United Kingdom Visa photo requirements

United Kingdom visa photo requirements, in plain English

A UK visa (entry clearance or permission) photo is taken to a single set of rules published by UK Visas and Immigration on gov.uk. The standard is built around a clear, well-lit, unedited colour photo on a plain light background. Every rule below comes straight from that official guidance.

Size, framing, and position

Your photo must be vertically orientated and show your head, shoulders and upper body, with your shoulders and torso clothed and dressed appropriately. You must be facing towards and looking straight at the camera. The file itself must be at least 600 pixels wide and 750 pixels tall, a JPG/JPEG, and between 50KB and 6MB.

Expression

Keep a plain expression with your mouth closed, and your eyes open and visible. Unlike the US passport, the UK visa does not allow a smile — a neutral face is required.

Glasses

The UK visa discourages but does not ban glasses: "Do not wear glasses in your photo unless you have to." If you must wear them, they cannot be sunglasses or tinted, and your eyes must not be covered by the frames or by any glare, reflection or shadow. The safest choice is to remove them.

Head coverings and hats

A head covering is only allowed for religious or medical reasons — and even then your facial features must be clearly visible. Ordinary hats and caps must be removed. Snapassport flags head coverings as a warning rather than a hard failure for the UK visa, since religious and medical coverings are expressly permitted.

Lighting, shadows, and red-eye

Take the photo in a well-lit room. There must be no shadows on your face or behind you, and the photo must not have red eye. The image must be clear, in focus, in colour, and unaltered by software or other means.

Background

Use a plain light-coloured background (preferably white), with your face and body in clear contrast to it. The photo must contain no other objects or people. Snapassport standardizes your background to the compliant colour automatically, so a slightly off-colour or busy wall is corrected for you.

Obstruction and gaze

Your facial features must be clearly visible: keep both eyes open and visible, and no hair in front of your eyes. Look straight at the camera.

Babies and young children

The rules relax for the youngest applicants:

• Children under 6 do not have to be looking directly at the camera or have a

plain expression.

• Children under 1 do not have to have their eyes open. You can **support the

child's head with your hand, but your hand must not be visible, or lay the baby on a plain light-coloured sheet and take the photo from above**.