ICAO-compliant biometric photos
An ICAO-compliant photo is designed to make a person reliably recognisable in a passport, visa, identity card or other machine-readable travel document. With Photo Express, you can take a guided biometric photo with your smartphone and receive it in the format selected for your document.
What does ICAO-compliant mean?
ICAO Document 9303 describes international specifications for machine-readable travel documents. A compliant facial image must show the face clearly and consistently enough for visual and automated comparison. The exact dimensions, age of the photo and submission method are still determined by the country and issuing authority.
For the common printed passport-photo format, authorities often ask for 35 × 45 mm and a head size of roughly 70–80% of the image height. That is not a universal rule for every document, so always select the actual passport, visa or ID format you need.
ICAO biometric photo checklist
- Look directly into the camera and keep your head upright, without turning or tilting it.
- Keep a neutral expression, both eyes open and your mouth closed.
- Make sure your full face is visible from chin to forehead and is not covered by hair.
- Use soft, even front light. Avoid shadows, flash reflections, red-eye and strong backlight.
- Use a plain, light background without patterns, objects or other people.
- Remove sunglasses. If you wear clear glasses, your eyes must remain visible and the lenses must not reflect light.
- Do not wear a hat or head covering unless an official religious or medical exception applies. The face must remain fully visible.
- Use a sharp, recent colour image with natural skin tones and enough resolution for the intended output.
How to take a better biometric photo with your phone
Clean the camera lens first. Ask another person to hold the smartphone at your eye level; a normal rear camera usually produces less distortion than a close selfie. Stand about one to two metres from the camera in soft daylight, but not in direct sun. Keep windows and bright lamps in front of you or slightly to the side, never directly behind you.
Leave some space around your head and shoulders during capture. Photo Express guides your position, checks common quality criteria, removes the background and creates the crop for the format you selected. Do not crop or heavily edit the image in another app before submission.
Is every biometric passport photo the same size?
No. “Biometric” describes how the facial image is captured and assessed; it does not guarantee one universal file size or print format. Passport, visa, residence-permit and identity-card specifications can differ by country. Photo Express therefore provides document-specific formats as well as a custom format.
The issuing authority always makes the final acceptance decision. Check its current instructions, especially for children, medical exceptions, religious head coverings and digital upload requirements.