How to make your DV lottery photo
- Have someone take your photo against a plain white or off-white wall, facing the camera, with even light, a neutral expression and no glasses.
- Drop the photo into the box above. US green card lottery and Digital photo are already selected.
- Drag the square so your head fills 50–69% of its height, from chin to top of head, with your face in the middle.
- Check the result says 600 × 600 px and a size under 240 KB, then select Download.
- Optionally, run the file through the DV photo checker to confirm it meets the digital rules.
- Upload the JPG when the entry form on dvprogram.state.gov asks for your photo.
The official photo requirements
From the State Department'sUS Department of State visa photo requirements, checked 28 Oct 2026, and its digital image rules for online photos.
| Format | JPEG (.jpg), in colour (24 bits per pixel) |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | Square, 600 × 600 pixels |
| File size | 240 kB or less, compressed no more than 20:1 |
| Head size | 50–69% of the photo's height, chin to top of head |
| Background | Plain white or off-white |
| Taken | In the last 6 months, full face, both eyes open, neutral expression |
| Not allowed | Glasses (except rare medical cases), uniforms, headphones, edits that change your appearance |
Hats and head coverings are only allowed when worn daily for religious reasons, and your full face must stay visible without shadows. Photos copied from a driver's licence or other document aren't accepted.
How it works
The crop box is locked to a square, so the photo can't be stretched. The area you frame is resampled to exactly 600 × 600 pixels with a Lanczos3 filter, which keeps your features sharp, and saved as a JPEG with MozJPEG.
The file has to land inside a window. The upper limit is 240 kB, read as 240,000 bytes so it passes whichever way the form counts a kilobyte. The lower limit comes from the 20:1 compression cap: a 600 × 600 colour image is 1,080,000 bytes uncompressed, so the JPEG must be at least 54,000 bytes. The tool searches for the highest JPEG quality that fits under 240,000 bytes; a typical portrait lands well inside the window. If a very plain photo is still under 54,000 bytes at full quality, blank filler that image viewers skip is added inside the file, and the picture itself doesn't change.
The file is built from the pixels alone, so it carries no camera details or location, and the same photo and crop always give the same file. Readhow the size search works for the details.
Before you enter
- Use only the official site. Entries are made on dvprogram.state.gov, and the State Department announces the entry period on travel.state.gov. Utlty isn't connected to the US government and can't enter the lottery for you.
- A new photo for each person. If you're including family members, make each one's photo the same way, from a separate recent picture.
- Keep the original. If you're selected, you'll need two printed 2 × 2 inch photos for the interview. Choose 4×6 in print sheet above to print them from the same photo.
Common uses
- Entering the green card lottery. The entry form rejects a photo that isn't a 600 × 600 JPEG under 240 kB. Crop your photo here, check the size in the result, and upload the file on dvprogram.state.gov.
- Photos for each family member. Make a correctly sized photo for each person you list on the entry, one after another, from ordinary photos taken against a white wall.
- Printed photos after selection. Selectees bring two 2 × 2 inch printed photos to the interview. The 4×6 print sheet puts both on one standard photo print.