DV lottery photo guide for applicants from Algeria

A 35 x 45 mm photo is the wrong shape

Photos taken in Algeria for a passport, carte nationale or driving licence are a portrait-format rectangle, typically 35 x 45 mm. A DV entry needs an exactly square digital file. Stretching a rectangle to a square distorts the face, and padding it with white bars adds borders. Both fail the automated check. Shoot or crop natively square instead, with the head filling 50 to 69 percent of the height.

The practical version: stand about a metre and a half from a plain, light, unpatterned wall in even daylight, have someone photograph you from chest height, then crop to a square that leaves a little space above the hair.

Coloured backgrounds and studio retouching

Local studios frequently shoot on blue or grey and smooth the skin afterwards. The DV instructions require a plain white or off-white background, and digitally altered photos are rejected outright. Ask the studio for the raw, unedited file, or take the photo yourself against a white wall, which is both free and safer.

Any service that promises to make a non-compliant photo pass is almost always editing it. That is the exact thing the rule prohibits, so it converts a fixable problem into a disqualifying one.

Every person on the entry needs their own photo

Your spouse and each unmarried child under 21 must have their own compliant photo taken within 6 months of the entry, even if they will not travel with you. Missing or non-compliant dependent photos disqualify the whole entry, and the disqualification is silent: nothing tells you, the entry just never wins. Photograph the whole family in one session against the same wall, then check each file before the window closes.

Frequently asked questions