Editorial policy

Our goal

Every page on idphoto.us should help someone get a compliant photo and a smoother application. That means content that is accurate, current, easy to follow, and honest about what we know and don't know.

Sources

We base requirements on primary, official sources: the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and other government agencies that set the rules. Each guide lists the sources it was checked against.

We don't treat other photo websites, forums, or social media as authoritative. We may read them to learn what questions people have, but facts come from official sources.

Authorship and review

Guides are written and maintained by the idphoto.us Editorial Team. We name the author on every guide and show the date it was last updated.

Our passport photo guides are reviewed by the PixPassport.com team, which also provides the photo processing service behind our passport photo editor. We only show a "Reviewed by" credit when a named person or team has actually reviewed the page, and we never invent credentials, titles, or expert endorsements. If we work with outside experts in the future, we'll name them and describe their qualifications accurately.

Accuracy and updates

• Each guide shows a last updated date. We change it when we make a meaningful content update, not for cosmetic edits.
• We recheck guides against their official sources on a regular schedule and whenever we learn the rules may have changed.
• When an official source is ambiguous, we say so rather than guessing, and recommend confirming with the agency.

Corrections

If you find an error, please contact us. We investigate every report. When we fix a factual error, we update the page and its date. Significant corrections that could have affected someone's application are noted on the page.

Independence

idphoto.us is independent and not affiliated with any government agency. We don't accept payment to change what our guides say about official requirements. If we ever publish sponsored content or use affiliate links, they will be clearly labeled, and they will never be placed inside the factual description of a requirement.

Tools

We describe exactly what each tool does and doesn't do. Our tools crop, resize, and compress photos; they don't verify compliance or alter your appearance. We test tool changes on common phones, tablets, and desktop browsers before publishing them.

Use of automation and AI

We may use software, including AI writing assistants, to help draft or edit pages. A person on our team checks every fact against the official sources before a page is published, and is responsible for what it says.