Passport photo size in mm — every country's exact dimensions 2026

The short answer

For most of Europe and the Schengen zone the answer is 35 × 45 mm with a face height of 32-36 mm. Outside Schengen there are real differences: the US is 51 × 51 mm square, Italy is 35 × 40 mm, Finland is 36 × 47 mm, and Spain uses an unusually small 32 × 26 mm. Reusing a photo cropped for one country in another is the most common source of rejection.

Country-by-country

What the numbers mean

• Print (mm) — the physical dimensions of the printed photo. Off by 1 mm is enough to fail.
• Face (mm) — chin to crown height of your face within the print. The most common rejection reason: your face is slightly too big or too small in the frame.
• DPI — print resolution. 300 is the floor; UK, Germany, France and Belgium need 600.
• Background — must be uniform, no shadows. France is the only EU country that explicitly forbids pure white.

Why countries differ

Every government starts from ICAO 9303 (the UN biometric standard) and adds local tweaks. Schengen converged most of the EU on 35 × 45 / 32-36 mm, but countries that joined later (or never joined) like the UK, US, Italy and Spain kept legacy formats. ICAO doesn't care which size you use as long as the face proportions inside the frame meet the international standard.

Practical advice

Don't guess. Pick the country your document is for, not your country of residence — a Dutch resident applying for a US visa needs the 51 × 51 square format, not the 35 × 45 they use for their NL passport.

Take your passport photo with our AI — pick a country, we apply the exact dimensions automatically.