durham_lad

Interesting that Doctor is not a recognized profession for a counter signatory unless the doctor knows you personally as a friend.

Pulaski

Well it is odd that they aren't specified separately, and yet nurses are, but I would argue doctors would be covered by "member, associate, or fellow of a professional body".

Steerpike

I'm sure Walgreens, CVS, etc all go through machine upgrades over time, and I wouldn't be surprised if they target different machines to different 'sizes' of store - fancy dancy machines for the bigger / high traffic stores, lesser machines for the smaller stores. There may even be regional differences (different machine vendors in different areas), although I would expect a national chain such as Walgreens would pick a nationwide supplier.

durham_lad

I agree but if you look at the gov.uk site linked above it specifically excludes doctors who are not friends or colleagues. I expect the NHS complained that doctors are expensive and not be used to fill in passport forms for patients.

Pulaski

Maybe it's because their signatures are illegible?

Giantaxe

Mine were taken on my iPhone. Then I used Photoshop to get the right dimensions for the UK and got them printed at OfficeMax. Total cost a little over $2.

durham_lad

There is always that

MarylandNed

Probably more expensive, but any good photographer should be able to produce passport photos to any specification. Canada is notoriously picky about passport photos so I used a local photographer's studio in the US to get Canadian passport photos for my daughter. The photographer quickly produced 2 for $25 and said he'd redo them at no additional charge if they were rejected - they weren't.

aless02

I've always used Paspic.com with good results, and I'm sure there's plenty of other online alternatives. Can't be bothered with going to a store these days! :-D

MarylandNed

Interesting that Canada is not an option. As I said earlier, Canada is notoriously picky about passport photos so I wonder if they were having a higher number of rejections of Canadian passport photos and just decided to give up.

iarnell

Canada requires that passport photos be taken by a professional photographer with their name, address, and date photo was taken printed or written on the back. Pretty hard to do that online unless they have a live interactive service.

kimilseung

I wonder how "Taken in person by a commercial photographer." is defined?
Their "not altered in any way " despite an explanation, would seem to eliminate all photography, ever. Unless a raw file was sent.

Pulaski

The objection is, I think to any digital photograph that has been accessed in digital form by the subject of photograph because of the ease of manipulation of digital photographs. The US has/had similar objections.

I agree that all photographs can be manipulated but traditional photographs require a certain degree of skill/practice, equipment, and facilities. Ironically a professional photographer would likely have access to all of those things fairly easily.

sahra

To follow up on this, I went to my local Walgreens. Their machines are really easy -- go to passport pictures, and then choose from the 100+ countries listed there. It even gives the requirements for British passport pictures for the employees to follow.

They didn't want to cut them, though. So I sent them uncut. I hope that works for the passport office, as well as the not precisely correct colour background!

MarylandNed

Other online services such as FREE Passport Photos by ePassportPhoto.com and www.mypassportphotos.com handle Canadian passport photos.

https://www.epassportphoto.com/15/Canada/Passport?

https://www.mypassportphotos.com/cou...ments-and-size