You cannot smile in your passport picture. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to show off your good side, but biometric photos have to be able to scan your features properly. When posing for a passport photo, be sure to face the camera straight on, making sure that you look at the camera directly. Passport photos only depict your head and a bit of your neck and shoulders. The background color should be plain white, or off-white, with no shadows, patterns, objects, or any other distracting elements. This ensures that all your features are clearly visible and undistorted. This can be achieved by using bright, diffused light, like the kind of light you find in photography studios or in photobooths. Passport pictures should be in color, brightly lit, and with no shadows. Passport Photo Requirements for Lighting and Background The position of the face should be balanced and centered - the head should occupy about 1 -1 3/8 inches (25 – 35 mm) of the picture, from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head. The picture quality should be clean and crisp, with no blurriness or pixelation.
The required passport picture size is 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm). You are allowed to submit it in either a glossy or matte finish. The quality of the photo should be spotless and be without creases, smudges, or any other signs of damage. It cannot be older than 6 months, and should accurately reflect what you currently look like. In the US, you have to submit at least one recent photograph of yourself. While it doesn’t take any special equipment to take a biometric photo, it still has to adhere to strict passport photo guidelines. Like most countries, US passport photo requirements ask you for a biometric photo - a machine-readable photograph that helps confirm your identity when passing through passport control. Passport Photo Requirements for Lighting and Background.
When applying for a passport, your photo matters - it’s the first thing that passport control will look at, so be sure that you take a good one! Here’s how: US Passport Photo Requirements All the more reason to make sure that your passport is in perfect condition! But of course, if you are denied boarding because of problems with your passport, this is usually not a valid reason and therefore not eligible for compensation. Plus, if you’re a first-time flyer, brushing up on your air passenger rights is also something to keep in mind.ĭid you know that if a flight denies you boarding, it is possible to get monetary compensation for your trouble? At AirHelp, it is our mission to make sure that all customers understand their rights and help them enforce them when things go wrong. What else belongs on your checklist? Well, there’s also your Visa requirements, accommodation, luggage, etc. Your passport is the single most important travel document that you’ll ever need and should always be at the very top of your pre-travel checklist.