Can You Submit Your Own Passport Photo at Home?

Yes, you can take your own passport photo at home and submit it with your application. The State Department accepts photos taken by a friend or family member, provided the image meets every size, background, lighting, and print requirement it publishes for passport photos.¹ A phone camera, a white wall, and a helper are enough. What trips people up is not the equipment. It’s the details.

What the Photo Has to Look Like

The finished photo is a color image, 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm). Inside that square, your head from the bottom of the chin to the top of the hair has to measure between 1 inch and 1⅜ inches (25 mm to 35 mm).² That window is narrow, and it’s where most home photos fail. Stand too close and your head blows past the top of the range; stand too far and it comes in too small.

Face the camera straight on. Don’t tilt or turn your head. Keep a neutral expression or a natural smile without showing teeth, both eyes open, mouth closed. The photo has to be taken within the last six months so it reflects how you currently look.¹

Setting Up the Shot

You need a plain white or off-white background with no patterns, lines, or textures. A clean white wall works. So does a white bedsheet hung flat without wrinkles.¹ Stand a few feet away from that background so you don’t cast a shadow on it.

Put the camera at eye level, roughly four to six feet away. A tripod is ideal. A friend holding the phone works nearly as well. Selfies are not banned outright, but at arm’s length the framing almost never satisfies the sizing rules.¹

Lighting needs to be even across your face. Overhead lights and side lamps throw shadows that get photos rejected. Diffuse natural light from a window in front of you tends to produce the cleanest result. Not so bright that skin washes out, not so dim that features disappear.¹ Set your camera to its highest resolution and shoot a dozen frames. Compare them against the rules before you commit.

What to Wear and What to Take Off

Wear ordinary everyday clothes. Uniforms and anything that looks like a uniform, including camouflage, are not allowed. Take out headphones and wireless earbuds. Hearing devices can stay in.³

Glasses come off. This is a firm rule. The only exception is when you medically cannot remove them, such as after ocular surgery, and even then you need a signed statement from a medical professional, the frames cannot cover your eyes, and there can be no glare or shadows from the lenses.³

Hats and head coverings are generally not allowed. You may wear one for religious or medical reasons, but your full face has to be visible and the covering cannot cast a shadow on your face. For religious coverings, include a signed statement confirming that it’s traditional attire you customarily wear in public.⁴

No Filters, No Edits

Do not run the photo through filters, beauty modes, retouching apps, or AI editors. The State Department specifically warns that unnaturally edited photos will be rejected. That includes red-eye correction. If you have red-eye, retake the picture in natural light instead of fixing it in software.⁵

Printing at Home

If you’re mailing your application, print on matte or glossy photo-quality paper. Regular printer paper won’t be accepted. Print at exactly 2 x 2 inches and cut cleanly without bending or smudging. Don’t submit a photocopy or a scan of a printed picture, because the quality loss is usually enough to trigger a rejection on its own.¹ If your home printer isn’t up to it, a retail photo counter will produce a compliant pair for a few dollars.

Uploading Digitally for Online Renewal

Renewing online works differently. You upload a digital file rather than mailing a print. It has to be a JPG, PNG, HEIC, or HEIF, and the file size has to fall between 54 kilobytes and 10 megabytes. Most phone photos save in one of those formats by default.⁵

Frame the shot so the bottom edge sits about where your shoulders meet your arms, and leave a little space around your head for the system to crop. The online renewal system has a built-in checker that reviews basic requirements and lets you reposition or upload a different image if something is off.⁵

Passing that automated check isn’t final approval. A State Department employee looks at the photo again once your application arrives. If they catch something the tool missed, they’ll write or email asking for a new one and pause the application until it arrives.⁵

Attaching the Photo to a Paper Application

For mailed applications on form DS-11 (new passport) or DS-82 (renewal), attach one color photo in the designated area of the form.⁶ Staple it near the outer edges so the staples don’t puncture your face. No tape, no glue. If you’re applying in person at an acceptance facility, bring the photo loose; the agent will attach it.

Why Home Photos Get Rejected

The same handful of problems account for most rejections:

Head too big or too small in the frame, because the camera was too close or too far.
Shadows on the face or the wall behind you, usually from overhead lighting or standing too close to the background.
Blurry, grainy, or pixelated images, often from scanning a print rather than using the original file.
Overexposed or underexposed lighting that washes out or hides features.
Glasses left on.
Filters, beauty modes, AI edits, or red-eye correction applied to the image.
Wrong paper, or prints that arrive creased, smudged, or torn.

If your photo is rejected, the application doesn’t die. The State Department notifies you and holds the file until a compliant replacement arrives. That round trip typically adds weeks. If you have travel booked, check every requirement against your image before you send it rather than assuming it’s close enough.¹

1
U.S. Department of State. U.S. Passport Photos
2
U.S. Department of State. Photo Composition Template
3
U.S. Department of State. Photo Requirements
4
U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia. Head Covering Statement for Passport Photograph
5
U.S. Department of State. Uploading a Digital Photo
6
U.S. Department of State. DS-11 – Application for a U.S. Passport