Korean passport and visa photos use the 35 by 45 mm format on a plain white background. The dimensions will be familiar to anyone who has applied in Europe; the enforcement emphasis is different.
The specification
| Rule | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Print size | 35 × 45 mm |
| Face coverage | Roughly 70-80% of the frame |
| Background | Plain white, uniform |
| Ears | Both visible where hair allows |
| Expression | Neutral, mouth closed, eyes open |
| Glasses | Without glare; removing them is safer |
| Age of photo | Taken within the last six months |
| Editing | No retouching of any kind |
The retouching rule
Korean applications are known for refusing photographs that have been smoothed, slimmed or otherwise beautified, and the reason is practical rather than moral: a retouched photo does not match the person at the border.
This matters more than it used to, because the beautification is often not a decision anyone made. Many phone cameras apply skin smoothing and subtle face reshaping by default, and it happens between pressing the shutter and the file being written. The setting is usually somewhere in the camera app, and turning it off before taking an ID photo is worth doing on any phone.
Correcting exposure and white balance is not retouching. Changing the shape of a face, or the texture of skin, is.
Ears and hair
Asking for both ears to be visible is another way of requiring a frontal photograph, and it also means hair should be arranged so it does not cover the sides of the face. Where hair genuinely cannot be moved, the general guidance is that the face outline must still be clear.
K-ETA and online applications
The electronic travel authorisation and other online routes take a digital photo upload with their own pixel and file-size requirements, which are set by the system rather than by the passport specification. Check the page you are uploading through.
Preparing one
Plain white wall or a background you will replace, a metre of separation, window light in front of you, camera at eye level about a metre and a half back. Turn off any beautification in the camera app first. Neutral expression, hair clear of the face, glasses off.
IDShot carries Korean presets with the white background and face-coverage rules, and never retouches - it corrects light and colour and replaces the background, and leaves the face exactly as photographed.
Requirements are changed by the authorities that publish them, and the official page is the only source that settles an argument. Each preset in IDShot links to that page, so you can confirm the current wording before you submit.