Passport offices do not care who took your photo, only whether it follows the rules. Most rejected photos fail for the same few reasons: shadows, a busy background, a tilted head or the wrong head size. All of them are easy to avoid at home.
What you need
- A phone or camera. Any recent phone is sharp enough.
- A plain white or very light wall, or a white sheet pulled tight. Check the color your document asks for: white or off-white for the US, cream or light grey for the UK.
- A window with daylight, ideally not in direct sun.
- Someone to take the photo. Selfies are not a good idea; see below.
Set up the light
Light is what decides most rejections. Stand facing the window so the daylight falls evenly on your whole face. Light from one side leaves one cheek darker, and an overhead lamp puts shadows under the eyes and nose. Turn off ceiling lights if they make the picture yellow, and do not use the flash: it causes glare on skin and red eyes.
Set up the background
Stand about 2 feet (60 cm) in front of the wall. If you stand against it, your shadow lands right behind your head, which is one of the most common reasons photos get refused. Nothing else should be in the frame: no picture frames, door edges or furniture behind you. Wear something that is not white, so your shoulders stand out from the background.
Set up the camera
- Distance: the person taking the photo stands about 4 feet (1.2 m) away. Up close, phone cameras make the nose look bigger and the ears smaller.
- Height: the camera at the height of your eyes, held straight, not tilted up or down.
- Lens and mode: use the normal main camera at 1× or 2×. Turn off portrait mode, beauty filters and anything that blurs or smooths. Edited photos are rejected.
- Framing: leave space around your head and shoulders. You will crop the photo afterwards, and the tool needs room to place your head correctly.
Pose and expression
- Shoulders square to the camera, head straight, looking into the lens.
- A neutral face with the mouth closed works for every country. The US also accepts a natural smile.
- Both eyes open and visible, with hair away from your face.
- No glasses for US photos, and most other countries prefer them off too. Take off hats, headbands and earbuds; religious or medical head coverings are allowed with the usual conditions.
Take ten or more photos. Pick the sharpest one where your eyes are fully open and your head is straight.
Babies and small children
Lay a baby on their back on a plain white sheet and take the photo from above, with even light and no shadows from your own body. A baby does not need to have their eyes open in UK photos, and younger children do not need a neutral expression. No toys, dummies or hands may show in the photo.
Crop it to the right size
Every document has a size and a head height: 2 × 2 inches with a 1 to 1⅜ inch head for the US, 35 × 45 mm with a 29 to 34 mm head for the UK, and so on. Open the passport photo maker, choose your document and line up the top of your head and your chin with the guides. The tool only crops and resizes; it never changes your face or the background, which agencies do not allow.
One exception: for a UK online application, upload the original uncropped photo, because GOV.UK crops it itself. See the UK passport photo page.
Print it
Download the 4 × 6 print and order it as a normal photo print at a drugstore, a supermarket kiosk or an online photo lab, with cropping and borders turned off. It usually costs well under a dollar, against around $15 for passport photos at a counter. Measure one photo with a ruler before you cut: a US photo is exactly 2 inches wide.
Checklist before you send it
- Even light on the whole face, no shadows on the face or the wall.
- Plain background in the color your document asks for.
- Head straight, eyes open, no glasses, nothing covering the face.
- Head size inside the guides, photo printed at the exact size.
- Taken recently: within six months for US photos, within one month for UK photos.