B-1/B-2 visitor visa photo requirements

B-1 and B-2 share one photo spec

There is no separate photo rule for business visitors (B-1), tourists (B-2), or the combined B-1/B-2 visa that most applicants receive. All three use the same square 2 x 2 inch US visa photo, which is also the same specification as a US passport photo. The only thing that changes between paper and digital is the file constraint the DS-160 enforces on upload: square aspect, 600 x 600 pixels minimum, 1200 x 1200 maximum, and 240 KB or smaller.

Practically that means one photo session covers everything. Shoot fresh against a plain white wall in even daylight, crop square, and confirm the head fills roughly 50 to 69 percent of the frame height before you attach the file.

If the DS-160 will not accept your photo

The DS-160 lets you continue without a successful upload, and in that case you bring a printed 2 x 2 inch photo to the interview instead. That is a fallback, not a fix, and it means an unchecked photo gets judged at the consulate window where a problem costs you the appointment.

The usual causes of a failed upload are mechanical: the file is over 240 KB, the crop is not square, the image is under 600 x 600 pixels, or the background reads as grey rather than white because of a shadow behind the head. Each of those is solved by retaking or recropping, not by editing the picture.

Do not let anyone retouch it

Skin smoothing, background replacement, and app beautify filters all produce a file that examiners are trained to flag, and for visa applicants the stakes are higher than a retake. Ask any studio for the raw, unedited file. Our free checker measures your original photo against the official US visa spec, head height, eye position, background and file size, and crops it to 2 x 2 inches without touching the pixels. If something fails, it tells you what to retake.

Frequently asked questions