Australia Passport Photo Requirements
Australia publishes a size range, not a single 35 x 45 mm number, and the 35x45 everyone quotes is only its low corner. The full spec from the Australian Passport Office, and the rules that get photos knocked back.
An Australian passport photo must be a colour print 35 to 40 mm wide by 45 to 50 mm high, with your face measuring 32 to 36 mm from chin to crown, on a plain white or light grey background, taken within the last six months. Those figures are set by the Australian Passport Office (APO), the arm of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that issues every Australian passport.
Read that first line again, because it is where Australia differs from almost every guide you will find: the size is a range, not a single number. This guide covers the Australian spec only. For the rules every country shares, see passport photo requirements explained; for how the dimensions differ nation to nation, passport photo size by country.
The exact Australian passport photo spec
Every value below is published by the Australian Passport Office. It is a portrait photo, and the accepted size is a band rather than one exact rectangle.
| Print size | 35 to 40 mm wide by 45 to 50 mm high |
| Face height (chin to crown) | 32 to 36 mm |
| Background | Plain white or light grey, in clear contrast to your face |
| Number of photos | Two identical colour prints for a paper application |
| Recency and finish | Colour gloss prints less than six months old |
| Expression | Face straight on, eyes open, neutral expression, mouth closed |
| Editing | No retouching; even brightening the background or smoothing skin can fail biometric checks |
Why it is a range, not "35 x 45 mm"
Search for an Australian passport photo size and you will be told, almost everywhere, that it is 35 x 45 mm. That number is not wrong, but it is not the whole rule. The Australian Passport Office's camera operator guidelines accept any print between 35 and 40 mm wide and between 45 and 50 mm high. The familiar 35 x 45 mm is simply the smallest size that qualifies, sitting in the bottom corner of the accepted band.
This matters in two directions. If you already have a photo cut to the European or British 35 x 45 mm standard, it meets the Australian size rule, so you do not need a special "Australian" print. And if a photo booth or lab hands you a slightly larger print, say 38 x 48 mm, that is inside the range and equally valid. What stays fixed inside any of those sizes is the face: 32 to 36 mm from chin to crown, which is a taller face than the UK asks for, so the head fills more of the frame.
babapic's Australian passport photo maker outputs 413 x 531 pixels, which is exactly 35 x 45 mm at 300 DPI: the low corner of the range, and a size every Australian application accepts. If you want to understand how those millimetres and pixels relate, see what DPI means.
The six-month rule and the no-editing rule
Two Australian rules catch people who otherwise have a well-composed photo.
First, the photo must be less than six months old. The point is that it looks like you look now, so a flattering photo from two years ago will be knocked back even if nothing else is wrong with it. This is a more generous window than the UK's one month, but shorter than you might assume from an old photo that still "looks fine".
Second, the Australian Passport Office is unusually direct about editing: do not retouch the image at all. It specifically warns that even small edits, such as smoothing skin, brightening the background, or removing shadows, can interfere with the biometric checks used to match your face. So the fix for a shadowed or dull background is to take the photo again against a properly lit plain wall, not to correct it afterwards in an app. A background that is patterned, dark, or that your face does not stand out against is one of the more common reasons passport photos get rejected.
Background, expression, glasses, and head coverings
The rest of the Australian rules line up with the international biometric standard behind what makes a passport photo biometric, with a few specifics worth pinning down:
- Background. Plain white or light grey, evenly lit, in clear contrast to your face, with no shadows behind you and no one else in the frame.
- Expression. Face the camera straight on, not tilted, with eyes open, mouth closed, and a neutral expression. Hair should be off the face so the edges of your face are visible.
- Glasses. In general you should have nothing on your face. If you must wear glasses, your eyes have to be clearly visible with no glare or tint. Where you can, take them off.
- Head coverings. Not worn except for religious or medical reasons, and even then your full face from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead must be visible.
Babies and young children
The strict expression rules apply to anyone over three years old, who must face the camera straight on with eyes open and a neutral expression. For children under three, the Australian Passport Office relaxes those requirements, since a baby cannot hold a pose. The size, background, and no-editing rules still apply, so lay an infant on a plain white sheet and shoot from directly above, with nobody else and no toys or hands in the frame. For the full approach across countries, see baby and infant passport photo rules.
Make an Australian passport photo online
Once you have a photo taken against a plain white or light grey wall, in good even light and less than six months old, you can size it without paying a booth. babapic's Australian passport photo maker crops your photo to the correct portrait ratio with a drag-to-position box and resizes it to 413 x 531 pixels, all in your browser, with nothing uploaded to any server. It sizes and crops the photo but cannot judge your background or lighting, so those remain your job. To compare Australia against another 35 x 45 mm country, the UK passport photo maker and the full passport photo maker hub cover the rest. As always with a government application, confirm the current rules on the Australian Passport Office site before you lodge.