Passport Style Photos For USCIS
WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE “PASSPORT STYLE PHOTOGRAPHS” THAT USCIS REQUIRES WITH CERTAIN APPLICATIONS AND VISA PETITIONS? USCIS requires that you provide photographs of yourself with your visa petition or with certain immigration benefit applications (asylum, adjustment of status, employment authorization, and others). Below are USCIS’ requirements for the “passport-style photographs” that must be sent with petitions/applications that require photos. These photos are required for the DV lottery (diversity visa lottery), Adjustment of Status (green card) Application, all visa applications, U.S. passports, and other immigration benefits. There are actually a surprising number of memos, directives, and other guidance from USCIS and the U.S. Department of State detailing strict requirements for these photos even though they don’t explain it at all anywhere in the form instructions or on their website. The State Department even offers an online tool for cropping your passport style photos at https://tsg.phototool.state.gov/photo. They have specific instructions for infants as well. According to the guidelines from the State Department: Your photos must be Snapshots, magazine photos, low quality vending machine or mobile phone photos, and full-length photographs are not acceptable. You can go to most chain drug stores and get these photos done in five minutes for about ten dollars, which is what I would recommend doing. There are also many professional services that offer various systems for doing these for you. Finally, more and more people are starting to just do it themselves which is why the State Department created a tool to help people with that. For all the details about the requirements for photographs submitted with visa petitions and application for immigration benefits see our Immigration Benefit/Visa Petition Photo Page on the topic. HOW TO SUBMIT THE REQUIRED PHOTOGRAPH OF YOURSELF TO IMMIGRATION WITH YOUR APPLICATION OR PETITION You can read all the boring details here otherwise see the important highlights below. Online Visa/Passport Photo Services U.S. Government Online Photo Tool The U.S. Government provides this photo tool free of charge. You can take the photo of yourself and then upload your photo and use the tool to crop and resize your image to the proper dimensions (600x600px). TIPS FOR TAKING YOUR OWN PHOTO You can find templates for cropping and printing your photo for USCIS on our immigration photo requirements page along with more examples and information.