The Dedicated Visa Photo Service for 100+ Countries

The most common passport photo size is 35 × 45 mm, used by the Schengen states, the UK, Australia, and most countries that follow the ICAO 9303 standard. The main exceptions are the United States and India, which use a 51 × 51 mm (2 × 2 inch) square format, and China, which uses a unique 33 × 48 mm format.

Most countries require a plain white background. The notable exceptions are the UK (cream or light grey), Germany and most Schengen visa applications (light grey or white), and Indonesia (red for the physical passport, white for visas).

Yes — almost every country accepts a self-taken passport photo as long as it meets the official size, background, and biometric rules. Germany is the exception: since May 2025 German citizens must use a Bürgeramt self-service terminal for their own passport.

The most common rejection reasons are wrong size, wrong background color, glasses, a non-neutral expression, shadows, and a photo older than 6 months. Online portal uploads also fail silently when the file exceeds the size cap, such as the US DS-160 limit of 240 KB.

No, for most major countries. The United States banned glasses in 2016, Germany in 2017, and the UK in 2018, with no medical or religious exceptions for ordinary glasses.

No. As of 1 January 2026 the US State Department rejects passport photos with any AI retouching — skin smoothing, lighting adjustment, or color filters. Background replacement and geometric cropping (changing dimensions only) remain allowed.

The US DS-160 visa portal requires a JPEG between 600×600 and 1200×1200 pixels and under 240 KB. Most photo tools export larger files that fail the upload silently.

Often, but not always. Many countries use the same size for both (Schengen is 35 × 45 mm for each), but the background can differ — Italian passports use white while Italian visas use light grey — and Canada uses 50 × 70 mm for passports but 35 × 45 mm for visa applications.