UK Child Passport Photo Rules, Age by Age
The passport photo rules change twice in a child's life: at their first birthday and at their sixth. Under 6, they need not look at the camera or hold a plain expression. From 6, the adult standard applies in full.
By Helal · Last updated
What are the UK passport photo rules for children?
There are three tiers, and they turn on two birthdays. Under 1, a child does not need their eyes open and may be photographed lying on a plain light sheet from above. Under 6, GOV.UK states that children "do not have to be looking directly at the camera or have a plain expression" — but their eyes must be open. From age 6, the full adult standard applies: eyes open, looking straight at the camera, plain expression, mouth closed.
Everything else is identical at every age. The photo is 45mm × 35mm printed, or at least 600 × 750 pixels digital. The head measures 29mm to 34mm crown to chin. The background is plain and light. The child is alone in the frame. There are no toys and no dummies.
The three age bands at a glance
Requirement | Under 1 | 1 to 5 | 6 and over |
|---|---|---|---|
Eyes open | Not required | Required | Required |
Looking at camera | Not required | Not required | Required |
Plain expression | Not required | Not required | Required |
Mouth closed | Not required | Not required | Required |
Alone in frame | Required | Required | Required |
No toys or dummies | Required | Required | Required |
Plain light background | Required | Required | Required |
Head 29–34mm, no shadows | Required | Required | Required |
May lie on a sheet, shot from above | Recommended | No | No |
HM Passport Office's examiner guidance sets out the under-6 waivers explicitly — examiners may accept a photo where "both eyes are not open," where a "child wears permanent or long-term eye patches," where a "child does not have a neutral expression," where a "child does not have mouth closed," and where a "child not looking directly at the camera." It then states that children over 6 must meet the adult standards.
Ages 1 to 5: the hardest band
Counterintuitively, this is the difficult one. A newborn can be laid down and photographed at leisure. A six-year-old can be asked to sit still and look at the lens. A toddler can do neither.
What you are working with: eyes must be open, but they can look wherever they like, and they can be mid-laugh, mid-yawn or mid-scowl. That is a genuine relaxation and worth leaning on — do not spend twenty minutes trying to get a two-year-old to hold a neutral face, because you do not need one.
What actually works with a toddler:
- Stand them against a plain wall, roughly a metre clear of it. The clearance kills the shadow. See what colour background a UK passport photo needs.
- Get down to their eye height. Shooting down at a child produces a tilted-back head and a distorted face, and the examiner guidance rejects photos where the head is "tilted backward, forward or to the side."
- Have a second adult stand directly behind you to hold their attention. Behind you, not beside — a child looking off to one side turns their head, and a turned head is a rejection even when the gaze rule is waived.
- Use burst mode. Hold the shutter and take thirty frames. One of them will be right.
- Do not use a toy to get their attention if it will end up in shot. The no-toys rule is absolute.
- Keep the sessions short. Three attempts of two minutes beat one attempt of ten.
Turn the flash off. Children blink at flashes, and red-eye is an explicit rejection ground — the examiner guidance instructs staff to "reject the photo if red-eye shows on the paper photos or on screen."
Age 6 and over: the adult standard
From a child's sixth birthday, every relaxation ends. They must look straight down the lens, hold a plain expression with their mouth closed, and keep their head square and level.
Two things make this easier than it sounds:
Explain why. Older children respond well to "this is your official face for the border computer, so it needs to be your normal face, not a funny one." Framing it as a technical task rather than a photo-shoot removes most of the performing.
Watch for the suppressed smile. A six-year-old told not to smile will produce either a smirk or a grimace, and the guidance rejects "smiling widely, pouting, frowning." Let them get the silly one out of their system first, take a few frames, then shoot immediately after they relax.
For the full detail on what counts as neutral, see why smiling gets your passport photo rejected.
Rules that never change, whatever the age
Alone in the frame. "Children must be on their own in the picture." No parent's hand, arm, shoulder, knee or reflection. This is the most common rejection across every child age band, because holding a child still and staying out of a 35mm-wide crop are competing objectives.
No toys, no dummies. GOV.UK states that "babies must not be holding toys or using dummies," and the principle — no objects in frame — applies at every age.
Head height. 29mm to 34mm crown to chin on a printed photo. A small child's head has to fill the same proportion of the frame as an adult's, which means getting closer than feels natural. See UK passport photo size requirements.
Hair out of the eyes. The rule is that the photo must "not have hair in front of your eyes." A fringe that reaches the eyebrows is fine; one that reaches the eyelashes is not.
No head coverings except for religious or medical reasons — which includes the eye patches named in the examiner guidance. See head coverings in UK passport photos.
How often children need a new photo
Child passports are valid for five years, against ten for an adult, which means children need a new photo far more often — and a child's appearance changes enormously across five years, which is the reason for the shorter validity.
Two timing rules apply to the photo itself. It "must have been taken in the last month" when you submit it. And once HM Passport Office has received it, examiner guidance gives a child's photo a 6-month shelf life, against 12 months for an adult.
A child passport costs £66.50 online or £80 by post, per GOV.UK passport fees. If a photo is rejected the application is delayed rather than the fee lost, but with a five-yearly renewal cycle and school holidays to plan around, a delay is often the more expensive problem.
Booth or home for a child?
Adults are usually better served by a booth's technical reliability. For children the balance tips the other way, and it is worth being explicit about why.
Consideration | Photo booth | At home |
|---|---|---|
Attempts | One sitting | As many as you like |
Seat height | Fixed, adult-scaled | You choose |
Flash | Yes, direct | None needed |
Second adult to hold attention | Awkward in a booth | Easy |
Background and dimensions | Handled | Yours to manage |
Reviewing at full size before committing | Limited | Yes |
A booth solves the background, the framing and the file. Those are the parts of a child's photo that go wrong least often. What goes wrong is expression, gaze, eyes shut on the flash, and a head at the wrong height for a fixed stool — and a booth makes every one of those harder rather than easier.
The exception is a child old enough to sit still and follow instructions, where a booth is quick and adequate.
Getting a child to look at the camera from age 6
The gaze requirement is the one that actually needs technique, because you cannot instruct your way to it.
Put the camera where you want them to look. Prop the phone and stand directly behind it, not to one side. A child follows the person, not the lens, so if you are beside the camera their eyes go with you.
Give them a target. "Look at the little circle on the front" works better than "look at the camera," which is a large ambiguous object.
Use a burst, then choose. Thirty frames gives you one where the eyes are open, level and on the lens simultaneously. Trying to catch that in a single shot is unnecessarily hard.
Do it in short bursts. Two minutes, break, two minutes. Attention degrades fast and the photos get worse, not better, as a session goes on.
Check the eyes at full size. Half-closed eyes are almost invisible on a phone preview and obvious at full resolution.
What to do when a photo just will not happen
Some children — through age, temperament, sensory sensitivity or disability — will not produce a compliant photo in a home session, and grinding away at it helps nobody.
Two things worth remembering:
The waivers are real. Under 6, you do not need eye contact or a neutral expression. Many parents reject perfectly acceptable photos themselves because the child was looking at the ceiling. That is permitted.
Examiner discretion exists. The photo standards are written as guidance for human examiners, with explicit provision for waiving requirements for children. If your child has a condition that makes the standard impossible, submit the best true likeness you can rather than assuming a refusal.
If you are unsure which relaxations apply at your child's age, our UK passport photo service checks the photo against the standard that applies to them.
Frequently asked questions
At what age do the child passport photo rules change?
Twice: at 1 and at 6. Under 1, eyes need not be open. Under 6, a child need not look at the camera or hold a plain expression. From 6, the full adult standard applies.
Can my child smile in their passport photo?
Under 6, yes — GOV.UK states children under 6 "do not have to be looking directly at the camera or have a plain expression." From age 6, no. A plain expression with the mouth closed is required.
Can I be in the photo with my child?
No. "Children must be on their own in the picture" at every age. For a baby you may support their head, but your hand must not be visible.
Can my child hold a toy to keep them still?
No. Toys and dummies are prohibited in the frame. Use a toy held by another adult standing behind the camera instead.
How long is a child's passport photo valid?
It must have been taken within the last month when you submit it, and HM Passport Office treats a child's photo as usable for 6 months from receipt, compared with 12 months for an adult.
Is a photo booth better for a child?
Usually not. A booth solves the background, framing and file — the parts of a child's photo that rarely fail. It makes expression, gaze, blinking at the flash and seat height harder, and those are what actually cause rejections. A child old enough to sit still and follow instructions is the exception.
How do I get my child to look at the camera?
Prop the phone and stand directly behind it rather than beside it, since children follow the person rather than the lens. Give them a specific target on the phone to look at, use burst mode, and keep sessions to about two minutes.
Do the same rules apply to a child's driving licence or visa photo?
The photo standard is the same across HM Passport Office, DVLA and the Home Office. A provisional driving licence cannot be applied for until shortly before a child's 16th birthday, by which point the full adult standard applies anyway. See provisional driving licence photo requirements.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Get a passport photo: photo requirements for babies and children
- GOV.UK, Get a passport photo: digital photos
- HM Passport Office, Photo standards (accessible)
- GOV.UK, Passport fees