DV Lottery Photo Upload — maximum 240 KB
US Diversity Visa Program caps the photograph at 240 KB. Dimensions must fall between 600 × 600 px and 1200 × 1200 px. Accepted format: JPEG.
Compress for US DV Lottery photo
Original
Compressed
The published requirement
| File size | up to 240 KB |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 600–1200 px wide × 600–1200 px high |
| Format | JPEG |
Source: U.S. Department of State — Digital Image Requirements — read 2026-07-26.
Worth knowing
The image must be square — height equal to width. Colour, 24 bits per pixel, sRGB colour space, and a compression ratio no greater than 20:1. Plain white or off-white background, taken within the last six months, head height between 22 mm and 35 mm or 50–69% of image height. Confirmed identically on the Digital Image Requirements page and in the DV program instructions.
How to get your file to fit
- Drop your photo into the tool above. The target is already set to 240 KB .
- Press compress. The tool searches for the highest quality that still fits, rather than picking a quality and hoping — so you keep as much detail as the limit allows.
- Check the reported size and dimensions against the table above before you upload. If the tool had to reduce the dimensions to reach the target, it says so.
- Download and upload to US DV Lottery. Keep the original file — if the portal rejects the upload for a reason other than size, you will want to start again from the full-quality image.
US DV Lottery upload questions
How do I get my file under 240 KB without ruining it?
By searching for the right JPEG quality rather than guessing at one. The tool above encodes your image repeatedly at different quality settings and keeps the largest result that still fits — so you spend every available byte on image quality instead of overshooting and handing in something blurrier than it needed to be.
If no quality setting is small enough, it reduces the dimensions in steps and searches again, and it tells you when that happened.
Is my file uploaded to a server?
No. Everything runs in your browser. This site is static files on a CDN with no upload endpoint at all, which is also why it is free — there is no bandwidth bill to pass on.
Can I upload a PNG or a HEIC instead?
US DV Lottery lists JPEG, so convert first. Drop a PNG or an iPhone HEIC into the tool above and choose JPEG as the output — it will be decoded and re-encoded in one step. PNG is also a poor fit for a KB target: its quality setting does nothing, so the only way to shrink a PNG is to make it smaller in pixels.
Why does the size shown differ slightly from what the portal reports?
Because "KB" is ambiguous. This tool uses 1 KB = 1024 bytes, which is what upload validators almost always use. Some file managers use 1 KB = 1000 bytes, which makes the same file look about 2.4% larger. If you are right on the edge of a limit, aim a few KB under it.
Is this the current requirement?
It was read from U.S. Department of State — Digital Image Requirements on 2026-07-26. The image must be square — height equal to width. Colour, 24 bits per pixel, sRGB colour space, and a compression ratio no greater than 20:1. Plain white or off-white background, taken within the last six months, head height between 22 mm and 35 mm or 50–69% of image height. Confirmed identically on the Digital Image Requirements page and in the DV program instructions. Exam and recruitment bodies change these figures between cycles, so check the notification or bulletin for the exam you are actually applying to.
Check your own notification. img-fix is not affiliated with US DV Lottery. This figure was read from U.S. Department of State — Digital Image Requirements on 2026-07-26. Exam and recruitment bodies change upload rules between cycles, so the bulletin for the exam you are actually sitting is the authority.