How to take a passport or visa photo at home with a phone
5 minutes, updated 2026-11-09
Most online applications now take a digital photo instead of a printed one, and a phone camera is more than sharp enough. What gets photos rejected is almost never resolution: it is shadows, a busy background, a tilted head or a file that is the wrong size. All of those are under your control at home.
Set up
- Background: a plain wall or door in white, off-white or light grey, with nothing hanging on it. Stand about half a metre in front of it so your shadow falls behind you, not on it.
- Light: face a window in daylight, or two lamps at either side of the camera. Light from one side leaves half the face in shadow; light from above leaves dark eye sockets. Turn the flash off.
- Camera: ask someone else to take the photo, with the phone at your eye level, about 1.5 metres away, in portrait orientation. Several authorities, the US State Department among them, do not accept selfies, and a phone held at arm's length distorts the face.
Pose
- Face the camera straight on, head level, both ears roughly equally visible.
- Neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open and looking at the lens.
- No glasses for US passports and visas (the rule since 2016); other countries vary, and glare on lenses is a common reason for rejection everywhere.
- Hair away from the eyes; head coverings only for religious or medical reasons, with the face fully visible.
- Take a dozen shots and pick the sharpest one with the most even light.
Crop and size it
Leave room around the head when you shoot; cropping comes later. Each portal states its own frame: the US asks for a square of 600 to 1200 pixels, the UK at least 600 × 750 pixels, many forms a 3.5 × 4.5 cm passport shape. The requirement presets on this site crop around the centre to the exact shape and compress to the portal's KB limit in one step. If your face is off-centre, crop it first with the crop tool's 35:45 ID photo ratio.
Do not edit the face: no beauty filters, background blur or brightened skin. Online checkers compare against the rules, and some reject photos that look altered.
Before you upload
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Even light, no shadow on face or wall | The most common reason a photo is refused |
| Plain, light background edge to edge | Patterns and objects fail automatic checks |
| Head straight and centred | Tilted or off-centre heads fail the head-size check |
| Photo taken in the last six months | Most authorities require a recent likeness |
| File size and pixels match the notice | The upload form checks these before a person ever looks |