DV Lottery 2016 – Photo Requirements

You must be getting ready to file your DV-2016 lottery application. You have confirmed your eligibility to participate in the lottery, gathered all the information you need to complete the application, and you also have the photos of all the members of your family who will be included in your application – your spouse and all your children.

Remember that you have only 60 minutes to complete the application and also upload all the photos. So before you start re-check all the information you have in hand. The most important thing you need to make sure about are the photos. Because the photos have to strictly meet the requirements put forth by the government. You don’t want to miss out on your chance of winning a lottery just because of a wrong photo.

So what are these photo specifications?

1. The photo should be digital – either taken using a digital camera, or digitizing a photo using a scanner.
2. The background should be plain. It should have a light color.
3. The photo should show your full face, neck and shoulders.
4. You should be facing forward.
5. There shouldn’t be anyone else in the picture other than you.
6. You cannot wear dark glasses, hats or other head gear unless your religion insists on it. Even in that case, your face should be clearly visible.
7. If you are wearing glasses, ensure that there is no glare on the glass.
8. Do not re-touch or change an image in any way – like stretching or shrinking it, coloring it, etc.
9. There should not be any shadows in photo.
10. You should not be wearing any kind of uniform for the picture, and especially no uniform hats.
11. Your photo should not be more than 6 months old.

Well, that is quite a lot of instructions. It is best that you go to your photographer with these instructions and then get the photo taken accordingly. Trying to adjust a photo you already have may not suit the purpose.

USAGCL has a free photo-validator which you can use to check if you have the right photo.