DV lottery photos for children: the rules apps get wrong

The Diversity Visa entry is the strictest children's photo in our dataset, and the one most misrepresented by photo apps. At least one family lost an entry after an app assured them that children under six need not keep a neutral expression; the State Department's DV rules say no such thing. This guide states what the rules actually require for children, what disqualifies an entire family's entry, and how to get a usable frame from a baby. For ordinary passports, where real relaxations exist, see the baby and child guide.

No child exemption, and every family member needs a photo

The DV entry photo rules relax nothing by age. The State Department's own tip for photographing a baby or toddler is that no other person should be in the photo and the child should be looking at the camera with his or her eyes open; there is no 'under 6 may smile' rule for DV entries, whatever an app's interface implies. Each person on the entry, the applicant, the spouse and every child, needs their own compliant photo, and the published consequence of a non-compliant one is disqualification of the entry, so the weakest photo in the family set carries the whole application's risk.

The file is unusually exact

The entry form wants exactly 600 x 600 pixels, not the 600-to-1200 range the DS-160 visa photo enjoys, a JPEG of 240 KB or less, in colour, taken within the last six months, and not digitally enhanced or altered in any way. That last line matters doubly for children, because the tempting fixes, brightening a dim nursery shot or erasing a parent's supporting hand, are alterations. A hand in frame means a new photo, not an edit; the same is true for every rule on this list.

Getting the frame from a baby

The method that satisfies the eyes-open, alone-in-frame, plain-background combination.

1.Spread a plain white sheet flat on the floor near a window; no pattern, no toys, no bottle in frame.
2.Lay the baby on their back and wait for an alert, calm moment; eyes open is required at every age for DV.
3.Shoot from directly above with the phone level, far enough back to leave space around the head; the final file is a square crop.
4.Take many frames; with infants, compliance is a sampling exercise, as the baby guide explains.
5.Pick a frame where the eyes are open, the mouth is closed and no hand or person intrudes, and crop it to 600 x 600.

Timing and what comes later

The E-DV site accepts entries only during a window of about a month each autumn and is closed the rest of the year, so photos have to be ready before it opens; our help entry covers the closed-site message. Keep the entry photos: if the family is selected, each applicant brings two identical printed 2 x 2 inch photos to the interview, and a photo taken for the entry may by then be older than six months, in which case a fresh one is needed. The six-month recency rule exists so the photo reflects the child's current appearance, and children change fast; take the interview photos close to the interview, not from the entry archive.

Frequently asked questions

My toddler will not look at the camera. Is a near miss acceptable?

The DV rules give no tolerance to quote. Work the sampling approach: many frames, good light, a helper making noise directly behind the lens, and pick the frame with the most direct gaze and open eyes.

Can I use the DV photo for my child's US passport too?

The pixel file differs from the printed 2 x 2 passport photo, and the passport rules do relax expression for young children while DV does not. A DV-compliant frame generally satisfies the US passport photo as a source image, but it is cropped and printed differently.

Sources

Last updated 2026-10-11

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