United States · DS-160 photo
iPhone DS-160 photo: HEIC, colour, and the 240 kB cap
A good-looking iPhone portrait can still fail CEAC. The portal wants a square sRGB JPEG between 600 and 1200 pixels and 240 kB or less. That is not what the Camera app saves.
Why iPhone files get bounced
HEIC / HEIF. Many iPhones still save High Efficiency Image format. DS-160 wants JPEG. The form will not convert it for you. Airdropping or mailing the original often keeps HEIC attached.
Display P3. iPhone colour is wider than sRGB. The State Department spec is sRGB. A file that looks fine on your phone can fail a colour-space check or shift when something else re-encodes it.
Too many kilobytes. A 12 MP JPEG is often 2–8 MB. The cap is 240 kB. If you only run a “compress to 240 kB” slider on the full frame, you get mush or a file that is still over the line after the next export.
Screenshots and locked crops. A screenshot of Photos, WhatsApp, or a passport app adds UI chrome, the wrong pixels, and a second compression. Upload the photo file, not a picture of the photo.
EXIF rotation. Some phones store “this is sideways” in metadata instead of rotating the pixels. CEAC can read that as the wrong shape.
Do this, in order
- Shoot against a plain white or off-white wall, no window behind you, no glasses, face the camera. Take it within the last six months.
- Send yourself a Most Compatible JPEG, or export JPEG from Photos. Do not send HEIC “original.”
- Crop to a square with the head (chin to crown) filling 50–69% of the frame. Eyes sit a bit above centre (56–69% from the bottom).
- Resize to 600×600 if you need the file smaller. That is a legal size. Bigger (up to 1200×1200) is fine if you can still hit 240 kB.
- Convert to sRGB. Then compress once until you are under 240 kB. Do not compress a compressed file again.
If the face goes blocky before you hit 240 kB, the crop is still too large or you started from a screenshot. Go back to the original JPEG and crop tighter. A 600×600 sRGB JPEG of a face usually fits under 240 kB without wrecking skin.
What not to do
- Do not beauty-filter, smooth skin, or use Portrait mode blur. Officers and the automated check both dislike it.
- Do not screenshot the photo to “make it JPEG.”
- Do not start a new DS-160 because one upload failed. Fix the file first.
Upload the iPhone file and we will tell you the measurements: format, pixels, kilobytes, colour, head height, eye line. Free to check. $12 for the finished JPEG if you want it.
Specs: U.S. Department of State, Digital Image Requirements. Confirm there before you submit. We measure the file. We do not guarantee a consular officer will accept the likeness.