Requirement reference
US visa photo size requirements
- Maximum size
- 240KB
- Format
- JPEG
- Minimum size
- None
Dimensions Square, with height equal to width. At least 600 x 600 pixels and at most 1200 x 1200 pixels.
Verified 10 Oct 2026 againstthe official requirement
A US visa photo uploaded with the DS-160 must be a square JPEG of at least 600 x 600 and at most 1200 x 1200 pixels, and 240 kB or smaller. The tool below is already set to 240KB, and it measures the finished file rather than estimating it — so what you download is genuinely under the cap rather than approximately under it.
2Add your file
Video, images and PDFs, all compressed on your own machine. No upload, no account, no watermark, no limit on how many files.
Read this too
What compressing will not fix
The file size is one clause of the requirement. These are the others, and a file that clears the cap can still be rejected for any of them.
- Colour, 24 bits per pixel, in the sRGB colour space.
- A compression ratio of 20:1 or lower, which a 600 x 600 JPEG under 240KB comfortably satisfies.
- The composition rules for the photograph itself -- a plain background, a neutral expression and the full face in view. No compressor can fix a photo that fails those.
Questions
US visa photo uploads
- What size does a us visa photo have to be?
- A US visa photo uploaded with the DS-160 must be a square JPEG of at least 600 x 600 and at most 1200 x 1200 pixels, and 240 kB or smaller. Compressing it to land just under 240KB is what the tool on this page does, measuring the real byte count rather than estimating it, so the upload is not rejected for being a few kilobytes over.
- How do I get my photo under 240KB without ruining it?
- Quality is searched rather than fixed. The image is encoded at about eight different quality settings, each one weighed, and you are handed the best-looking result that genuinely measures under 240KB -- which is a visibly better photo than a tool that drops to its lowest setting and hands back something far smaller than it needed to be.
- Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
- No. It is read and re-encoded inside this browser tab using your own machine's encoders, and there is no server in this product to send it to. For a passport or visa photograph that is worth knowing: the image never leaves your device, and neither does its filename.
- Is this requirement current?
- These numbers were checked against the official source on 10 Oct 2026, and that source is linked on this page so you can confirm it yourself. Requirements do change, and a failing test in this project's build flags this page for re-checking rather than letting it quietly go stale.
Nearby
Another form, another number
Different portals ask for different sizes. Each of these is the same tool with the target already set.