Passport photo sizes, country by country
Updated 2026-08-27 ยท about 9 minute read
Most rejected passport photos are not rejected for being badly lit or unflattering. They are rejected for being the wrong size, or for having a head that is the wrong size within a correctly sized photo. Both are measurable, and both are avoidable.
The sizes, country by country
The world splits roughly into two conventions: 35 ร 45 mm, used across the UK, Europe and most of Asia and Africa, and 2 ร 2 inches, used by the United States. A few countries do their own thing.
| Document | Photo size | Head height |
|---|---|---|
| UK passport & driving licence | 35 ร 45 mm | 29โ34 mm |
| US passport & visa | 2 ร 2 in (51 ร 51 mm) | 25โ35 mm |
| Schengen visa | 35 ร 45 mm | 31.5โ36 mm |
| Germany ID card | 35 ร 45 mm | 32โ36 mm |
| Canada passport | 50 ร 70 mm | 31โ36 mm |
| Australia passport | 35 ร 45 mm | 32โ36 mm |
| India passport | 51 ร 51 mm | 25โ35 mm |
| China visa | 33 ร 48 mm | 28โ33 mm |
| Japan passport | 35 ร 45 mm | 32โ36 mm |
These are the published dimensions at the time of writing, and they are the geometry the passport photo maker uses as presets. Requirements do change, so confirm against the issuing authority's own specification before you submit anything that matters.
Head height is what gets photos rejected
This is the rule people miss. It is not enough for the photo to be 35 ร 45 mm; the head within it must occupy a specific range, measured from the top of the head โ the crown, not the top of the hair if it is voluminous โ to the bottom of the chin.
For a UK passport that is 29 to 34 mm inside a 45 mm tall photo, so the head occupies roughly 65% to 75% of the height. Crop too tight and it fails; crop too loose and it fails. There is no leeway, because the measurement is done by software at the other end.
Judging this by eye is genuinely hard. The passport photo maker draws the permitted band directly on the image, and its "mark head and chin" tool lets you click those two points so the crop is scaled and positioned for you. That converts a guessing game into two clicks.
Position matters as well as size. There should be a small margin of space above the head โ too much and the face sits low in the frame even when the head height is technically correct.
Background, lighting and expression
The background must be plain, light and even: off-white, cream or light grey depending on the country. No patterns, no furniture, no doorframes, and critically no shadow. Standing a foot or two away from the wall rather than against it removes most shadows, because the light falls off before it reaches the wall.
Light your face evenly from the front. Window light on an overcast day is close to ideal. Overhead lighting creates shadows in the eye sockets and under the nose, which is exactly what automated checks flag.
Expression is prescribed: neutral, mouth closed, both eyes open and clearly visible, looking straight at the camera. No smiling in most countries โ the UK and Schengen are strict about this, the US permits a natural smile but the safe choice is neutral. Hair must not cover the eyes.
No software can fix a photo taken at an angle or lit from one side. Retake it. It costs nothing.
Glasses, head coverings and children
Glasses. The UK has not accepted glasses in passport photos since 2016. The US requires them to be removed. Most other countries either forbid them or require no glare, no tinting and fully visible eyes, which in practice is hard to achieve. Take them off.
Head coverings. Permitted for religious or medical reasons in essentially every country, provided the full face from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead is visible and there is no shadow across the face.
Babies and small children. The rules relax: eyes may be closed for infants under one in the UK, and no other person may appear in the frame. Laying the baby on a plain white sheet and photographing from directly above is the standard trick.
Printing at home without failing the measurement
You can print passport photos at home, and the saving is real, but there is exactly one way to get it wrong and it catches almost everybody: scaling.
The file is generated at the exact pixel count for its physical size โ a 35 ร 45 mm photo at 600 dpi is 827 ร 1063 pixels. That only survives the trip to paper if your print dialog is set to 100% or "actual size". "Fit to page", "scale to fit", "shrink oversized pages" and borderless printing all resize the page by a few per cent. Invisible on a holiday snap; enough to fail a passport measurement.
The practical workflow: crop with the passport photo maker, then use the photo print sheet to tile several copies onto 4 ร 6 inch photo paper โ six fit at the default spacing โ and print at 100% on photo paper with borderless off. Then measure one with a ruler before you cut the rest.
If the original is crooked, straighten it first with the photo straightener; rotating after cropping throws the head height off.
Digital submissions are a different problem
Online applications usually want a JPEG within a file-size range โ the UK asks for between 50 KB and 10 MB, the US for under 240 KB at 600 ร 600 pixels or larger. Too small and it is rejected for lack of detail; too large and the upload fails.
Hitting a target size is a compression question rather than a cropping one, and our guide to reducing image file size covers which lever actually moves the number. The image resizer handles the resize and quality together.
One warning specific to digital submissions: do not run the photo through a filter, a beautifier or an AI enhancer. Automated facial checks compare the photo against the biometric standard, and smoothing skin or reshaping features is a reliable way to fail. Some phone cameras apply this by default, so turn it off before you shoot.
The EXIF viewer will show you what your camera recorded and whether processing was applied, and Pikkit has the rest of the photo tools.