements published on travel.state.gov for the digital image (checked on 10 October 2026). Read the current page before you apply, since the State Department decides what is acceptable.

• Shape: square. The height must equal the width.
• Dimensions: at least 600 x 600 pixels and at most 1200 x 1200 pixels.
• Format: JPEG, in color (24 bits per pixel, sRGB).
• File size: 240 KB or less.
• Compression: a compression ratio of 20:1 or less, so the file cannot be squeezed too hard either.
• Head size: from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin, the head must fill 50 to 69 percent of the image height.
• Background: plain white or off-white. Taken within the last 6 months, eyes open, neutral expression, no glasses.

Everyone knows about the 240 KB maximum, but the 20:1 compression limit sets a minimum too. An uncompressed 600 x 600 color image is about 1,080,000 bytes, and one twentieth of that is about 54 KB. So a 600 x 600 photo should end up roughly between 54 KB and 240 KB. Squeezing it down to 20 KB because a general guide said smaller is better can get it rejected.

At 1200 x 1200 the window is much narrower (the 20:1 limit works out to about 216 KB, against a 240 KB maximum), which is why 600 x 600 is the easiest size to hit.

1. 1

   Start with a good photo

   Stand in front of a plain white wall in even daylight, with the camera at eye level about one to two meters away. iPhone photos are often HEIC; convert them with HEIC to JPG first.

2. 2

   Crop to a square

   Open Crop Image and choose the 1:1 preset. Place the frame so your head fills about two thirds of the height, with a little space above your hair and your shoulders at the bottom.

3. 3

   Resize to 600 x 600

   Open Resize Image and set both width and height to 600 pixels. Because the crop is already square, the proportions will not change.

4. 4

   Check the file size

   Open Compress Image, keep JPG output and watch the size shown under the result. Around 85 to 90 percent quality usually lands well inside the 54 to 240 KB window for a 600 x 600 photo. Do not go lower than you need.

• The photo is not square (for example a 4:3 phone photo resized without cropping).
• The file is a PNG or HEIC instead of JPEG.
• The head is too small because the photo was cropped too wide.
• The file was compressed so hard that it falls below the compression limit, or is blurry.
• The background is grey, patterned or has shadows behind the head.

The State Department allows cropping and resizing, but photos must not be digitally enhanced or altered to change your appearance. Do not use filters, beauty modes or background replacement. Cropping, resizing and saving as JPEG, as described above, do not change how you look.