Almost every rejected ID photo fails on something that can be measured before you submit it: the head is too tall, the eyes sit too low, the background is not plain enough. This page explains what IDShot checks, what each rule means, and what to do when a check goes yellow.
Because the rules are numeric and a photo taken by eye almost never hits them. Head height is usually specified as a range in millimetres or as a percentage of the frame; the eye line has to fall inside a band measured from the bottom edge; the background has to be a specific colour, plain and shadow-free. Miss any one and the photo is returned. All three are measurable before you submit, which is what the checker does.
The distance from the top of the head - the crown, including hair, but not hair that sticks up loosely - down to the bottom of the chin. A Schengen visa photo, for example, is 35 by 45 mm with the head between 32 and 36 mm. US rules are expressed as a proportion instead: the head should be roughly 50 to 69 percent of the image height. IDShot draws crown, eye line and chin guides with live measurements so you can see where you are inside the allowed band.
It depends on the document, which is why the preset carries it. Plain white is the most common; Schengen countries usually want light grey, some authorities specify off-white, cream or light blue. One tap replaces the background with the required colour, and the edges around hair stay natural rather than being cut out with a hard line.
Yes, and that is the intended use. Stand about a metre and a half from a reasonably plain surface, face the window or another soft light source so there are no hard shadows behind you, and let the camera guidance tell you when the framing is right. The background is replaced afterwards; the lighting on your face is the part the wall cannot fix.
No, deliberately. Authorities reject photos that have been retouched, and biometric systems compare the photo against a live face, so a smoothed or reshaped image is a liability. IDShot corrects light and colour and replaces the background. It never softens skin, slims a face or changes features.
Fourteen things: head size, eye height, centering, tilt, turn, open eyes, closed mouth, hands near the face, lighting, shadows, sharpness, exposure, colour and background. Each one shows the measured value, the range the document allows, and what to change. A score tells you when everything is inside its range.
Yellow means the value is close to the edge of what the rules allow, or that the app cannot be certain - for instance a background that is plain but slightly uneven, or a head height right at the top of the band. It is a warning, not a failure. If you can retake or re-crop to move it clear, do; if not, the linked official page is the place to check the authority's own wording.
This varies by country and by document, so it is one of the things the preset links out for. As a general rule: most authorities now refuse glasses in passport photos, religious head coverings are usually permitted provided the full face from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead is visible, and uniforms are usually not allowed. The app checks the geometry and lighting - the wording on the official page governs the rest.
Because upload portals do. The US DV Lottery accepts a 600 by 600 pixel square within 240 KB; India Passport Seva expects 630 by 810; Singapore ICA expects 400 by 514. IDShot exports at the exact pixel size and tunes the JPEG so the file lands inside the portal's window without visible quality loss, tags the DPI and colour space, and strips location and camera metadata.
Use a print sheet rather than printing the single image. Export a 4 by 6, 5 by 7, A4 or Letter sheet with cut marks and print it at 100 percent scale - no "fit to page", which is what usually shrinks a photo by a few percent and makes the head too small. A family sheet puts several people on one print.
No. Face and hairline detection and background removal run on the device with Apple's Vision framework. There is no account, no ads and no tracking, and photos leave the device only when you export or share them yourself.
Over 500 presets across 116 countries - passports, visas and e-Visas, national ID cards, driving licences, residence permits, work and study permits, citizenship applications, and exam or professional cards. That includes the US passport and DV Lottery, UK HMPO, the Schengen area, Canada, Australia, India Passport Seva, China, Japan, Korea and Singapore ICA.
Everything up to the export is free: the camera with live guidance, auto-crop and manual adjustment, background replacement, the full checker and every preset. One purchase unlocks saving, sharing, copying and printing the finished photo - permanently, on iPhone, iPad and Mac, with no subscription.
No, and no app can. IDShot measures what can be measured against the authority's published rules. The decision belongs to the issuing authority, and each preset links to their official page so you can check their current wording before you submit.
Passport, visa and ID photos cropped to the exact rules of 500+ document presets and checked before you submit - all processed on the device.
Fifteen minutes, one plain wall and a window.
Ask someone else to hold the device if you can. A selfie at arm's length distorts the face and usually fails the head-size rule.
Try this in IDShot: Passport & Visa Photo →When you already have a picture you like and only the geometry is wrong.
The photo has to have enough resolution to crop into. A picture where the face is small in the frame will not survive being cropped to a passport format.
Try this in IDShot: Passport & Visa Photo →Four failures account for most returned photos.
If a check stays yellow after two attempts, read the rule it cites on the official page - some authorities are stricter in wording than the numeric range suggests.
Try this in IDShot: Passport & Visa Photo →Portals reject files for pixel size and weight before a human ever sees the photo.
Re-saving the exported file elsewhere can change its pixel size or push it over the portal's weight limit. Upload the file IDShot produced.
Try this in IDShot: Passport & Visa Photo →Printing is where a correct photo most often comes out the wrong size.
If the shop's machine crops to fill the paper, the photo comes back a few percent small and the head height fails. Ask for no cropping, or use a sheet that matches their paper exactly.
Try this in IDShot: Passport & Visa Photo →Several people, one trip to the printer.
Infants are the exception to most guidance: many authorities relax the expression and eye rules for babies, and the official page for the document is the place to confirm it.
Try this in IDShot: Passport & Visa Photo →Our support team usually replies within one business day.
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