astera

Currently in Spain and trying to get passports renewed for my daughters, and lo and behold finding even a semi-decent photographer/studio is harder than booking a flight to the Mars with a 2-day stopover on the moon.

Out of 5 "best rated" ones in the vicinity there is only one who can take a photo of a face without dodgy shadows of an off background. Problem now is that the paper they print their photos on isn't the old-style glossy (that people often dislike for leaving fingerprint and smudge marks ) but a slight matt texture.

Is that going to disqualify those photos within the first 5 seconds of the passport officer seeing them?

calman014

Why not take a look online.
I had the same problem. Try finding a place that takes passport photos..!!!
There are now very good Apps where you can do it on your phone and just upload the photo.
It worked for my UK PP and they are extremely fussy.

Good luck.

astera

Australian passport photos still need to be the physical ones. And in this case I need to get one signed by a guarantor.

Things are much easier with a UK passport - as you mentioned you can just take a photo yourself or head to the nearest photo place and ask them to take one and upload the photo into the system.

Australia really does need to catch up in this case...

calman014

The better apps are quite smart allowing you to choose which pp. country and the relevant requirements are applied to your photo.

Then it's a matter of printing it off.

astera

Good point. Which app did you use?

I'm surprised that for applications handled in person by going to the embassy they cannot just take your picture on the spot (to their liking!). Especially since they then need to upload everything in electronic form any way.

Seems like every post office needs to know how to take a picture... but an embassy can't?

calman014

Just go to the relevant App Store and punch in Passport Photo.

abner

I hear ya (I have a family of dual citizens to keep passports current for, and there always seem to be problems with one format vs the other). [Surely the image size could become an international standard!!]

But, I do get that consulates / embassies avoid (except in special circumstances) being guarantors for identity for passport applicants. So in that sense, it's (IMHO) unreasonable to expect them to be one-stop-shops for both photo-taking and issuance of a critical national identity document, like a passport.

astera

Recently had one of our photos rejected and only found out almost two weeks after lodging the passport application. Luckily they allowed me to send in a digital photo by email rather than have to fly back again to the Australiam embassy.

Actually Australian passport photos are the most lenient when it comes to size, though in our case it was something to do with the quality of the photo that they didn't like.

As for being guarantors I don't believe embassy/consulate staff are allowed to do so. They aren't even allowed to be your signature witness on the form itself, though an external worker at the premises (security guard) can at least witness your signature.