Passport photo head tilt: the eyes-level rule (2026)

The rule

Your head must be straight, eyes on a horizontal line, no tilt left or right and no nodding forward or back. Countries take this from ICAO 9303: the face must be centred and upright. Even a small tilt is visible, more than people realise.

Three ways your head can be wrong

• Roll (tilt left/right). One ear higher than the other. Most common in selfies because you tilt your head to fit the camera in frame.
• Pitch (chin up/down). Looking down at the phone or up at it. A selfie taken at chest height usually has the chin up.
• Yaw (face turned left/right). Less common: it usually happens when the camera is not centred on your face.

How a tilt is spotted

A photo check looks at landmarks such as your pupils and the tip of your nose. If the line between your eyes is not level, or your nose is off-centre, the head is tilted or turned.

The fix that works

Phone on a tripod or stack of books at eye level. Look directly into the lens. The result:

• No roll because you can position your head squarely
• No pitch because the camera is at your eye height
• No yaw because you're looking straight at the lens

A self-timer and a tripod usually beat a handheld selfie for a straight head.

Software tilt correction

Software can measure the tilt of the eye line and rotate the photo so your eyes are level before cropping. We do this automatically. That only fixes roll; for pitch and yaw you have to retake the photo, because a face filmed from an angle cannot be turned back.

Take your passport photo with Foto2Pass. Automatic eye-level rotation and a crop to your country's spec, for €8.99 in the euro countries.