DV Lottery photos for your spouse and children

Who must be on your entry

The rules below come from the official DV-2026 instructions in the Federal Register. Check the DV-2027 instructions when they are published.

Why getting this right matters

The instructions are strict. Failing to list an eligible child, or listing someone who isn't your child, may make you ineligible for a visa, and then your spouse and children are ineligible too. The same applies to your spouse. The photos count as part of the entry: the instructions warn that the photos of you and your family members must fully meet the specifications, and that a photo submitted with a previous year's entry makes you ineligible.

A submitted entry can't be edited, and a second entry for the same person disqualifies all of them. So collect everyone's details and photos before you start the form.

The same photo rules for everyone

Every family member's photo must meet the full DV photo requirements:

• JPEG, 600 × 600 pixels, up to 240 kB, in colour;
• taken in the last 6 months, and not reused from an earlier entry;
• head (top of hair to chin) 50–69% of the image height, facing the camera;
• plain white or off-white background, no shadows;
• neutral expression, eyes open, no glasses or headphones, no filters.

Group photos are not accepted, and cutting one person out of a family picture doesn't work either: the head size, background and light are almost always wrong.

Photographing babies and toddlers

Babies need their own photo too, with the same rules: eyes open, facing the camera, and nobody else visible. Tips that make it easier:

• Lay the baby on a plain white sheet and take the photo from directly above, with soft daylight from a window. There are no shadows behind the head this way.
• For a baby who can sit, use a car seat or chair covered with a white sheet, so no hands are needed to hold them.
• No hands, arms, toys, dummies (pacifiers) or other people in the picture. Crop tightly enough that a helper's fingers aren't visible, but keep the whole head in the frame.
• Take many shots in burst mode and pick one with both eyes open and a calm face. A perfect neutral expression is hard at this age; avoid crying or wide-open mouths.
• Don't use the flash; it causes red eyes and harsh shadows.

Older children and teenagers

• Take off glasses, caps and headphones. A head covering worn daily for religious reasons is fine if the whole face is visible.
• Everyday clothes, not a school uniform.
• Children grow fast: never reuse last year's photo, even if it still looks similar.
• Ask them to look straight at the lens with a closed mouth, and take a few versions.

If your spouse lives somewhere else

You still need a recent, compliant photo of your spouse. Send them these rules (or a link to this guide) and ask for the original photo file, not a copy forwarded through a chat app, which loses quality. They can make the finished 600 × 600 file themselves with the DV Lottery Photo tool on their own phone and send you the JPEG.

A simple workflow for the whole family

1. Write down everyone you must list, with their full names and dates of birth as on their documents.
2. Take all the photos in one session, by the same white wall, in daylight.
3. Open the DV Lottery Photo tool and make each person's photo. It crops 600 × 600, sets the head size and saves a JPEG under 240 kB.
4. Save each file with the person's name (for example photo-spouse.jpg, photo-child-1.jpg), so nobody's photo ends up in the wrong place on the form.
5. Check each file with the DV Photo Checker. Retake any that fail.

Everything runs on your phone; the photos are never uploaded to Picsawa.