Forum: travel.stackexchange.com
Tags: <visas><china>
Title: Where can I take Chinese visa photos in the USA?
Question: I'm applying for a Chinese visa. Requirements Photo size: 48mmx33mm, width of head: 15mm to 22mm, height of head: 28mm to 33mm.  I live in Missouri. It sucks. I tried CVS, Walgreens, Walmart. Nobody can do it. All these shops offer standard US passport 2" by 2" photos.  What should I do?

Answers:
sents: text: Costco offers Chinese-visa-compliant photos.
text: There are several Costcos throughout the state, particularly in the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/19192/magu_
score: 19
sents: text: If you are going through a visa agency, ask them for advice.
text: Often they specifically WANT US-sized photos so they can edit and cut them to the correct size themselves.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/13971/Hilmar
score: 16
sents: text: I have had success with online visa photo websites.
text: (The one I used was epassportphoto.com
text: but there are others.)
text: You just take a selfie with your smartphone camera and upload it to the website, tell them what country's specs you want, and then they crop it to the right size and make sure the lighting is OK and then send it to a CVS for printing where you can pick it up.
text: (You do have to cut it out yourself using scissors, but they provide the lines to cut along.)
text: It costs on the order of $10-20, similar to what a photo shop would charge.
text: I applied for a Chinese visa with the resulting photographs and the consulate accepted them without complaint or comment.
text: Note: I have no affiliation with any of these websites.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/32143/ajd
score: 9
sents: text: The standard US Passport photo works for a Chinese Visa.
text: I did this last year and had the pictures taken at CVS and attached to my Chinese Tourist Visa application
text: and it was accepted with no issues.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/80294/michbowhunt
score: 3
sents: text: I’d take a high-res picture myself, scale it down in a graphics editor to get the head size right, then crop it in the same program.
text: Add a frame of a contrasting color to make it 4x6, print that for less than a buck at Walmart, then cut the frame off with scissors.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/12555/WGroleau
score: 2
sents: text: I used an app called Passport Photo on my smartphone.
text: Had somebody take a picture of me against a light-colored background, emailed the pictures to the travel agency handling my visa application.
text: Worked fine last November.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/80318/ebhh2001
score: 1
sents: text: I did my chinese visa last September.
text: It was confusing for me because some said a standard 2x2 is fine but the consular office article particularly wanted 33x48 mm photo and a completely white background.
text: So I took one at CVS and used a background removal visa photo service.
text: I submitted both of them just in case.
text: I don't know which one they accepted.
text: The one that I took at CVS was not completely white.
text: Do both if you want to go safe.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/83668/Shawn
score: 1
sents: text: I used idphoto4you website.
text: You can choose single photo or other printing format (e.g., 4x6) after editing.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/106069/Peng Peng
score: 0
sents: text: try aipassportphoto.com , they generate china visa photo in seconds and create 4*6 printable version for you.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/106995/user2254473
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
The standard US passport photo is big enough for a Chinese visa, but you can also ask your visa agency for advice or try Costco, which offers Chinese-visa-compliant photos. Apps like Passport Photo and websites like aipassportphoto.com generate visa-compliant photos in seconds and also create printable versions for you.
There are a numbr of options you can choose from. You can stick with the US standard photo size, got to Costco, make use of a number of apps/websites and ask your visa agency for help if you are using one.