Passport photo rules look chaotic from the outside. They are not, quite. Most of the world settled on a 35 by 45 mm print; the United States and a handful of others use a 2 by 2 inch square. Within each format, what varies is head height, background colour and the digital specification for online applications.
Those three are where applications fail, so they are what the table below carries.
The two formats
35 × 45 mm is the ICAO-aligned portrait format used across Europe, most of Asia, Australia and Canada's visa photos. The head is measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head - the crown, including hair that lies flat, but not hair standing loosely away from the head - and usually has to land between 32 and 36 mm.
2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm) is the square US format, also used by several countries that model their rules on the American ones. Here the head is specified as 1 to 1 3/8 inches (25 to 35 mm), which is often restated as 50 to 69 percent of the image height.
Two formats, two completely different head-height numbers, which is why a photo cropped for one is never valid for the other even though the face looks identical.
The table
| Document | Print size | Head height | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| US passport | 2 × 2 in | 25-35 mm | White or off-white |
| US DV Lottery | Digital only | 50-69% of height | White or off-white |
| UK passport | 35 × 45 mm | 29-34 mm | Plain light grey or cream |
| Schengen visa | 35 × 45 mm | 32-36 mm | Plain light grey |
| Germany | 35 × 45 mm | 32-36 mm | Plain light grey |
| Canada passport | 50 × 70 mm | 31-36 mm | Plain white |
| Australia passport | 35 × 45 mm | 32-36 mm | Plain light |
| India passport | 35 × 45 mm | Face 70-80% | Plain white |
| China visa | 33 × 48 mm | 28-33 mm | Plain white |
| Japan passport | 35 × 45 mm | 32-36 mm | Plain, light |
| Korea visa | 35 × 45 mm | Face 70-80% | Plain white |
| Singapore ICA | 35 × 45 mm | Face 70-80% | Plain white |
Where a country gives head height as a percentage rather than millimetres, it is measuring the same thing a different way - chin to crown against the height of the frame. The arithmetic is equivalent; the wording is not, and the official page always wins.
The digital numbers are a separate problem
A photo that is perfect on paper can still be refused by an upload form, because online portals add their own constraints: an exact pixel size, a maximum file weight, sometimes a colour profile.
- US DV Lottery: square, at least 600 × 600 px, JPEG within 240 KB.
- UK passport, digital: at least 600 × 750 px, up to 10 MB.
- Singapore ICA: 400 × 514 px.
- India Passport Seva: a fixed pixel size with a tight file-weight window.
These are the specifications that change most often, because they belong to a web form rather than to a law. Treat any number you read - including the ones above - as a starting point and confirm it on the portal you are actually uploading to.
Three numbers decide almost everything
If you remember nothing else from the table: print size, head height and background colour. Nearly every rejection traces back to one of them, and all three are measurable before you submit rather than after.
The rest - expression, glasses, head coverings, how recent the photo must be - are yes-or-no rules that are easy to satisfy once you know they exist. We cover each of them separately:
- Head height, in millimetres and in percent
- The eye line rule nobody mentions
- Which background colour you actually need
- Whether you can wear glasses
- Why you cannot smile
- How recent the photo has to be
Country guides
Each of these goes through one authority's rules in full, including the digital upload specification and the mistakes specific to that application:
- United States passport and the DV Lottery
- United Kingdom passport
- Schengen visa
- Canada, Australia
- India, China, Japan, Singapore
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.