If you have seen a passport before, then you might have observed that similar to other types of identification, this document also features a photograph of the bearer. The passport is a very important travel document because this discloses your nationality and identity whenever you are traveling to a foreign country. Therefore, for an official to ensure that you are the person in this passport, your photograph must be included along with other vital personal information such as your full name, birth date and citizenship.
But, since many individuals try to falsify this document from time to time, the photograph specifications for passport are more stringent nowadays when compared with other identifications like your government ID, driver's license and office ID. These strict measures will ensure that your photograph is reliable in terms of identifying you as the rightful owner.
Canadian and Dutch passport photos, which are particularly hard to do as the countries have very strict regulations must be of high-quality in order to accurately depict the bearer and also need to be totally free from any kind of imperfections to avoid delays at the time of processing. Some of the common print properties for a passport photo are: there should be no editing, retouching or enhancing; it must be a 2 x 2 inch or 35mm X 45mm color photo; print should be clear with a continuous tone quality and printing must be done on a thin photograph paper or stock. The processing time usually ranges from 15 to 20 minutes when you use a professional company in Los Angeles.
Additionally, the passport photo should expose your full head, meaning the center of your head must be inside the frame and your eyes should be depicted between 1:1/8 inches - 1:3/8 inches from the bottom of the photo. The background of the photograph must be plain white or gray without any distracting dark areas and as expected, you need to have a natural expression.
Keep in mind that you have to satisfy all of these photograph requirements whenever you are applying for a passport. In the event that you did not adhere to any of the specifications, this will delay the application process. For this reason it's important that you get your photograph taken by a professional photographer in Los Angeles as this person will know the exact requirements for passport.