A square, recent headshot on a plain white background, saved as a JPEG under 2 MB. That is the whole Cambodia eVisa photo spec for Americans in 2026 — and you can shoot it at your kitchen window in five minutes with the phone in your pocket.
A recent passport-style headshot taken in the last 6 months, on a plain white or off-white background, with your full face visible, eyes open, and a neutral expression — no smile, no glasses, no hats. Save it as a JPEG, ideally 600×600 pixels or larger and squared off, with the file size under 2 MB. A phone photo taken against a white wall in daylight passes the upload check every time. The two specs Americans miss most often are the HEIC file format (iPhones default to it — convert to JPEG first) and a smile, which the upload validator auto-flags.
The Cambodia eVisa photo is one of the simplest passport-style photos any US traveler will ever shoot, and it is also the single field that bounces the most American applications back for a fix. Both of those things are true because the rules are short but strict: a recent headshot, a plain white background, a neutral face, and a JPEG under 2 MB. Miss any one of those and the upload validator flags it before a human ever sees the file.
You do not need a drugstore photo counter, a passport-photo booth at the post office, or any paid app. The phone in your pocket already shoots at a higher resolution than the form requires. What trips Americans up is almost never the camera — it is the small stuff: a faint smile, thin-rimmed glasses, an off-white wall that reads as gray, or an iPhone quietly saving the file as HEIC instead of JPEG.
This guide gives you the exact size, pixel, and file specs Cambodian Immigration enforces, walks you through shooting a compliant photo at home, and lists the auto-flags that cost an American applicant a day. When you are ready, you can apply in a few minutes — the photo is one of five things you upload, and our full US application walkthrough shows you what every other field looks like.
Here is the full spec list, in the order it matters. Get these five right and the photo clears the upload check on the first try. The form accepts a square image, so a 600×600-pixel JPEG is the safe target — it satisfies the resolution floor and the squared aspect ratio at once.
Aim for a square photo, at least 600×600 pixels. That maps to the standard 4×6 cm passport-style print at a comfortable resolution, but you never have to print it — the eVisa is fully digital. If your image is rectangular, crop it to a square in your phone's Photos app before uploading so your head sits centered with a little headroom above and a little space at the shoulders. Anything below 600 pixels on the short side is the most common resolution flag.
JPEG, under 2 MB. This is where iPhones cause the most trouble for Americans: by default, recent iPhones save photos as HEIC, not JPEG, and the upload form expects a JPEG. If your iPhone is set to "High Efficiency," either switch the camera setting to "Most Compatible" before you shoot, or convert the finished photo to JPEG afterward. Android phones generally save JPEG out of the box, so the format is rarely an issue there. Keep the final file under 2 MB — modern phone photos can run larger than that, so a light compression or a square crop usually brings it under the ceiling.
A plain white or off-white background, no patterns, no furniture, no shadows. Your full face visible and centered, eyes open and looking straight at the lens, a neutral expression — no smile, no teeth, no laughing. No glasses of any kind, even thin frames or readers. No hats or head coverings except those worn daily for religious reasons, and even then the full face must be visible. Recent, meaning taken within the last 6 months. Natural color, no filters, no beauty mode.
If you want the same specs framed as a complete photo checklist with an at-home setup diagram, our companion photo requirements guide for US citizens lays it out card by card. For the deeper file mechanics — millimeters to inches, JPEG versus HEIC, and how to compress an oversized photo — see the dedicated photo size and file format breakdown.
A phone camera and a plain white wall is the setup most American applicants use, and it produces a clean compliant photo every time when you follow a short routine. No booth, no print, no paid service. Five minutes at a sunny window does it.
Find a plain white wall — interior paint is ideal, but a closed white door or a white sheet pinned flat works too. Stand about a foot and a half from the wall, not pressed against it, so there are no shadows behind your head. Face a window where daylight comes in from the side, not directly behind you, so your face is lit evenly and the wall stays white. Mid-morning or mid-afternoon is best. Avoid evenings, when warm indoor light turns a white wall yellow.
Use the rear camera, not the selfie camera, and hold the phone in portrait orientation at eye level. Get someone else to press the shutter if you can — arm's-length selfies distort facial proportions and the validator catches that. Look straight at the lens with a relaxed, neutral expression. Take the glasses off, remove any hat, and tuck your hair behind your ears if it covers your face. Shoot five or six frames and pick the best one.
Then crop to a square in the Photos app so your head is centered with a little headroom, confirm the file is a JPEG under 2 MB, and you are done. Do not run it through a filter, beauty mode, or any editing that smooths skin — the validator looks for natural skin texture and rejects heavily processed photos. iPhone users: this is the moment to convert HEIC to JPEG if you did not change the camera setting first.
The upload form runs an automatic check on your photo before submission, and the same handful of issues account for nearly every flag on American applications. None of them are hard to avoid once you know the list — they just need a second look before you hit upload.
If a photo does get flagged, it is not the end of your application — you simply re-upload a corrected version, with no extra charge, and the clock keeps running. Our guide to fixing a rejected Cambodia eVisa photo walks through each flag and the exact correction, and the photo rules sit inside the broader required documents checklist for US citizens if you want to see how the photo fits alongside your passport scan and email.
The photo is the one field worth a careful second look before you submit, because it is the field most likely to send a file back. Spend the extra two minutes: true white wall, neutral face, glasses off, square JPEG under 2 MB, and confirm it is not a stray HEIC. Get those right and the photo clears on the first pass.
Once the photo is sorted, the rest of the eVisa is light. Tourist eVisa is $80 USD all-in, Business eVisa is $90 USD all-in, both approved in 3 business days and delivered as a printable PDF by email, both with free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction, and both backed by US-timezone support. There is no return flight, hotel booking, or bank statement to upload — the photo and your passport scan do most of the work.
Next steps and related reading for Americans: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when your photo is ready, follow the full US step-by-step application guide if you want to see every field, and bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for US citizens as the single reference for cost, documents, and timing.
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