The rules that apply everywhere
Almost every country asks for the same things: a recent, sharp, front-facing photo with a large head, a plain background and a neutral expression. These are the rules that show up again and again, whatever the country.
Open the cropper
Pick the size for the country you are applying to, or continue with the size you chose last.
The nine rules that come up again and again
- Size. Every country states a width × height in millimetres or inches. The cropper applies the exact preset, so the aspect ratio never drifts.
- Head height. The distance from chin to crown. This is the measurement that is checked most often, and the one people get wrong when they crop too loosely.
- Background. Plain and light for most countries, but the UK wants light grey or cream and Indonesia wants red for passports.
- Expression. Neutral, mouth closed, eyes open. Smiling with visible teeth is refused almost everywhere.
- Glasses. Removed in most countries now, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and India. Reflections and tinted lenses are always refused.
- Headwear. Only for religious or medical reasons, and never covering the face from chin to forehead.
- Photo age. Six months for most countries; the UK requires a photo taken in the last month.
- Lighting. Even, frontal lighting with no shadows on the face or behind the head, and no red-eye.
- Editing. No filters, retouching or background replacement. A true likeness is the requirement everywhere.
The differences are in the numbers
Governments agree on the composition of a good photo and disagree on the measurements. A European passport photo is 35×45 mm with the head 32–36 mm tall; a US photo is a 51×51 mm square with the head filling 50–69% of the height; a Canadian photo is 50×70 mm with a 31–36 mm head.
That is why the cropper works from named presets instead of a free-form crop box: the aspect ratio and the pixel size come straight from the official figure, and the head-height check is the part you handle while positioning the photo.
More on photo requirements
- Print photo or digital photo?Printed passport photos are measured in millimetres, digital ones in pixels and file size. What changes between the two routes, and how to export one file that works for both.
- How to prepare a photo that passesFive steps from taking the photo to exporting the file: lighting, camera height, expression, cropping with the country preset and choosing a resolution.