Perfect Passport Photo with Your iPhone [Compliant with U.S. Regulations]

How to take a Passport Photo with iPhone / iPad?

Do you want to go through the whole process faster and smoothly? Use our online tool and get your passport photo with your iPhone / iPad!

Taking a photo for your passport can be faster and easier than you think. Especially since all you need is your iPhone. How is that possible? All you need to do is to use our software – which is online and doesn’t require downloading an iPhone app. Just take a selfie or ask somebody to take a picture of you with your iPhone. Then upload it on this page, get the result and press ‘download’. That’s basically all you need to know to take a proper passport photo with an iPhone. Thanks to our app, it will only take you 10 minutes.

Requeirments for Passport Photo with iPhone

There are special requirements to take a passport photo using iPhone or any other device. Their list is published on the government website of the Department of State. Fortunately, proper preparation and our Passport Photo Editor for iPhone will guide you through the process successfully. These include proper body positioning, lighting, photo background, and facial expressions. However, taking a passport photo with an iPhone requires other things that need to be considered. How to dress, what makeup to do, what can and cannot be worn - it all matters.

Proper passport photo - take it with your iPhone

Our software will fix some issues (e.g. it will clear the background) with the photo, however,  according to the US Department of State there are some specific passport requirements the photo has to meet:

• Neutral facial expression
• One should directly face the camera with full face in view
• Normal clothing - don't be very extravagant. (Religious clothing for passport photo is allowed)
• You should take the galsses off

Remember that when applying, you must provide one passport photo. It must not be older than 6 months and, when printed, it must be 2 × 2″ (5 × 5 cm). It is essential that, when viewed vertically, the head in the photo is between 1″ to 1 3/8″ (2.5 to 3.5 cm). Also, make sure the background of your photo is white, blank, and clean.

Size of Passport Photo with iPhone

Your iPhone/iPad camera is good enough to make a high resolution photo. Then, our App will automatically crop it to the right size,  which is 2x2inch for paper printout or 600x600 px for digital submission. 

How to take a Passport Photo with iPhone at home?

Fortunately, meeting these requirements is not difficult and taking a passport photo with an iPhone is completely within everyone's reach. It's simple: prepare yourself and use our online tool that will guide you through the process and allow you to take a photo that meets the formal guidelines.

Prepare the clothes

While there are no formal obstacles to wearing something eccentric, even if it's a photo for your passport, you need to be careful with your dress code. What to put on taking a passport photo with iPhone? Wear casual but neat clothes and don't reveal too much skin. Avoid black and white clothes that may blend in with the background on one side and disrupt the composition of the photo on the other.

Remove jewellery, glasses and accessories

You should remove any jewelry. You cannot wear glasses and hair accessories either - decorative hairpins and headbands are not allowed. Make-up should be subtle, but at the same time reflect your everyday look. The point is that there will be no problem identifying you during passport control.

Set the light

The passport photo taken at home must be properly exposed. It should not be too light or too dark. Flat and even daylight that illuminates the entire face and does not create too contrasting shadows is best. How to do it? Stand in front of the open window in the daylight - this way you will get the natural light of the photo, thanks to which it will be accepted by the US Department of State.

Get a proper position and face expression

You must stand straight in front of the iPhone. If you’re not able to do so, ask someone for help. You have to keep your head perfectly straight and look directly at the camera. Do not smile or frown and do not squint your eyes. Also keep your mouth closed.

Set up a background or leave it to our software

Background must be entirely white and clean. We know that it’s hard to find a clean white wall in a house and much more difficult – a professional white roll-up. That’s why our tool removes background automatically when the shot is ready and uploaded.

Getting Green Card Photo / US Visa Photo with iPhone

As you probably know a green card or US Visa Photo has the same standard size - 2x2 inches. It means that you can use your US passport photo for other official documents. You can also choose other documents in menu above - for example:

• Drivers licence (depends on state)
• China visa photo (33 by 48 mm)
• Russian visa photo (3,5 cm x 4,5 cm)
• U.S Green Card Photo (same size as US passport)
• Canadian Visa photo (same size as US passport)

Do I need a Passport Photo App for my iPhone?

Actually you don’t. We believe that downloading a mobile app only to get an ID Photo is a waste of space. That's why we offer you this easy Passport Photo Editor for iPhone. All you have to do is to upload your selfie on this page, and our tool will do the rest!

By using our online tool you can easily:

• remove background
• crop and resize the photo
• check if the photo is correct
• save and download it to your email
• prepare the photo for printing

Can I print the photo at Walgreens?

Definitely yes. here are instructions how to do it and get 2 passport size photos for $0.35:

1. Upload your photo 
2. Download ready to-print-template
3. Get to nearest Walgreens
4. Print it out as 4x6 inch postcard

Devices supported 

Since it is a web photo editor it doesn't make a difference what type of iPhone you currently use. You may use Passport Photo Online App with any iPhone or iPad, you can do it with iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone7, iPhone6, iPad Air, iPad pro and any other Apple device.

Last update: 3/25/23