When it comes to passport photos, the smallest details can lead to rejection. It’s easy to understand that you should be facing the camera and clearly visible, but the goal of a passport is to eliminate any possibility of misidentification — which means no obfuscating or confounding factors are allowed, period. Here are the top points to keep in mind as you take your photos:
1) Avoid headgear of all sorts
Prescription glasses and religious headgear worn every day are the only exceptions — and if you’re comfortable taking a photo without either, it’s still going to be better. This also includes a variety of items for child photos, including pacifiers. Scarves and other items that might obscure your lower face are no good, too.
2) Your head should be a certain size in the picture
Passport photos are 2×2 inches, and of that space, your head from chin to the top of your hair should be between 1, and 1 and 3/8 inches. Anything smaller or bigger will catch you a rejection. For digital photos with less specific sizes, your head should be between 50% and 69% of the total height.
3) Neutral expressions only
You don’t have to look soulless and dour, but you can’t be distorting your facial features with an exaggerated face, either. This can make baby passport photos very tricky.
4) No extra people
Not a single pinky of another person can be in a passport photo — this includes your hands holding up your child for their photo.
5) No touch-ups
If your camera has built in red-eye removal, that’s fine, but any touch-ups outside of that will catch you an instant rejection. Any and all usage of photo editing software is banned, including the use of red-eye tools from exterior sources.
These aren’t the only rules, but they’re the ones people most commonly run afoul of. You might also want to be wary of other mistakes: using old photos, wearing uniforms or camouflage without a religious reason, using low end digital cameras and phone cameras with terrible image quality, and bizarre lighting can all disqualify your photos.
Basically, ask yourself: is there any conceivable way any human being could possibly have trouble with this? If so, fix it.
