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United Kingdom passport photo requirements

A summary of the official United Kingdom passport photo rules, with a link to the government source. Last reviewed: 4 November 2026.

Official requirements (verified)

Source: GOV.UK — Get a passport photo. Rules change; the official page always takes priority over this summary.

Digital photos must be taken in the last month.
Clear, in focus, in colour and unaltered by computer software.
At least 600 pixels wide and 750 pixels tall, and between 50 KB and 10 MB.
Plain light-coloured background in clear contrast to you, with no other objects or people and no red eye.
Face forwards with a plain expression, mouth closed, eyes open and visible, no hair over the eyes and no shadows on your face or behind you.
No head covering unless for religious or medical reasons. Do not wear glasses unless you have to; never sunglasses or tinted glasses.
For photos taken on your own device during the application, include head, shoulders and upper body and do not crop it yourself.

Important: edited photos and background removal

GOV.UK requires digital photos to be unaltered by computer software and says photos from a booth or shop are more likely to be approved than ones taken on your own device. Passport Room replaces backgrounds with AI, so for this application the safest route is to take a new photo against a plain background that already meets the rules, and use Passport Room only for checking the size and framing, or follow the official source above.

How Passport Room fits in (guidance)

The tool’s UK preset renders 35 × 45 mm (413 × 531 pixels at 300 DPI); for an online application, GOV.UK asks you not to crop the photo yourself, so check the official page before using a cropped export. Passport Room does not submit applications and cannot guarantee that any authority will accept a photo; acceptance is decided only by the issuing authority.