pushgog90

Hey guys,

I'm new to the site... writing with a question about obtaining UK sized 35mm X 45mm photos in the USA. I am in the Baltimore-Washington metro area. I managed to get photos from Walgreens after coming across a nice guy who was willing to use the machine that they are all trained to use. He printed the photos for me but could not cut them. He actually printed me another set and cut one himself (free of charge) for me after I told him my photo would need to be countersigned. So I am sitting here with two photos that are together on paper and one photo that was cut out the paper. It was NOT cut from a larger PHOTOGRAPH but from a piece of photo paper.there is no paper in the USA that is 35 x 45mm. every passport photo has been cut from some larger piece of paper. the photos themselves are UK standard size. I know there is sometimes confusion with that. I am going to get the separate one countersigned and send in all 3 photos.

My other option is to go to an independent place not too far away that touts to do photos for almost any country. It'll be another $20. Anyway, my question is... Will what I have be sufficient? Should I pursue the other place?

Pulaski

It's not clear what your question is. Do you have a photo of the required size or not? ..... Are you saying you're concerned because you have trimmed it, or will have to? ..... I understood the "cut down" rule was in relation to a head shot cut from a much larger picture, not a passport style picture trimmed a little to meet the dimension requirements. IMO you have, if I have understood your question, waaaaay over thought this.

pushgog90

Lol, yeah I have been overthinking it all day. I read the stories on here about photos being rejected and how the Washington office used to accept American style pics, so I wanted to be careful I never "trimmed" a photo. The photo was a standard UK 35 x 45 that was cut out of a large piece of photo paper. the photo was always that size....

Pulaski

So it meets the size requirements? If so, what's your question? ..... Do you need to go get another photo taken by someone else? ..... If the answer to my first question (in this post) is "yes", then the answer to the last question is "no", and vice versa.

pushgog90

Hey guys!

This morning I stopped by National Photo on Reisterstown rd in Pikesville, MD. For $15 I got professional photos taken and a sheet of 4 printed UK standard photos. The photographer told me not to try to cut them out and that he has been doing these for years. I should mention I waited all of 8 minutes.If you are in the Baltimore-Washington metro area and need UK passport photos, I highly recommend National Photo. Now feeling awesome

MarylandNed

$15 is a good deal. Any half-decent, professional photographer should be able to produce acceptable passport photos if you give him/her the correct specifications. Canada is very picky about its passport photos but I found a local photographer here in the US who had never had Canadian passport photos rejected - and he guaranteed to re-do them for no additional charge if they ever were rejected. He had templates for every passport you could think of. He charged $25 though - not $15.

SamPoppey

I'm curious if anyone has had their passport pictures taken at Walgreens in the USA, and then have those same pictures rejected by the UK passport office?

Thank you!

RICH

I'm curious if anyone, anywhere, ever, has had their passport photo (application) rejected, purely because the photo size was a few millimeters outside the specifications.

MidAtlantic

It is not so much a question of where they were taken but the specification. Walgreens to UK specification (which they can do, even though their staff often don't realize it) have always worked for me.

LeavingLondon

Worked for me too. Had them done recently and the guy at Walgreen's matched up the size perfectly and made sure all UK guidelines were followed. UK seems stricter than US when it comes to passport pics. I think in the US you can smile a little (no teeth), where as for the UK it needs to look more like a mugshot.

celticgrid

This is often the hardest part of the exercise, getting Walgreens staff to understand that their machine has other settings beyond 'US'.

Gillymonkey

I used Walgreens for my son. Really easy, I just asked them not to cut them and sent them off to the passport office uncut. Never had a problem.

SamPoppey

I requested Walgreens staff for the UK option, and then showed them on the scanning machine screen, and they produced the hardcopy very nicely. Although my clumsy hands tried to cut each picture to the specified size of 45mm by 35mm, ultimately I did not create a beautiful rectangle . We'll see what the passport office thinks!

MarylandNed

Yeah. It reminds me of the time I tried to use a US credit card in the UK and the cashier at the restaurant said she couldn't process it because it didn't have a chip. I told her that she could still use the swipe part or manually key in the card number. Eventually I gave up and paid in cash.

SamPoppey

I received my new passport today! Hip, hip hooray to Walgreens photos!!!