Where to Get a Passport Photo Near Me (And When You Do Not Need To)

Quick answer: The places that take passport photos near you are USPS Post Offices, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, FedEx Office and The UPS Store. USPS publishes its price openly: $15 for the photo, on top of the $35 acceptance fee if you are also submitting your application there. Costco is no longer an option: Costco does not run its own photo service and points members to Shutterfly instead. But here is the part the store pages do not tell you: the US State Department does not require a professional to take your passport photo. A phone photo taken by someone else against a plain white wall is fully compliant, and you can crop it to the exact 2 x 2 spec in your browser for free, then print it at any photo counter for the price of an ordinary 4 x 6.

The stores that take passport photos

Almost every national chain with a photo counter offers passport photos. What differs is whether you walk out with prints, a digital file, or both, which matters because online renewals need a digital file and paper applications need a print.

Where	What you get	Price
USPS Post Office	Hard copy prints, and digital photos on USB at many locations	$15 photo fee (officially published), plus $35 acceptance fee if applying there
CVS	Prints in-store, digital copy at select locations	Set by the retailer, check your store's page
Walgreens	Prints in-store, digital copy commonly available	Set by the retailer, check your store's page
Walmart	Prints at the photo counter	Set by the retailer, check your store's page
FedEx Office / The UPS Store	Prints, digital at some locations	Set by the location
Costco	No longer available	Costco does not operate its own photo service

A note on the prices: USPS is the only one of these that publishes a fixed national price, which is why it is the only figure quoted above. Retailer pricing moves around, varies by location, and gets quoted wrongly all over the web, so check the specific store rather than trusting a number in an article, including this one.

The USPS option has one genuine advantage worth paying for: if you are submitting a first-time application you have to appear in person at an acceptance facility anyway, and most Post Offices that accept applications can take your photo at the same visit. One trip, one queue.

The thing the stores will not mention

The State Department does not require your passport photo to be taken by a professional. There is no rule that a photo must come from a store, a booth, or a licensed photographer. The requirements are about the photo, not the photographer: correct size, correct head height, plain background, correct expression, recent, unedited.

This is not true everywhere. Canada requires a commercial photographer and a studio stamp on the back of the print, so Canadians genuinely have to pay someone. But for a US passport, a phone photo meets the spec if you get the setup right. That is a real fork in the road, and it is the difference between paying a store and paying nothing.

Ireland goes further and explicitly encourages the at-home route for online applications. The UK permits it for online applications too, while noting booth photos are more likely to be approved. We break the country rules down in how to take a passport photo at home.

The at-home route, honestly

Here is what actually works, and where people get it wrong.

What you need: another person to hold the phone (not a selfie, arm's length distorts your face), a plain white or off-white wall, and daylight from a window in front of you rather than behind.

The setup that passes:

1. Stand about 60 cm (2 feet) from the wall so you do not cast a shadow on it. Shadows on the background are one of the most common rejection reasons.
2. Have the photographer stand roughly 1.2 m (4 feet) away, phone at your eye level, and use the rear camera rather than the selfie camera.
3. Face the camera squarely, neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open.
4. No glasses. Glasses have been banned in US passport photos since 2016.
5. Shoot several. Sorting through ten costs nothing.

Then crop it to spec. This is the step people skip, and it is why home attempts fail: a phone photo is not 2 x 2 inches and your head will not land in the required 1 to 1 3/8 inch band by luck. Our US passport photo maker overlays the official head-height guide while you position the shot, exports the exact 2 x 2 crop, and builds a print sheet.

Then print it properly. Do not print passport photos on an office printer with plain paper, they get rejected on paper quality. Download the print sheet PDF and order it as a normal 4 x 6 print at any pharmacy photo counter. A 4 x 6 costs the same regardless of what is on it, typically well under a dollar, and the sheet holds multiple copies.

That is the whole trick: use the store for printing (which they do cheaply and well) rather than for photography (which they charge a premium for).

The same trick works for ordinary keepsake prints: a wallet size photo is 2.5 x 3.5 inches, and a single 4 x 6 order holds two of them.

What the photo has to meet, either way

Whether a store takes it or you do, the same official US requirements apply:

• Size: 2 x 2 inches square (51 x 51 mm).
• Head height: 1 to 1 3/8 inches (25 to 35 mm) from the bottom of your chin to the top of your head.
• Background: plain white or off-white.
• Expression: neutral, both eyes open, facing the camera.
• Glasses: not allowed.
• Recency: taken within the last 6 months, and it must reflect your current appearance.
• Editing: no filters, no retouching, no digital changes.

The full country-by-country table, including the 51 specs our tool supports, is in the passport photo size chart.

Which route should you take

Pay a store if: you are applying at a Post Office anyway and want it done in one visit, you need it in the next hour, or nobody is around to hold the phone.

Do it at home if: you have a plain wall, someone to take the photo, and fifteen minutes. You will spend under a dollar on the print instead of $15 or more, and you get to reshoot until it is right rather than accepting whatever the counter produced.

Do not do it at home if you are applying for a Canadian passport, where a commercial photographer and a studio stamp are mandatory. That is documented on our Canadian passport photo page, including the parts competitors quietly omit.

Bottom line

"Passport photo near me" has a good answer (USPS, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, FedEx, UPS) and a better one: for a US passport, you do not need any of them to take the picture. The rules govern the photo, not the photographer. Shoot it against a white wall, crop it to the official 2 x 2 spec in your browser, and pay the photo counter a dollar to print it instead of fifteen to shoot it.

If you are applying somewhere else, check what the rules are in your country first, because the DIY route is wide open in some places and flatly forbidden in others.