Schengen area document photo requirements

What these formats have in common — Schengen area

1. 01Every format here uses the same photo size: 35 × 45 mm.
2. 02The background is the same in every format: Plain light.
3. 03Across these formats the head takes 70–80% of the picture height.
4. 043 documents work either way — bring a photo of your own, or have it taken at the office.
5. 05These entries were last read between 17 May 2026 and 19 Aug 2026.
6. 06A single document can still add rules of its own on top of this — the document page is the complete list.

Photo specifications at a glance — Schengen area

How to make such a photo

For the selected document — Schengen area EU Passport, 35 × 45 mm. Three ways; pick the one that suits you.

1. 

   With a phone at home

   Ask someone to photograph you against a light wall in daylight, the phone at eye level. Then, for free:

   • 01Cropping to size
   • 02Background replacement
   • 03A check against your document’s rules
2. 

   

   With AI from a selfie

   Upload any selfie — the AI builds a photo to the selected document’s rules: size, background, light and head position. You see the result before you pay.

   €5.99per photo, one-off, no subscription

   If it’s rejected, we refund you

   Make it from a selfie
3. 10 × 15 sheet · 4 photos 35 × 45 mm

   In a photo studio

   If you need a printed photo today, show the photographer the requirements from the document’s page. And a ready phone photo we will lay out on a 10 × 15 or A4 sheet for free — print it at any photo studio.

   Print sheet

Recent notes — Schengen area

Short notes we wrote when a requirement, a form or a submission portal changed.

• EES Is Live: The Face Photo and Fingerprints Taken at the Schengen BorderSince 10 April 2026 the EES records a face photo and fingerprints of non-EU short-stay visitors at all Schengen external borders — no advance registration.
• EU ID card photo requirements: sizes and rules by countryThe size for an ID card photo in EU countries is not uniform: Spain requires 32 × 26 mm, France needs 35 × 45 mm, and in Lithuania, the initial print must be 40 × 60 mm.
• EU residence permit photo requirements: what the EU sets and what countries decideEU regulations mandate the ID-1 format and a microchip, leaving the exact photo size to individual member states, while biometric data is stored for a maximum of 90 days.
• EU passport photo size: why there is no single EU standardCouncil Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 requires a highly secure storage medium containing a facial image, but pan-European rules regarding the exact dimensions of the printed photo are not published in accessible sources.

All updates →