What to Wear, and What Gets a Photo Rejected

Most countries publish no dress code for passport photos, which leaves people guessing. The practical rules are short, and only three things reliably cause a rejection.

The three that fail

White or very pale tops. The background has to be white, off-white or another very light shade — cream or light grey for the UK — and a white shirt merges into it. The result is a head apparently floating with no shoulders, and it is refused as often as any lighting fault. Any mid-tone colour solves it.

Uniforms. Military, police, medical scrubs, airline dress and camouflage are all refused, and so is clothing that merely resembles them. The reason is that a passport photo must not suggest an official role. Religious dress worn daily is a separate matter and is permitted, covered below.

Anything obscuring the face or hairline. High collars that reach the chin, hoods, and hair deliberately arranged over the forehead all interfere with measuring head height, which is what the photo is checked against.

What is fine

Colour, specifically

A mid-tone works best: navy, grey, olive, burgundy, mid-blue. These separate cleanly from the background without being so dark that the camera underexposes your face trying to hold detail in the shirt.

Very dark clothing is allowed and usually fine, though on a phone it can push the automatic exposure up and wash out the face. If your photo comes out with a bright face and a black shape below it, the shirt caused it.

Religious and medical exceptions

Head coverings worn daily for religious reasons are permitted everywhere that matters, provided the full face is visible from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead, and the covering casts no shadow across the face. Some countries ask for a signed statement; the US does not for religious coverings but does for medical ones.

Medical items — an eye patch, a device that cannot be removed — are also permitted, generally with a doctor's note attached to the application rather than any change to the photo.

The full detail is in head coverings, hats and jewellery.

A practical order

1. Pick a mid-tone top that is not white.
2. Check your collar sits below the chin.
3. Take off hats, headphones and anything on your head that is not religious.
4. Push hair back from the forehead so the hairline is visible.
5. Check the result against the reasons photos get rejected before you print anything.

Clothing is one of the easier requirements to satisfy, and one of the few you can fix in ten seconds by changing your shirt rather than retaking in different light.

Two cases that come up repeatedly

A changed appearance since the last photo. Growing or shaving a beard, a very different hairstyle, or significant weight change do not require a new passport in most countries, but they do mean the new photo should reflect how you look now rather than how the old one did. The photo is compared to your face at a border, not to the previous photo.

Photographing a child. Clothing rules are the same, with one addition that catches people out: no hands and no other person may appear in the frame, which rules out the usual method of a parent supporting a small child. Baby and child photos covers how it is actually done.