Can You Smile in a Passport Photo?

A neutral expression, mouth closed, both eyes open, looking straight at the camera. That is the requirement in essentially every country, and the reason is not decorum.

Why the rule exists

Border systems match a face by measuring distances between fixed points — the corners of the eyes, the bridge of the nose, the width of the jaw.

Smiling moves several of them at once. The mouth widens, the cheeks rise, the eyes narrow, and the apparent distance between the eye corners changes. A photo taken smiling produces a template that matches less well against a face at a gate that is not smiling, which is the situation at every automated barrier in the world.

The rule is about the reliability of a measurement, and it is why the tolerance is narrow.

What is tolerated

The consistent line: closed mouth is universal, and a very slight natural expression is the most that is ever tolerated. Teeth are a rejection everywhere.

Anyone whose resting expression reads as a slight smile is fine. Anyone deliberately smiling is not.

The rest of the expression requirements

The mouth is only part of it, and the others fail photos too.

Both eyes open and clearly visible. No hair across them, no squinting, no eyes half-closed from a blink. Squinting into bright light is a common cause of failure, and it is the reason to face a window on an overcast day rather than in direct sun.

Looking straight at the camera. Not up, not down, not off to one side. Eyes on the lens.

Head square and level. No tilt, no turn, no three-quarter angle. A tilted head also measures short on head height, because that measurement is vertical.

Mouth closed. Not pressed shut, just closed.

What people get wrong

Trying too hard to look neutral produces a tense expression with a tightened jaw. Relax the face, breathe out, and take the photo on the exhale.

Blinking, which is why to take many and choose. A blink is invisible at the moment of pressing the shutter and obvious afterwards.

Raised eyebrows, from concentrating. Common, and it changes the shape of the eye region.

Head slightly down, from looking at a phone screen rather than the lens. Look at the lens, not at yourself.

Babies and young children

The requirement is relaxed. Infants are not expected to hold a neutral expression, and in most countries under-ones may have their eyes closed. The UK does not require under-sixes to look at the camera or hold a neutral expression at all.

The parts that are not relaxed — background, no other person visible, and the crop — are in passport photos for babies and children.

Getting the photo right otherwise

Expression is one requirement among eight or so, and a neutral face on a shadowed background still comes back. The others worth checking at the same time:

• Background — shade, and shadows above all
• Glasses — prohibited entirely in the US since 2016
• Head height — the measurement nobody looks up

The full list is in why passport photos get rejected, and the passport photo tool handles the crop to the exact specification for any of thirty countries.