DV lottery photo guide for applicants from Ghana

A DV lottery entry from Ghana needs a JPEG, exactly 600 x 600 pixels square, under 240 KB, 24-bit colour, taken within the last 6 months, on a plain white or off-white background, no glasses, no digital editing, with the head filling 50 to 69 percent of the frame. The local trap is the workflow rather than the pose: passport-size prints from a studio are rectangular, and scanning or re-photographing that print is what fails. A scan carries the paper tint, the print border and any glare into the file, and the rectangle will not crop to a square without pushing the head outside the accepted size band. Shoot a fresh digital photo instead. Country eligibility is re-announced for each DV cycle, so confirm Ghana's status in the current official instructions before entering.

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Measured against the official United States visa spec: head size, eye line, background, brightness and file limits. We never edit your photo.

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Click anywhere here, or drag and drop your photo. Use a clear, front-facing photo against a plain white wall in even light. We measure and crop it. We never edit the pixels you submit.

A scanned studio print is the most common failure

The usual route is to collect a set of passport-size prints, then have a cyber cafe scan one or photograph it with a phone. Every step of that adds a defect. Photo paper is rarely pure white, so the background reads as cream or grey. The scan picks up the cut edge of the print as a border. A phone held over a print adds glare and a colour cast from the room lighting. None of that is recoverable, because you are not allowed to correct it in software.

The shape is the second problem. A rectangular print cropped down to a square either loses the top of the head or leaves the face too large, and head size outside 50 to 69 percent of the image height is a standard DV failure.

Shoot straight on against a plain light wall in even daylight, no flash, neutral expression, mouth closed, both eyes open and clearly visible, then crop to an exact square. A phone camera at arm's length with someone else holding it is fine.

No glasses, and nothing retouched

Glasses are not accepted in US photos, so take them off before the shot rather than trying to deal with glare afterwards. Studios often smooth skin, brighten the background or sharpen the image as a matter of habit. That is exactly what gets an entry thrown out. A photo that was fine for a local document can still fail here for editing alone.

If you ask someone to prepare the file for you, tell them plainly that resizing and cropping are the only changes allowed.

Entering is free, and the family photos come first

There is no charge to submit a DV entry, and the only place to submit one is dvprogram.state.gov. If someone is entering on your behalf, make sure the photo they upload is genuinely yours and recent, and keep your own confirmation number, because that number is the only way to check the result later.

Your spouse and every unmarried child under 21 need their own photo, each taken within 6 months of the entry, each on the same plain background. Because the six-month rule is measured at entry time, take the real photos close to the window, but do a practice run now so the setup is already known.

Frequently asked questions

Can I scan my Ghanaian passport photo for the DV lottery?

It is the most common reason these entries fail. A scan of a print carries the paper tint, the cut edge and any glare into the file, and the rectangular print will not crop to a square without throwing the head size outside the accepted range. Take a fresh digital photo.

Is Ghana eligible for the DV lottery?

The eligible-country list is re-announced every DV cycle, so confirm Ghana's current status in the official instructions at dvprogram.state.gov before entering.

How much does it cost to enter the DV lottery from Ghana?

Nothing. Submitting an entry is free and is only done at dvprogram.state.gov. If you pay someone to help, you are paying for their time, not for the entry itself.

Can I take the DV photo on my phone?

Yes, and it is usually safer than a studio shot because nothing gets retouched. What matters is the square crop, the head filling 50 to 69 percent of the frame, a plain white or off-white background and the file limits.

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