How to take a Green Card lottery photo at home with your phone

You don't need a photo studio for the Diversity Visa (Green Card lottery) entry. A modern phone takes a good enough picture, as long as you follow a few simple rules. Here is how to do it in 10 minutes.

What you need

• A phone with a normal (rear) camera. The front selfie camera distorts the face at arm's length.
• Someone to hold the phone — or a tripod and a timer.
• A plain white or very light wall.
• Daylight from a window.

1. Choose the wall and the light

Stand 0.5–1 m (2–3 ft) in front of a plain white or off-white wall. No patterns, doors, pictures or furniture behind you.

Turn your face toward a window. Soft daylight from the front gives an even face without shadows. Avoid:

• a window or a lamp behind you (your face becomes dark),
• a single lamp from the side (half of the face is in shadow),
• the phone flash (shine on the skin, red eyes, a hard shadow on the wall).

2. Prepare yourself

• Take off your glasses. Since November 2016 glasses are not allowed, even prescription ones.
• No hat, cap, scarf or headphones. A head covering is allowed only if you wear it every day for religious reasons, and your full face must be visible.
• Move your hair away from your eyes and eyebrows.
• Wear normal everyday clothes in a color that contrasts with the white background. No uniform or camouflage.

3. Set the distance and the pose

The person taking the photo stands about 1–1.5 m (3–5 ft) away, with the phone at your eye level. Your head and the top of your shoulders should be in the frame, with some space above your head.

• Look straight into the lens. Both ears are equally visible (if not covered by hair).
• Keep your head straight — not tilted to a side, up or down.
• Neutral expression, mouth closed, both eyes open. A slight natural smile is fine; showing teeth is not.

Take a few shots. Don't use filters, "beauty" modes or portrait blur.

4. Check and prepare the file

The DV entry system accepts only a square JPEG of 600×600 pixels, up to 240 KB, where the head (from the top of the hair to the chin) takes 50–69% of the height and the eyes are at 56–69% from the bottom. Cropping this by hand is easy to get wrong.

Upload your photo to our free checker: it measures the head and eye position, background, glasses, lighting and the file itself in a few seconds. If something is only about framing, size or background, it prepares a ready 600×600 file automatically.

Common mistakes

• Selfie at arm's length — the face looks distorted and is often too close to the edges.
• Grey wall in a dark room — the background looks grey or yellow on the photo. Use daylight.
• An old photo — the photo must be taken within the last 6 months, and it must not be the photo you used in a previous year's entry.
• One photo for the whole family — your spouse and every child listed in the entry need their own new photo.

See the full list in DV Lottery photo requirements.