The new way to take passport photos in the Bay Area

The expiry date of your US passport, US visa or a foreign ID card is coming soon? Luckily we are in 2020 and you don't need to go outside to apply for any paperwork.

But there is one thing you will definitely need: a professional photograph with proper background that meets official requirements. And it should be a brand new one: at the time of application passport photos must be no older than 6 months.

So where should you go for the passport photo in April 2020: offline or online? The answer is no brainer - online at visafoto.com, but let's compare all the options in detail below.

The most common places to take passport photos in San Francisco, San Jose, Mountain View, Cupertino, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Stanford, Berkeley, Fremont, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Oakland used to be:

• Pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid). The price for 2 passport or visa photos is about $15. No digital version is included.
• Post offices (USPS, FedEx). Some of them provide photo-services as well, with a price around $15 too, but here you can basically make only one type of photo - the one for a US passport. No digital version is included.
• Photo studios. Prices are between $15-$30. Typically they are more professional than drugstores, but most of the photo studios are now closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Silicon Valley is the heart of America's high tech, though passport pictures wise it was in the stone age, until Visafoto.com presented a new way of doing it.

The best new way: take a professional passport photo online without leaving home at Visafoto.com

All you need is just upload your selfie (here is a quick guide on how to do it). In a couple of seconds it will be converted to a professional passport / visa photo matching all the official requirements. Your passport photo will get fixed background, required size and format.

Visafoto.com can do US passport and visa photo, DV Lottery photo, Canada visa and passport photo, Indian visa and OCI passport photo, Chinese visa and passport photo, Japanese photos, Colombian cedula photo, Pakistan NADRA ID card, Uzbekistan visa, 3x4 cm photo, 35x45 mm photo, and photos for any other country.

The cost of the service is just $7.

What if you need to print out your picture?

Usually a digital photo is more than enough, as in most cases you can submit your application online. But what if you need to print out your picture?

Visafoto gives you 2 image files: one is your digital photo to be uploaded along with the application, and the second one is an image ready to be printed on a 4x6" paper (usually it contains 4 individual photos on it, but the Canadian passport photo, which is too big to fit 4 photos on a 4x6, so it has 2 individual photos only).

As you may already know, large pharmacy and retail store chains offer photo printing services. But if you bring along a USB stick with your passport photos image, they will charge you extra, typically $15, as drug stores refuse to print such photos at a regular price.

So here we go with a simple lifehack. Go first Walgreens photo website to https://photo.walgreens.com/ and choose Prints > 4x6" print. Then upload your image file made by Visafoto.com. Finish the order and choose the nearest location to pick up the print. The prints will be ready in about an hour and the price of it will be a regular one - $0.34 as of April 2020, and it will contain 4 individual passport / visa photos on it.

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