Passport Photo Rules: Sizes, Background and Common Rejections
By Akmal Ali · Published · Updated · 6 min read
Take a photo in daylight against a plain, light wall, with someone else holding the camera at eye level about 1.5 m away. Crop it to your document’s official size and head height, then download the digital file or print a 6 × 4 inch sheet at 100% scale. Check your passport office’s rules before you submit.
Passport photos get rejected for small things: a shadow behind the head, a face that fills too much of the frame, a print scaled a few millimetres too small. With a phone and a browser you can make a photo that gets all of this right at home. It takes about ten minutes, and most of that is taking a good photo.
What makes a photo passport-ready?
Most passport offices base their rules on the ICAO standard for travel document photos, so the basics are similar in most countries:
- A recent colour photo that looks like you today.
- A plain, light background with no pattern, objects or other people.
- Even lighting, with no shadows on your face or behind your head.
- Face straight to the camera, with a neutral expression, eyes open and mouth closed.
- Nothing covering your face: hair away from the eyes, no hat, no sunglasses.
- No filters, beauty modes or edits that change how you look.
The details differ: the exact size, how tall your head must be, the background colour, whether glasses are allowed and the rules for digital files. Read the official page for your document before you start. The table below gives the figures for the documents we have checked against official sources.
What size is a passport photo?
| Document | Photo size | Head size | Digital file |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK passport | 35 × 45 mm | 29–34 mm, chin to crown | At least 600 × 750 px, 50 KB to 10 MB |
| Schengen visa | 35 × 45 mm | Face 70–80% of the photo height | Check the consulate’s rules |
| Netherlands passport or ID card | 35 × 45 mm | 26–30 mm, chin to crown (age 11 and over) | Check the official page |
| Canada passport (printed) | 50 × 70 mm | 31–36 mm, chin to crown | Online applications have separate rules |
| India passport (online) | No print size | Face 80–85% of the photo | 630 × 810 px |
Sources: GOV.UK, European Commission ICAO guidelines, Netherlands Worldwide, Canada.ca and Passport Seva. Rules change, so check the page for your document before you submit.
A size in millimetres becomes pixels through the print resolution. At 300 DPI, 35 × 45 mm is 413 × 531 pixels. The guide to image DPI and PPI explains the conversion.
Step 1: Take the photo
- Find a plain, light wall and stand about half a metre in front of it. The gap keeps your shadow off the wall.
- Face a window in daylight, so the light falls evenly on both sides of your face. Avoid overhead lights and direct sun, which cast shadows under the eyes and nose.
- Ask someone else to take it from about 1.5 m away, with the camera at your eye level. A selfie at arm’s length makes the nose look bigger and the ears smaller, and the head usually ends up tilted.
- Use the main camera with no effects: turn off portrait mode, beauty filters and background blur.
- Leave space around you. Frame your head and shoulders with room on every side. You’ll crop later, and a photo cropped too tightly can’t be fixed.
Take several shots and pick the one that is sharpest, most evenly lit and has your head most upright.
Step 2: Crop it to the right size
Cropping by hand in a photo editor is where most home-made passport photos go wrong. The shape must be exact, and the head must fill a set share of the height. A 35 × 45 mm photo with a 29–34 mm head leaves only a few millimetres above the crown and below the chin.
The passport photo maker handles this for you. Choose your document, add the photo, and drag and zoom until your head fits the oval guide, with the top of your head at the top of the oval and your chin at the bottom. It then crops to the official shape and pixel size.
Passport Photo Maker
Official sizes with sources, a head-position guide, and a digital file or a 6 × 4 inch print sheet. Your photo is never uploaded.
Step 3: Print it, or upload it
For a printed photo
- Print the sheet at 100% scale on 6 × 4 inch (10 × 15 cm) photo paper, without “fit to page” or borderless printing, and measure one photo with a ruler before cutting.
- If you don’t have a photo printer, order a standard 6 × 4 print of the sheet from a photo shop or kiosk, and ask for it to be printed without cropping or scaling.
For an online application
- Upload the digital file as it is, at its full pixel size.
- Check the portal’s file-size rules before compressing anything: some set a maximum, some a minimum, some both. The UK, for example, asks for a digital photo between 50 KB and 10 MB, so a photo compressed under 50 KB would be rejected there.
- Only if the portal sets a maximum, compress to fit it, keeping at least the pixel size the portal asks for. For a 50 KB maximum, Compress Image to 50KB does this; see why some images won’t go under 50KB if it resists.
Common mistakes
- A shadow behind the head: step further from the wall, or add light from the front.
- Head too big or too small: follow the head-size rule, not what looks nice.
- Tilted head or shoulders: keep both ears level and look straight into the lens.
- Glare on glasses: if glasses are allowed, tilt them slightly or move the light. Many documents require you to take them off.
- A soft, blurry face: caused by zooming far into a small photo. Take the picture a little closer and crop less.
- A coloured or patterned background: retake it against a plain wall. Cutting out a background often looks unnatural, and some offices don’t allow edited photos.
- An old photo: most offices ask for a recent photo, often from the last few months.
Before you submit, put your photo next to the official examples on your passport office’s page: expression, lighting and background shade are judged by eye, not by size.
Frequently Asked Questions
What size is a passport photo in pixels?
It depends on the document. A 35 × 45 mm photo at 300 DPI is 413 × 531 pixels, the UK asks for digital photos of at least 600 × 750 pixels, and India’s online application uses 630 × 810 pixels. Check the official page for yours.
Do I need a different photo for a visa?
Often, yes. A visa photo follows the rules of the country issuing the visa, not those of your passport: a Schengen visa uses 35 × 45 mm, for example, while a Canadian passport photo is 50 × 70 mm. Choose the document you are applying for.
Do the rules differ for babies and children?
Often slightly. Babies usually don’t have to keep a neutral expression or look straight at the camera, and some offices relax the rules on eyes and head position for very young children. Check the official page for the exact exceptions.
What background colour should a passport photo have?
Plain and light, with no pattern or shadows. The exact shade varies: the UK asks for cream or light grey for printed photos, the Netherlands allows light grey, light blue or white, and India asks for white.