When submitting photos along with passport applications, please pay attention to the following guidelines.The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has stipulated certain mandatory specifications for passport photos. Passports with photos that do not match the ICAO specifications are liable to be rejected by foreign immigration authorities, resulting in extreme inconvenience to the passport holder.
1) The image should be 2 inches by 2 inches;
2) The image must have adequate brightness and contrast;
3) The skin tone should be natural. In case of over-exposure or under-exposure of the photo, the skin is either too dark or too light, photo will not be acceptable;
4) It should show a close up of the head and (partial) shoulders;
5) The image should be straight looking, centred with neutral expression;
6) Face should be in sharp focus and clear with no ink marks/creases/lines;
7) The face (from forehead edge to bottom of chin) should be 70 to 80% of the photo or one inch height;
8) The eyes msut be open and no hair obscuring the face;
9) Prescription glasses if worn should be clear and thin framed and should not have flash reflection or obscure the eyes;
10) Head coverings, hair, head-dress or facial ornaments should not obscure the face;
11) The photo must have plain light background;
12) There must be no other people or object in the photo;
13) The lighting must be uniform with no shadows on the face or behind;
14) Red eye photos are not allowed;
15) No lines are allowed.
A copy of photo guidelines is enclosed. Detailed ICAO specifications are available at page IV-54 of ICAO Document 9303 Part 1, Volume 1.