Belgium Driving Licence Photo: 35 x 45 mm, and Why Communes Disagree About a White Background

A Belgium driving licence photo is requested by your municipality (commune), and the commune pages do not all say the same thing. Here is what the official pages actually state.

What the region says

Wallonie.be: to obtain a licence you go to your local authority with your ID card or foreign residence permit, the driving test pass certificate, any provisional licence to be replaced and «a recent ID photograph». A renewal also needs a recent ID photograph. For a provisional licence you only need a recent photograph if you have a residence permit in paper form — «by default, the photograph on your ID card is used».

Three communes, three wordings

So the background depends on where you apply. The simplest route: ask your commune, or check whether your recent ID card photo can be reused.

The federal standard behind the ID photo

The FPS Foreign Affairs and FPS Interior requirements for passports, eID cards and residence documents: 35 x 45 mm, face from chin to top of skull 31–36 mm (70–80 % of the height), at most 6 months old, sharp, not retouched, at least 400 dpi, a light plain background without gradient, neutral expression with the mouth closed, glasses only with fully transparent lenses and no reflections.

Éghezée also lists what gets a licence photo refused: blur, marks or folds, wrong dimensions, strong shadows, poor exposure, a face covered by a hat or hair, and glasses with reflections or a frame that is too thick.

See our Belgium driving licence photo page for the format.