Get Your UK Passport Photos Accepted The First Time

As a mum to autistic and ADHD children, getting passport photos taken while trying to keep everyone regulated has been a real task for us. Here are some options on how you can go about getting passport photos done that meet the requirements of the HM passport office in the UK, with a detailed description of how I take my children’s photographs at home and make sure that they are likely to be accepted by the passport office the first time to avoid any delays in getting the new passport printed.

Below is a list of options that are best for getting your passport photo.

Do keep in mind that some options won’t work for you as it depends on the type of application that you do (an online application will need a digital photo, for example).

In a photo shop/by a photographer

You can get your passport photo taken by a professional. This ensures it is going to meet passport office requirements because the person taking the photo is experienced and knows exactly the different criteria for passport photos for each age group. You can ask for printed photos and also request a digital copy. The last time we used a photographer he emailed me a copy of the photo. Most photographers will be able to give you a passport photo code that you can use during your application with the HM passport office.

In a photo booth

Many stores and supermarkets have photo booths that you can use to get your passport photo taken in and you can walk away with it immediately. A photo booth will likely also be able to create a code for you that you can use during your application that will pull your specific photos and add them to the application for you.

By taking your own photo at home

You can also now take your own photographs for your UK passport at home. This is a very welcomed update to the application process and for families like mine with autistic children, this has been much better for us because it removes so many pressures like sensory input, new environments and time pressures. The downside is that photographs taken without professional input are less likely to be accepted – but I have some tricks you can use to increase the chance of acceptance so your application process goes smoothly and quickly.

Read all of the rules and requirements

Make sure you understand what is expected for the passport photograph before you try taking any. The rules are more flexible for children and there is also flexibility for people with a disability.

Just start

Try not to overthink it – I was awful for this the first time I tried taking my own passport photos. I read the rules over and over and talked myself out of trying it for so long because I didn’t have the perfect white wall or because I didn’t think I could get my son to stand still. Just try! It was actually much easier than I had thought and you don’t need a perfectly white background – it has to be light. There are some examples available on the government website about what is okay, and what isn’t. Take a look at them and go give it a shot!

How to have your setup

Do you have a light wall? White, magnolia or a light beige? Super light? Go for that, that is the easiest option for a child who can stand. If not, what I do is hang a light sheet or blanket as a background. Try not to worry about creases, there are options to fix that later and I explain how later in this post.

Using a flash on a phone camera is not a good idea, as soon as it flashes the person you are taking a photo of will blink and then the picture is not usable. The rules also state that you can’t have shadows on the face and this makes it a little difficult because any lights or lamps in the home often shine from one direction and make little shadows. I recommend using a light, even from another phone torch, and hold it slightly above or off to the side to create a stable light that removes any shadows that naturally occur due to the lighting in the home.

Use a professional compliance service

I was unsure what to call this service, so I’ve gone with compliance service. What I mean is you can submit your home-taken photographs to a professional to have them review it and tell you if it is likely to pass the HM passport office checks. This is a paid service and cost me less than £10 the last time I used it. What I like about this service is:

• You select the type (country) of passport you are applying for and the system will edit the photograph to meet the size requirements
• The online system can lighten up the background of your photograph and remove any shadows
• You will get an immediate answer about whether it is likely to pass or not
• An expert can review the photograph in more detail and tell you if you need to retake it or not
• If you submit a photograph that does not pass their checks, you do not have to keep paying for another check – your original payment covers unlimited revisions.

Use a passport photo app to make your own edits

There are apps you can use to make edits yourself, or there are apps that work just like the online passport photo checking service I described above. Either way, they are another option for you to make minor fixes to the photo you have taken. The UK passport office states that you can’t enhance your photograph, what this means is you can’t enhance yourself. You should not make changes to how you actually look, but you can make changes to lighten up the background and make the person in the photograph central to meet the requirements for a UK passport. I happened to grab a free passport photo editing app via HotUKDeals a while ago.

My passport photo editing process

The online service to have your photo checked for compliance digitally and then by a professional is a paid service and it takes a little bit of time to get the final evaluation from a real person. On the most recent application I made, I had made an error in calculating the time between now and when the next time we needed to use a passport to travel was. I needed to get everything done as quickly as possible so I tried a little workaround to get a photo submitted that was likely to pass the criteria:

I uploaded the photo to the passport photo website to see how they edited it. I then used a passport editing app that I’d managed to grab for free via HotUKDeals a while back and used the editing features to lighten the background, centre the photo and size his face correctly in it and chop the photograph to the right size for a UK passport. I checked that the editing I had done looked like the photo uploaded to the paid service and when it did I downloaded it and added the application. I’ll update you here if it happens to get rejected but so far, so good.

UPDATE: They rejected Luke’s passport photo with the following reason: a shadow which was a small shadow from the tip of his nose and said it looked edited. I actually agree it did but so did the original. Due to the shape of his head it looks like we edited out an ear on the left. I retook photos right away, submitted them to the expert website for review and then to the passport office and they were accepted within 6 minutes of me sending them over. His new and old passport are now back with me and from the time they received his passport it took 7 days to get the new one through the door.

I hope this helps! I know it can be difficult to get our little ones with additional needs to comply with a photographer and the demands it puts on them in that environment. Hopefully this helps you find a way to make it work.

To learn more about the UK passport wait times you can look at my article here.