The instruction is the same nearly everywhere. Neutral expression. Mouth closed. Both eyes open. Looking directly at the camera. No smile - or, in the more generous wording some countries use, at most a very slight one with the lips together.
What a smile does to a face
Automated face comparison measures relationships between landmarks: the corners of the eyes and mouth, the tip and base of the nose, the jaw line, the cheekbones. A smile moves a remarkable number of them at once.
- The mouth widens and the corners rise, changing the distance from mouth corner to eye corner on both sides.
- The cheeks lift, altering the apparent position of the cheekbones.
- The eyes narrow - a genuine smile always involves the muscle around the eye - which changes eye-corner spacing and can obscure the iris.
- The jaw line shifts, and with an open mouth, moves entirely.
The stored photograph is a reference the border gate compares your live face against. If the reference is a smiling face and you arrive tired at 6 a.m. with a neutral one, the comparison has to absorb a difference that has nothing to do with identity. Requiring a neutral expression on both sides removes the variable.
What "neutral" actually means
It does not mean grim. The specification is closer to: relaxed face, lips together but not pressed, eyes open normally rather than widened, looking straight down the lens.
Common ways people miss it:
- Pressing the lips. Trying hard not to smile compresses the mouth into a line and tenses the chin. It reads as a different expression, not as a neutral one.
- Squinting. Bright light or concentration narrows the eyes. Both eyes have to be clearly open with the pupils visible.
- Raised eyebrows. Surprise is also an expression, and it moves the eye region.
- Looking at the screen, not the lens. On a phone these are a couple of centimetres apart and the difference is visible as a slightly averted gaze.
- Chin up or down. Head tilt changes the proportions of the face in the frame and is checked separately.
Countries that permit a slight smile
A few authorities allow a natural, closed-mouth smile rather than requiring strict neutrality, and some visa photos are more relaxed than passport photos from the same country. That variation is exactly why the preset matters - the rule belongs to the document, not to the country.
When in doubt, neutral is accepted everywhere. A slight smile is accepted in some places. There is no document that requires you to smile.
Babies and small children
The expression rules are relaxed for infants, for obvious reasons. Most authorities accept a baby with an open mouth or an imperfect gaze, and some waive the eyes-open requirement for newborns entirely. Head position and background rules generally still apply, which is what makes infant photos difficult in practice.
This is covered separately in passport photos for babies and children.
A practical trick
Rather than holding a neutral expression while you wait for a shutter - which almost always produces the pressed-lips look - relax completely, let the face settle for a second or two, and take the photo then. A camera that fires automatically when framing is correct helps here: you are not braced for a button press at the moment of capture.
IDShot checks that both eyes are open and the mouth is closed, measures head tilt and turn, and shoots automatically once the framing is right - which removes the most reliable cause of a tensed face.