Photo rules changelog

Added 7 documents (Indian passport, India e-Visa, Chinese passport, Vietnam e-visa, Brazil eVisa, German passport and NZeTA), each checked against its official pages on October 9; Brazil’s photo guide and VFS Global’s Indian passport checklist were read from archived copies, because their live pages block automated access.

• Indian passport: the foreign ministry’s photo guideline (630 × 810 px, the face 80–85% of the photo) and the consulates’ notice that the photo is uploaded on Passport Seva before applying. VFS Global’s May 2026 checklist, which asks for two identical 35 × 45 mm photos, was read from an archived copy because its live file blocks automated access. The ministry’s guideline and the U.S. missions’ pages give no file-size limit; the 250 KB limit comes from the Embassy of India in Kuwait’s advisory for the same portal and is labeled as such.
• Chinese passport: the foreign ministry’s e-passport photo specification (33 × 48 mm, head 28–33 mm, JPEG 30–80 KB). The Embassy in Washington says an ordinary passport is applied for in China’s consular app and no paper photos are mailed; its lists ask for three paper photos only for documents applied for on paper.
• Brazil eVisa: VFS Global’s photo guide (413 × 531 px, up to 2MB) was read from an archived copy because the live site blocks automated access.
• India e-Visa, Vietnam e-visa, Brazil eVisa and NZeTA: the authorities publish no head size or no pixel size, and the pages say which numbers are ours.

Indian passport, India e-Visa, Chinese passport, Vietnam e-visa, Brazil eVisa, German passport, New Zealand NZeTA

The Korean passport now carries the foreign ministry’s rule for babies, so Baby mode works for it.

• Re-read the babies and young children section of the foreign ministry’s passport photo standard (passport.go.kr, menuPos=32) on October 8. Every adult rule applies, no toys, other objects or guardian may show, and a newborn or child 36 months or younger who can’t keep the mouth closed may have it slightly open.
• The research record already had this rule; the document data didn’t. In Baby mode the mouth check now warns instead of failing and says a closed mouth is safest, since only a slightly open mouth is allowed. Eyes must still be open.
• Only the infant lines were re-read. The full record’s review date stays September 28.

Korean passport

U.S. passport head guidance now separates the public page’s top-of-head wording from the staff manual’s exclusion of hair and the tool’s hair-inclusive estimate.

• Re-read only the public Passport Photos page’s size and position section on October 1. It gives chin to top of head without defining hair inclusion. The separate 8 FAM account retains its September 28 read because the manual could not be retrieved again.
• Corrected facts, comparison cells, exported measurements, FAQs and English, Korean and Spanish explanations that treated hair inclusion as the passport rule. Removed the claim that aiming in the middle ensures both readings pass.
• The automatic estimate, sample and review labels now distinguish product measurements from source requirements. Crop geometry and the full record’s review date remain unchanged; an in-range hair estimate does not establish that the manual’s measurement passes.

U.S. passport

Shortened the Korean and Chinese visa summaries and clarified the Saudi eVisa face measurement, keeping every document’s answer summary within 40–60 words.

• The Korean visa reference setting still differs from Atlanta’s F-4 checklist; the notice read date remains separate from the pending full-record date. China’s summary retains its printed-size contrast and COVA file limits. Saudi’s summary now states the recorded chin-to-crown landmark.
• China’s head measurement now says chin to crown without claiming whether hair is included. Its facts and exports agree, and the Chinese, UK and Japanese document FAQs and real-photo explanations now use the rule table’s source qualifications, including Japan’s voluminous-hair exception.
• These wording corrections use existing research. No source was re-read, and source-review dates, verification status and crop geometry are unchanged.

Korean visa, Chinese visa, Saudi eVisa, UK passport, Japanese passport

Document pages now show a short list of key facts, each naming its source authority and record date, before the complete rule table.

• Standalone digital facts now name the issuing authority; printed-photo counts name the application. USCIS’s self-submitted-photo policy comes first, and pending Korean visa reference settings and German Schengen guidance retain their scope.
• Corrected the UK head measurement to chin to crown without claiming whether hair is included. Added Japan’s existing voluminous-hair exception: estimate the crown one eye-to-chin distance above the eyes. The table, summary and facts exports use the same qualifications.
• These are presentation and wording corrections based on the research already recorded. No source was re-read, no full-record review date or verification status was advanced, and product geometry is unchanged.

U.S. passport, U.S. visa, USCIS forms, DV lottery, Korean passport, Korean visa, Japanese passport, Chinese visa, UK passport, Schengen visa, Saudi eVisa, Egyptian passport, Jordanian passport renewal, Philippine dual citizenship, Lebanese passport extension, UAE passport

U.S. visa photo guidance now separates DS-160 digital uploads from the two identical printed photos required at a DS-260 interview.

• Read the current Photo Requirements, Digital Image Requirements and Photo Composition Template pages. DS-160 applicants should also check whether their embassy or consulate requires a printed interview photo.
• The composition template gives the paper head measurement as 1 to 1 3/8 inches (25 to 35 mm rounded); its digital head range is 50% to 69%. The overview pairs the inch range with 22 to 35 mm, so the localized pages cite the composition template for the measurement.
• The Korean and Spanish visa pages distinguish the current source reads from the September 28 full-record review. The existing geometric checks, print layout and full-record checked date are unchanged.

U.S. visa

Korean visa photos: added Atlanta’s F-4 checklist and explained that this page’s 35 × 45 mm reference setting differs from its 2 × 2 in requirement.

• The official Atlanta notice asks for a passport-style photo taken within six months. It was posted December 16, 2021; its header says modified July 14, 2026 and its body separately says updated November 8, 2024. These dates do not prove when the photo requirement changed.
• Removed the claim that no official notice newer than 2016/2018 was found. The September 30 read applies to Atlanta’s F-4 checklist, not every consulate or visa category.
• The existing reference format, product checks and September 28 full-record date are unchanged. The record remains unverified; check the receiving consulate’s checklist before using the setting.

Korean visa

Schengen photo guidance: corrected the German missions’ adult head measurement to chin to top of skull, excluding hair, and linked the head, pose and glasses facts to the sample board that states them.

• The German missions’ current U.S. visa page still links the existing sample board and April 2025 checklist. We read those sources, the listed BMI photo examples and Italy’s New York tourism/transit visa page on September 30.
• The German adult 32–36 mm recommendation is a target, not the sole acceptance threshold: its sample board gives a 27–40 mm tolerance and separate child exceptions. The existing measurement target is unchanged; metadata and data exports retain the source scope.
• Removed the fixed six-month photo-age claim: the German checklist and Italy’s New York page say recent without a month limit. The background note no longer says white meets both consulates’ rules regardless of contrast.
• Removed the blanket editing prohibition attributed to Schengen consulates. The page now distinguishes the visa sources’ silence from the German BMI identification-photo board’s examples of unacceptable retouching and filters; original-photo-only checks are unchanged.
• This corrects source use, not a full verification of every Schengen consulate. The record stays unverified with its September 28 checked date; no child-mode rule or digital-upload specification was added.

Schengen visa

U.S. visa photo: the baby rule now says what our September 28 record of the State Department’s visa photo pages (read from archived copies) says: no other person in the photo, and eyes open. The page had carried the passport rule’s line that a baby’s eyes don’t have to be fully open.

• The camera’s Baby mode no longer tells U.S. visa applicants that an infant’s eyes may be closed, and no longer lets closed eyes pass for this document.
• UK passport: the glasses rule now uses GOV.UK’s own words, “Do not wear glasses in your photo unless you have to do so”, with no tinted lenses and nothing over the eyes. The page had said glasses were not allowed. GOV.UK was read on September 30.

U.S. visa, UK passport

Photo for USCIS forms: the page now says first that USCIS will not use or reuse self-submitted photographs (Policy Alert PA-2025-29, December 12, 2025), and the editing rule now uses the form instructions’ own words (unmounted and unretouched). Both come from the September 28 check; they were missing from the page.

• USCIS Policy Alert PA-2025-29 and USCIS’s December 12, 2025 alert were added to the photo for USCIS forms’ sources.
• Lebanese passport extension: the eligibility note now names the older machine-readable passport and the one-time 1- or 2-year extension.
• Egyptian passport, Jordanian passport renewal and Philippine dual citizenship: the size answer in the questions now says the authority publishes no head size and names the range we use as ours. It had given that range as the rule.
• DV lottery, Saudi eVisa, Lebanese passport extension and UAE passport: the size answer in the questions now gives the head or face as the share of the photo the authority states. It had given our millimeter equivalent as the rule.
• DV lottery and Saudi eVisa, which have no print: the readings at the top of the page and the /facts downloads now give that share too, with no millimeters, and the Saudi, UAE and Lebanese records name the face as the authority does.
• The /facts table now links, for each website, the page the rules come from. It had linked the last page read there: the U.S. passport row linked the older online renewal page instead of Passport Photos, and the photo for USCIS forms linked the news alert instead of the Form I-485 instructions. Every source is still listed on each document page and in the /facts downloads.
• We read the Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Philippine, Lebanese (Detroit) and UAE (ICP photo specifications) pages again on September 30. The Embassy of Egypt asks for three 2 × 2 in photos on a white background and doesn’t say color, so the page no longer does. The Philippine consulate in Los Angeles asks for two color photos; “identical” is the New York and San Francisco consulates’ word, and the page now says so.
• The Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi pages state no expression or editing rule, and the Philippine posts state no expression rule, so those pages no longer attribute one. The Lebanese consulate asks for a relaxed, natural expression without a frown, and the page now says that.
• UAE passport: ICP’s photo specifications allow glasses with no reflection and no tinted lenses; the page had said the rule was unclear.

USCIS forms, Lebanese passport extension, Egyptian passport, Jordanian passport renewal, Philippine dual citizenship, DV lottery, Saudi eVisa, UAE passport, U.S. passport, U.S. visa

Added 6 documents (Saudi tourist eVisa, Egyptian passport, Jordanian passport renewal, Philippine dual citizenship, Lebanese passport extension, UAE passport), each checked against its government’s pages.

• UAE: the icp.gov.ae FAQ and ICP’s Personal Photo Specifications. ICP’s own pages don’t mention editing; the editing rule comes from a Khaleej Times report and is labeled as one.
• Egypt, Jordan and the Philippines publish no head size; those pages say so and name the U.S. range we use as ours.

Saudi eVisa, Egyptian passport, Jordanian passport renewal, Philippine dual citizenship, Lebanese passport extension, UAE passport

Checked 10 documents against official pages. U.S. State Department pages were read from Wayback snapshots because the live site blocked automated access.

• Korean visa (consulate pages dated 2016 and 2018) and Schengen visa (consulates differ on the background): both are marked as not yet re-checked.

U.S. passport, U.S. visa, USCIS forms, DV lottery, Korean passport, Korean visa, Japanese passport, Chinese visa, UK passport, Schengen visa