alcalvert

My wife is in the process of renewing her UK passport in the US and has had her passport photos rejected claiming they do not meet IPS standards because the photo is the "incorrect size". As far as we could determine, it is impossible to get the correct size anywhere in the USA, so we sought out a professional photographer with a 2D guillotine type cutter that claimed to be 45×35 mm. I have since measured the remaining photos he cut for us and they are all 45.2 mm by 35.1 mm(+/-0.1mm). They meet all the other image size criteria except this one, which I believe is outside the ability of the passport office to measure, but they were cut from a slightly larger original contrary to the instructions.

My feeling is that since no one applying can satisfy the requirement for the correct size uncut photo, some jobsworth is having sport rejecting photos. We cannot travel back to the UK to get the correct size photos (they still have her passport!), so what should we do? Is there a source of 45mm×35mm matt photo paper? Does anyone know of a UK size passport photo machine in the USA? We are prepared to travel within the lower 48 and make a bit of a vacation out of it, but do not know where there may be one.

Can we abandon the application and re-apply hoping to get a different photo examiner?

lansbury

Your local Walgreens will do UK size passport photos. Their machines are set up with them preprogrammed for that size. I got mine at a Walgreens when I renewed my UK passport last year.

There are also online sites that you can download a jpg to and get them printed out.

Brat1

+1

We got ours at Walgreens last year when we renewed, and they did them while we waited and cut them to size. I don't know if any of the other pharmacies do them also, but Walgreens definitely do. Good luck

morayeel

I too renewed my Uk passport in the US. Walgreens did my pic and I had no problems. Good Luck

lisa67

Ditto all of the above, except I had to make sure that the Walgreen store assistant knew she could set the machine to the UK passport size....not all of them are the brightest bulbs in the box

Mr Weeze

I successfully sized a template on my PC (just in word, drawing a rectangle and setting the right dimensions) and cut the picture out.

Mallory

Daughter got hers done at Costco. I got mine done at Rite Aid drug store.

Or try www.idphoto4you.com

alcalvert

Thanks for all the replies.

Walgreens was the first place I went to when we began this process. Their machine only determines the correct size to print the head. The photo is still printed on a larger piece of photographic paper and then cut to size by the assistant with a pair of scissors. The instructions clearly state "not be trimmed or cut down from a larger photo to the size of a standard passport photo". In fact, it was the lady at Walgreens that sent us to the photographer with the special cutter for British passport photos, since she had met this issue before and didn't trust her wobbly hand!

I think it is the cutting issue that is the problem, since the photos met all other conditions (I checked and double checked, much easier now that voluminous hair styles are out!) and a digital micrometer measurement of the other two photos in the set of four reveal they are the correct size within 0.2 mm. The trim is neat, but as a layman with a magnifying glass I could probably determine that it had been cut, but it looks no worse than my old 5 by 8 prints from K-Mart cut on their processing machine, just a very slight compression of the edge.

So do British passport photo machine photos have a white border around the edge? What if we were to send a digital photo to a photo printer in the UK? Do they have 35×45 mm photo paper?

Thanks again!

Speedwell

None of my local Walgreens seem to be up to the job, despite my protests that they could do it.

Mallory's link is a good one, and there are other similar sites.

Bob

It shouldn't matter where you get it done, US sized pic should be fine, the pic will get cut down to size when your passport app gets processed. It just needs to meet the other photo guidelines for headshot etc rather than the US one.

Cheapest option is do it yourself though, http://www.epassportphoto.com/ for lining up the pics and get it printed where ever, Target, Walmart etc.

LA12345

Hi.

Passport renewal: I used a standard, untrimmed, US passport photo taken at my local Post Office in Manhattan. Applied via Embassy in DC. New passport arrived from UK Passport Office less than 3 weeks later. The photo had been trimmed down to size.

That was my experience. As yours was returned it looks like it depends who you get on the day.

In NYC there are many places with the software other posters have suggested. UPS stores in NYC also have it so may be worth a go.

Best of luck.

RICH

Nowadays, I expect the criteria for rejection is more about the scanning/facial recognition properties of the photo, than the size, but they would not likely tell you that.

danfan

5 years ago, I send untrimmed pics from the Walgreens UK passport picture setting. That was fine. They cut them out and sent it back to me.

This time, I went to pop the renewal in the mail for my daughter's passport, and decided to double check that nothing has changed - I know since then, the passports are printed in UK not DC, so I did some googling.

I was floored to read people say theirs was rejected for being the 46x36 photos from walgreens. Grabbed my ruler, yep, 46x36.
Would someone really reject for 1 mm?

Can't decide whether to attempt to trim or just leave the 2 pics side by side on the paper as is and not cut a thing.

danfan

Okay, I just paid the 3 quid to ask the passport office on live chat.
Told them that Walgreens printed them slightly over. Their response was:

Beki said: Yes, do not cut them yourself, send them how they are, and the examiner will trim them.

Nutmegger

CVS drugstore did mine -- they have a big manual with all the requirements for various countries (as I'm sure do the other drugstores). I think I also used Sears once.