China Visa

China Visa Photos in Washington, DC

Chinese visa photos in Washington, DC. 33x48 mm, white background, and a file inside the narrow 40–120 KB band phone photos never hit. Same day; check live availability on the site.

Reserve a time · $200 Call (202) 831-8101 Directions

Ready in about 15 minutes Checked against the spec before you leave 1401 Florida Ave NW, Washington DC

Reserved appointment

$200plus tax · held time, both formats

Held for you: the one way to know we’ll be here when you arrive
Digital file and printed set, always both
Reshot free if the consulate rejects it

Reserve this time

Walk-in

$100plus tax · digital or prints · $150 both

Call first to check availability: the walk-in window is only around the day’s booked sessions
Some days there is no window at all. Reserving a time is the sure way in

Call to check walk-in availability

The specification

What a China Visa photo has to be

Every figure below is quoted from the issuing authority, and the source is linked at the bottom of this section. Where the official sources do not agree, we say so instead of picking one.

Photo size	33 x 48 mm · 1.30 x 1.89 in
Head height	Head width 15–22 mm and head height 28–33 mm. China publishes a width band as well as a height band, which is unusual.
Eye position	Not published officially: we verify it against your consulate at the session.
Background	White or close to white, with no edge frame
Glasses	Allowed, except thick-rimmed, tinted or glare-producing glasses. Ears must be visible.
Expression	Neutral, eyes open, lips closed. Head tilt no more than 20° left or right and 25° up or down.
How recent	Taken within the last 6 months
Digital file	JPEG. Dimensions cannot exceed 354 x 472 px: this is a MAXIMUM, and larger is rejected. File size between 40 KB and 120 KB.
Copies needed	One photo

The official sources disagreeThe Chinese Embassy in Washington DC publishes its photo requirement as a non-machine-readable image. The specification above comes from other Chinese Visa Application Service Centres of the same organisation, which agree with each other. We confirm against the DC centre’s current posted sheet at your session.

Note on the size48 mm high by 33 mm wide, narrower than the European 35x45.

Sources

What gets photos rejected

The things that actually fail

Not general advice, just the specific traps in this document’s own rules.

The 40–120 KB band is genuinely narrow. A modern phone photo is ten to fifty times too large, and compressing it down usually falls below the 40 KB floor or visibly degrades. This is the most common Chinese visa photo failure and it is a file-handling problem, not a photography one.
Wear a coloured or dark top, not white, against the white background.
Prints must be on glossy photo paper, with no permeation, shadow, stain, scratch or crease.
Stapled, taped, clipped or detached photos are rejected.

Reserve a time

Hold a time, and it’s yours.

Live availability straight from our studio calendar. A reserved appointment is $200 and always includes both the digital file and your prints. Same-day times show here when we have them.

Also shot here

Get it right the first time.

We shoot it, check it against China Visa’s own specification, and you leave with a photo that passes. If it is ever rejected, we reshoot it free.