Short answer: most passport photos are refused for a handful of reasons that every government repeats. The background is wrong or shadowed. Glasses are worn or reflect light. The head is too big or too small. The photo is too old. It was edited or filtered. Or it was taken too close, as a selfie. The rules that trip people up are the national differences. The UK wants a photo from the last month, the US no longer accepts glasses, Canada uses a 50 × 70 mm print, and many countries don't take a printed photo at all.
We researched passport and visa photo rules for 158 country pages on Pixohub, each from the issuing government's own sources. Together those pages list 865 rejection reasons. Problems with the background (its colour, or shadows on it) appear on 132 pages, glasses on 118, shadows on 82, head coverings on 65, an old photo on 46, editing or filters on 46, expression on 44 and head size on at least 37. Selfies are named on 13. We counted by keyword, so treat these as lower bounds.
Eight major countries compared
Most rejections come from following another country's rules. Here are the core numbers for eight common applications, from our verified country pages:
| Country | Photo size | Head height (chin to crown) | Background | How the photo is supplied |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm) | 1 to 1⅜ in (25–35 mm) | Plain white or off-white | Print with a paper form; online renewal has its own photo steps |
| United Kingdom | 45 × 35 mm print; digital at least 600 × 750 px | 29–34 mm (print) | Print: cream or light grey. Digital: plain, light-coloured | Photo code from a booth or shop, or your own digital photo |
| Canada | 50 × 70 mm | 31–36 mm | Plain white or light-coloured | Two prints from a commercial studio; digital for online renewal |
| Australia | 35–40 × 45–50 mm | 32–36 mm | Plain white or grey | Professionally printed, glossy paper |
| India | None needed at a Passport Seva Kendra; 4.5 × 3.5 cm at other centres | No mm range published | Plain white | Taken at the office in most cases |
| Germany | 35 × 45 mm | Face 70–80% of photo height | Single colour, shadow-free, contrasting | Sent electronically by a registered studio, or taken at the office |
| China (visa) | 33 × 48 mm | 28–33 mm | White or close to white | Uploaded online; print as a fallback |
| Japan | 35 × 45 mm | 32–36 mm | Plain, light-coloured | Print, or upload in the Myna app for online applications |
The last column matters more than it used to. Our application data covers 158 passport and visa pages, and 124 of them record how the photo is supplied. Of those 124, 47 take the photo at the office, 27 still want a printed photo, 18 want a digital upload, 4 use a digital photo code from a studio or booth (Finland, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, the UK), and 28 depend on how you apply. So in 69 of the 124, the authority doesn't ask for a print you bring yourself.
The reasons, in the governments' own words
1. Glasses
The United States is the strictest. The State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual (8 FAM 402.1) says: "Eyeglasses are not acceptable unless they cannot be removed for medical reasons", and then a signed medical statement is needed. The UK says "Do not wear glasses in your photo unless you have to". Canada and New Zealand allow clear prescription glasses with no glare. Canada rules out "sunglasses or tinted eye glasses", and New Zealand also rules out thick frames. Taking your glasses off satisfies all of these rules.
2. Background and shadows
The US manual wants "a plain, white, off-white, or light-colored background with no large, dark shadows, reflections, or objects". GOV.UK says "not have any shadows on your face or behind you". New Zealand tells you to "stand at least half a metre in front of the background". That distance is the usual fix, because a shadow on the wall behind you comes from standing too close to it. Canada adds a less obvious one: "Avoid wearing light-coloured clothing. It can blend into the background and may result in your photo being rejected."
3. Head too big or too small
Each country measures from chin to crown, but the ranges differ (see the table). Printing a US 2 × 2 photo for a Canadian application is a common mistake. Canada's head range is 31–36 mm, and our Canada page lists "face larger than 36 mm, usually from cropping like a 2 × 2 photo" as a typical refusal. The US manual explains why size matters. A head that is too large may be impossible to crop to the 45 × 35 mm passport image, and "may cause fish-eye distortion", with the nose looking bigger and the ears smaller.
4. A selfie or a photo taken too close
New Zealand puts it plainly: "Selfies will be rejected. Photos taken too close can distort your face, making your nose and forehead appear larger and your ears less visible." It tells the person taking the photo to stand 1.5 m away and hold the camera at your eye level. The same distortion is what the US manual calls fish-eye.
5. An old photo
Most countries accept a photo up to six months old, including the US, Canada and New Zealand. The UK is the exception: "Your photo must have been taken in the last month", and you need a new photo for every new passport, "even if your appearance has not changed". Some Schengen consulates want three months (see our Schengen visa page).
6. Editing, filters and AI
The US manual says digital retouching is not acceptable, and neither are "beauty filters or other photo filter tools from social media websites and mobile applications". GOV.UK says the photo must be "unaltered by computer software". Canada: "We'll reject your application if the photos have been altered in any way." New Zealand names AI directly: "Do not edit, apply filters, or use AI tools to modify how you look." Cropping and resizing to the required size is a different matter, but the UK asks you not to crop online submissions at all: "Do not crop your photo - it will be done for you."
7. Print quality and paper
The US manual says photos with visible pixels are not acceptable, and they should be printed on photo-quality paper. Canada says "We don't accept photos printed at home or on heavyweight paper." India's application instruction booklet says a "Photograph in computer print will not be accepted" and photos "cut from group photographs are not acceptable". It also says no photo is needed at all for applications made at a Passport Seva Kendra.
8. Digital files that fail the technical check
Online applications reject files before anyone looks at them. GOV.UK asks for at least 600 × 750 pixels and 50KB to 10MB. New Zealand asks for a 3:4 JPG of 250KB to 5MB, 900–4500 pixels wide and 1200–6000 pixels high, and says scans of printed photos are not accepted. A 413 × 531 px file made for printing a 35 × 45 mm photo is too small for both. For online forms, check the pixel rules on your country's page first.
Printable self-check list
Go through this before you print or upload. Every item comes from the official rules quoted above, and the country table covers the numbers.
- Right country, right format: I've checked whether my country wants a print, a digital upload, a photo code or a photo taken at the office.
- Size: the print is exactly the stated size (for example 2 × 2 in for the US, 50 × 70 mm for Canada) and wasn't trimmed down from a larger photo.
- Head height: measured from chin to the top of the head, not the hairline, it falls inside my country's range.
- Age: the photo was taken within the allowed time (one month for the UK, six months for most others).
- Background: plain, in the allowed colour, with no shadow behind my head or shoulders and no objects in view.
- Clothing: it contrasts with the background, and it isn't a uniform or camouflage (the US doesn't accept military-style clothing).
- Face: looking straight at the camera, head not tilted, eyes open, mouth closed, hair away from my eyes.
- Glasses: off. If I must wear them, there is no glare, the frames don't cover my eyes and the lenses aren't tinted.
- Head covering: none, unless it's for religious or medical reasons and my whole face is visible.
- Distance: someone else took the photo from about 1.5 m. It isn't a selfie.
- No edits: no filters, smoothing, background replacement or AI changes.
- Print quality: printed on photo paper (professionally, where required), with no visible pixels, creases or marks.
- Digital file: within the pixel and KB/MB limits for the online form, straight from the camera and not a scan.
- Children: nobody else is in the frame, including a parent's hands.
Our passport photo tool crops a photo to a country's print size. Country pages such as UK, Germany, India and US visa explain how each one wants the photo supplied.
How we tested
This is a source review, not a photo test. On 24 October 2026 we opened each government page quoted above and copied the wording exactly. The New Zealand passport site was loaded in Chromium driven by Playwright 1.64.1 on an Apple M2 Mac, the same setup described on our testing page. The GOV.UK and Canada.ca pages were fetched as text, and the State Department manual and India's instruction booklet were downloaded directly. No photos were processed, so no files from our test image set were used.
The table and the counts come from Pixohub's own country data. For each of 158 passport and visa pages, the photo rules and typical rejection reasons were researched from the issuing government's pages, following our verification policy. We counted how each photo is supplied using the 124 pages that record it. We grouped rejection reasons by keyword matching, which undercounts reasons that are worded differently.
Limitations: travel.state.gov returned a bot check to our browser, so US rules are quoted from the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual, the rules its own passport staff apply. The Australian Passport Office site didn't load from our test machine, so the Australian row comes from our Australia page rather than a fresh check. ICAO Doc 9303, the international standard behind most of these rules, wasn't available at its public address. Rules change. Always check the official page linked from your country's page before you apply.