The exact United States visa photo in pixels, KB and DPI for online uploads
When you submit a United States visa application online, the portal reads three numbers from your file: pixel dimensions, file size in KB, and DPI. For United States the required digital photo is 602 × 602 pixels at 300 DPI, with a file size of 240 KB max for DS-160. Get any of those wrong and the portal silently rejects the upload — often without telling you which field failed.
The pixel size is not arbitrary: 602 × 602 px is the 300-DPI equivalent of the official printed size of 51 × 51 mm enforced by U.S. Department of State (Bureau of Consular Affairs). Submit a smaller pixel count (say 400 × 500) and the photo gets pixelated when United States prints it onto your physical visa. Submit a larger pixel count (say 1200 × 1500) without resampling, and the file size balloons past the portal's KB limit.
How to hit 240 KB max for DS-160 every time
- Take the photo with a modern phone camera in 4:3 mode against a white wall.
- Open the United States visa resizer. It auto-crops to 602 × 602 pixels at 300 DPI.
- If the output JPEG is still over the limit, drop it into our image compressor at 80–85% quality. The compressor preserves face detail while shrinking the file to any KB target.
- Upload the JPEG to the United States portal. Confirm the success message — some portals show no preview, only a small "photo uploaded" tick.
Why JPEG and not PNG, WebP, or HEIC
U.S. Department of State (Bureau of Consular Affairs)'s online portal expects JPEG in sRGB color space because biometric face-detection libraries expect 8-bit JPEG. PNG produces lossless files but is often rejected as "wrong format". WebP and HEIC, the default formats on modern Android and iPhone, are universally rejected. Always convert to JPG before uploading.
DPI matters even for digital files
A common myth is that DPI only applies to print. Not true for United States visa applications: U.S. Department of State (Bureau of Consular Affairs)'s portal reads the EXIF DPI metadata to verify the photo can be printed at 51 × 51 mm without pixelation. ImageGates writes 300 DPI metadata into every output file by default.
U.S. Department of State (Bureau of Consular Affairs) portal pitfalls
- Submitting a 35×45 mm European-style print instead of the U.S. 2×2 inch square..
- Uploading a screenshot of a photo (loses DPI metadata, half the resolution).
- Cropping a 1200 × 1500 photo to 602 × 602 but forgetting to compress — the file ends up far above 240 KB max for DS-160.