EDV Photo Guidelines
- The submitted photograph/s MUST be taken recently and MUST not be older than 6 months. The most ideal thing to do is to take a photograph recently for this purpose only. After all, this must not be a big deal for such a dream lottery. Isn’t it?
- If your photo doesn’t fit the technical formats officially stated by US State EDV Consulate, then the Department of State’s free Photo Tool automatically rejects your submitted photo and gives you another chance to make it right. You get a lot of chances like this one. So here we stand at a safe side for a thing or two for now.
- The EDV digital photograph to be submitted can be produced in two different ways. Both ways are equally acceptable according to the US Embassy photo requirements.
How to take photo for EDV Form
- A new digital photograph can be taken with a professional visa photo service which is best recommended but if you want you may take the photo yourself by using a professional high definition camera. However, the photograph MUST not be altered, enhanced or using any digital effects to change the person’s real appearance in any way.
- You can also take a picture using a camera phone with decent quality. Then you can use freely available mobile apps to crop the photograph to required size. So far the best app that you can find in the Play Store is "Passport ID Photo Maker Studio" that gives you all the pro-tools you need to make sure that the photo meets all the required guidelines.
- The other and equally acceptable option is to scan a photographic print with a digital scanner and create a scanned photograph. The photograph thus produced can also comply with the standards mentioned within the photo requirements.
Do the photos meet EDV form requirements?
Technical Requirement of an EDV Photo
- The photo MUST be in JPEG (.jpg) – “Joint Photographic Experts Group” file format consuming no more than 240 kB (kilobytes) of file size in any way. The photo size MUST be less than or equal to 240 kB.
- The image pixel dimensions of the photo MUST be in square aspect ratio i.e. in general terms; the HEIGHT of the photo MUST be equal to the WIDTH.
- Stating the earlier requirement more precisely, the digital photo to be submitted MUST be exactly 600 x 600 pixels in image resolution and dimension.
- For the digitally scanned photo produced by using the digital scanner, two additional requirements to the previous three mentioned above consist that the existing photo must be 2 x 2 inches ( 51 x 51 mm ) and scanned at a resolution of 300 pixels per inch ( 12 pixels per mm ).
- Last but the most important and a basic requirement is that the photo MUST be in color. The black and white, gray scale and monochrome images or photos are NOT accepted. The image color depth MUST be 24 bits per pixel.
Photo requirement after EDV Results
- You must take two identical photos during the interview process. The photos submitted through online EDV application program must not be different in appearance from the photos that you take to the interview process.
- The technical requirements include that these two identical photos must be printed in a quality photo paper.
- The size of the identical photos must be 2 x 2 inches ( 51 x 51 mm ).
Print your EDV Photos yourself
Compositional requirements of EDV Photo
- The entrant’s full-face view with a neutral facial expression and both eyes open directly facing the camera must be photographed.
- The vertical distance of entrant’s hairline or clean shaved head to chin must be sized or placed in the photo between 22 mm and 35 mm i.e. 50% to 69% of the total image’s height.
- The complete view of the photo must not show any body parts below the entrant’s shoulder or any other objects or person.
- The entrant must be in a formal dress worn daily or any religious clothing provided that his/her daily lifestyle represents the clothing. Otherwise no any uniforms or special attire is accepted for the photo. The hairline and the head must be clearly visible in the photo except any religious clothing worn daily.