Citizenship photos by country
Citizenship paperwork does not borrow the passport photo rule automatically. The office that decides your application writes its own, and it can differ from the passport rule of the same country. Below is every citizenship format we have confirmed against an official page, plus what to look at before you take the picture.
| Country | Size | Head | Background | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 35 × 45 mm | 71–80% | White or light uniform background | |
| Belarus | 30 × 40 mm | 70–80% | Plain light background without textures or noticeable gradients | |
| Colombia | 40 × 50 mm | 70–80% | Plain light background without textures or noticeable gradients | |
| Georgia | 30 × 40 mm | 70–80% | Plain light background without textures, shadows, or foreign objects | |
| Mongolia | 40 × 60 mm | 70–80% | Plain light background without textures or noticeable gradients | |
| New Zealand | 35 × 45 mm | 70–80% | Plain light background without textures or noticeable gradients | |
| Papua New Guinea | 35 × 45 mm | 70–80% | Plain light background without textures or noticeable gradients | |
| Russia | 30 × 40 mm | — | Even white background without stripes, spots, foreign objects, or shadows | |
| Singapore | — | 70–80% | Plain white background | |
| Sri Lanka | 35 × 45 mm | 70–80% | Plain light background without textures or noticeable gradients | |
| USA | 51 × 51 mm | 49–69% | White or off-white background | |
| Uzbekistan | 35 × 45 mm | 70–80% | Plain light background without textures, shadows, or foreign objects |
How this differs from a passport or visa photo
Passport and visa photos are made in huge numbers, so their rules are usually published on their own page, with the measurements set out in a table. A citizenship photo is attached to one application, and its rule is more often a paragraph inside the instructions for that application. Read that paragraph: it is the text the office will judge your photo by, and each country page here links straight to it.
The second difference is what happens to the picture afterwards. A visa photo stops mattering when the visa expires; a passport photo is replaced when the booklet is. A citizenship decision is meant to last, and the file it creates is kept long after the paperwork is done. This is not the place to reuse a portrait left over from an older application.
Why these rules vary more than passport rules
Passport photos have been pulled towards each other by the international standard that lets a machine at a border read a travel document. Citizenship papers sit outside that: nothing is scanned at a checkpoint, so nothing pushes two countries towards the same numbers. Each office keeps the format it has always had.
Naming pulls things apart too. What one country handles as a naturalisation certificate, another runs as a citizenship application, a registration or a declaration — and separate routes inside one country can carry separate photo rules. Go by the name printed on the form you are filling in, not by the words you searched for.
If this is your first citizenship application
- Photographers work from passport habit, and this form may ask for something else.
- Check whether the photo has to be printed, uploaded, or both. A file that looks right on screen is still the wrong thing to attach to a paper form.
- Check how many copies are wanted, and whether anything has to be written on the back of the print.
- Take the picture shortly before you submit, not months ahead. Every authority wants a portrait that matches how you look now; the exact limit, where one is stated, is on the country page.