DV Lottery photo requirements — Department of State entry portal

dvprogram.state.gov submission spec

The Diversity Visa entry portal at dvprogram.state.gov is the only valid submission channel — there are no third-party submission services authorized by the State Department. Each year's entry window (typically October-November) requires a fresh photo taken within the 6 months preceding submission.

The portal's automated photo checker is the same engine used by the standard US passport online tool. It validates pixel dimensions, file weight, head position, background uniformity and gaze direction. Entries that fail the check cannot be submitted.

Background, framing and file format

Background must be plain white or off-white, uniform, no shadows. The square format requires the head to be centered both horizontally and vertically, occupying 50-69% of the frame height.

File must be JPG only — PNG, HEIC and PDF are rejected. Pixel dimensions between 600×600 and 1200×1200 px. File size strictly under 240 KB; oversized files are rejected at upload with no opportunity to compress in the portal.

Expression, glasses and head position

Expression must be neutral or a natural closed-mouth smile. Visible teeth and big smiles are auto-rejected by the State Department checker.

Glasses have been banned for all US Department of State photo submissions since November 2016. Clear, prescription, tinted and photochromic lenses are all rejected. Contact lenses are fine unless they change iris colour.

Head must be straight with no tilt; eyes open, both visible, looking directly at the camera.

AI editing ban — DV-2027 onward

Effective January 1, 2026 the State Department disqualifies any DV entry submitted with an AI-generated, AI-edited, or heavily filtered photo. The ban explicitly extends to the principal applicant, spouse and derivative children — if any photo in the entry is found manipulated, the entire family entry is voided even after selection.

Acceptable processing is limited to colour correction, brightness, cropping, resizing and clean background swap. Skin smoothing, eye enlargement, face slimming and any AI-touched output trigger automatic disqualification. The State Department uses image-forensics tooling on every selected entry photo.

Recency, children and same-photo reuse

Photo must be taken within the last 6 months of submission. The same fresh photo may be reused for the eventual DS-260 immigrant visa application and the Green Card interview — but each new submission requires a new photo if more than 6 months pass.

Children of all ages follow the same square format, with eased expression rules for under-5s. Each family member listed on the entry must have their own conforming photo; missing or non-conforming child photos disqualify the entire entry.

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