Texas CPA License Photo Requirements: What TSBPA Actually Specifies
Sourced reference · Texas CPA licensing
Texas requires an original, physical, passport-style photo for the CPA licensing application. It gets mailed with the paper form. No digital substitute is accepted. The state board’s own instructions do not state a size. A separate copy of the same instructions, hosted by a CPA trade association, adds a size the board’s document does not contain.
What the board’s own instructions say.
The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy governs licensure through the Application of Intent, Form X0007. The live instructions were checked directly on the board’s own site on September 4, 2026. Under the heading PHOTOGRAPH, they read in full:
“You must include an original passport-type photograph taken within the past six months. Copies are not acceptable.”
That is the entire requirement. No pixel count. No inch measurement. No background color. No expression rule. The document carries the code “TSBPA FORM X0007 (Rev. 11/2020)” on every page. The wording has not changed since 2020, at least on paper.
Source: tsbpa.texas.gov/pdffiles/x0007.pdf, checked September 4, 2026The physical part is not a formality.
2 sentences later, the same instructions ask for a Social Security card copy. They also require a background check run through the FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety fingerprint databases. The state can verify a felony conviction in another state electronically. It still wants a paper photo taped to a paper form. That form gets mailed to a Board office in Austin. Nothing in the current instructions offers an upload option.
Source: tsbpa.texas.gov/pdffiles/x0007.pdf, checked September 4, 2026Where the “2 by 2 inch” figure comes from.
Search for this requirement and a size shows up fast: 2 inches by 2 inches. It is not in the board’s own instructions. It is in a copy of the same document hosted by the Texas Society of CPAs, the state’s CPA trade association. That copy carries an internal revision code of “Rev. 8/2023,” roughly 2.5 years newer than the board’s own live PDF.
Primary source
Photograph
“You must include an original passport-type photograph taken within the past six months. Copies are not acceptable.”
Trade-association copy
Photograph
“You must include an original passport-type photograph taken within the past six months. Copies are not acceptable. The size of the photo should be 2" x 2".”
1 extra sentence. It comes from a document that is not the Board’s own. It is dated later than the Board’s own copy. And it says something the Board’s current instructions do not say. Which version is correct is not something a public PDF can settle on its own. Maybe the Board dropped a sentence at some point and never updated the revision code. That gap is labeled here, not papered over.
What a completed application actually shows.
The Texas Society of CPAs also hosts a sample Application of Intent, filled out for Stephen F. Austin State University accounting students. It shows the photo field as it exists on the real form: a small box, with the instruction “TAPE PHOTO HERE. Do not staple.” Beneath it: “MUST BE A FRONT FACING PASSPORT SIZE PHOTO. PURCHASE AT CVS, WALGREENS, ETC.”
Source: tx.cpa, Sample Application of Intent, SFASU, checked September 4, 2026That is practical guidance, not a Board specification. But it tells an applicant something the state instructions do not: buy the standard drugstore passport photo. CVS’s own passport photo product is printed at “2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm).” So the 2 by 2 figure is almost certainly correct in practice. It is just not written down anywhere the Board itself currently publishes.
Source: cvs.com/photo/passport-photos, checked September 4, 2026What is not stated anywhere.
No background color is specified. No rule on expression, glasses, or headwear appears in the instructions. “Within the past six months” carries no stated method for the Board to check it. The applicant self-attests by mailing the photo. No digital or electronic photo path exists in the current instructions, for an application that otherwise routes a Social Security number and a full fingerprint background check through federal and state databases. These are gaps, not claims this page is making on the Board’s behalf. A candidate who wants certainty on any of them has one real option: call the Board at (512) 305-7851 before mailing the application.
If the photo you need is a professional one.
TSBPA’s photo and a professional headshot solve 2 different problems. The Board wants proof of identity attached to a state licensing file. A drugstore passport photo satisfies that on its own terms. A headshot for a firm bio, a LinkedIn profile, or a partner-track promotion is a different image with a different job. Treat it as a separate errand rather than asking one photo to do both. ATX Headshots runs individual sessions in the Austin area for that second need. The standard individual session menu covers what that involves.
Sources, checked September 4, 2026.
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| TSBPA Form X0007, Application of Intent Instructions (Rev. 11/2020), tsbpa.texas.gov/pdffiles/x0007.pdf | Sept 4, 2026 |
| Texas Society of CPAs copy of the same instructions (internal rev. 8/2023), tx.cpa | Sept 4, 2026 |
| Sample completed Application of Intent, Stephen F. Austin State University, hosted by Texas Society of CPAs | Sept 4, 2026 |
| CVS passport photo product page, cvs.com/photo/passport-photos | Sept 4, 2026 |
| TSBPA Board contact information, published on the instructions themselves | Sept 4, 2026 |
State board requirements change without much notice. The gap between the 2 copies of these instructions above is itself unresolved. Anyone working from this for an active application should confirm the current photo instructions directly against TSBPA’s own site the week they apply. Not against this page. Not against any other summary of it.