German Passport Photo Requirements
Since May 2025 a German passport or ID card photo must reach the office digitally, so a print from home no longer works inside Germany. The exception is applying at an embassy abroad.
The German passport photo requirements changed on 1 May 2025: if you apply inside Germany, a printed photo is no longer accepted for a Reisepass or Personalausweis, whether it came from a studio, a booth, or your own printer. The photo has to reach the Bürgeramt digitally, either taken on the spot at the office or uploaded by a registered photographer to a secure cloud. The one place a printed 35 x 45 mm photo still works is an application at a German embassy or consulate abroad.
The rules below come from the Federal Ministry of the Interior's ID-card portal, Personalausweisportal: Biometrie (Passbild und Fingerabdrücke), and the photo measurements from the German Embassy in Madrid's page Biometrische Passfotos für deutsche Ausweisdokumente, both read on 14 October 2026. This guide covers German documents only; for the rules most countries share, see passport photo requirements explained.
Can I still bring a printed photo to the Bürgeramt?
No. The ministry's answer is that paper photos have not been accepted inside Germany since 1 May 2025 for passports and ID cards. The same digital-only rule covers the electronic residence permit (elektronischer Aufenthaltstitel). The reason it gives is morphing: software that blends or edits faces in a photo, which was found in documents already issued in Germany and other EU states, and which authorities had no reliable way to detect.
That rules out every photo you bring in by hand, including a correctly sized one. It is a change in how the photo is delivered, not in what the photo has to look like.
What are the two ways to get a valid photo?
| At the office | The Bürgeramt takes the photo during your appointment. It costs 6.00 euros where the office uses the Bundesdruckerei's PointID system; offices using another provider can charge a different amount. You can usually choose from up to three shots or start again. |
| At a photographer | A registered photographer uploads the photo to a secure cloud and hands you a printed Data-Matrix code (it looks like a QR code). The office uses the code to download the photo. Without the printout, staff cannot find it. |
Not every office had capture equipment from day one, so check your Bürgeramt's website or call before the appointment. The ministry points to servicesuche.bund.de for finding the office responsible for you.
What size and framing does the photo need?
Whoever takes it, the photo still has to meet the biometric rules. The German Embassy in Madrid lists them as:
- Size 35 x 45 mm.
- Face height from chin to hairline at least 32 mm and at most 36 mm; for children up to age 10, 22 to 36 mm.
- A single-colour, neutral background.
- Mouth closed.
- Glasses must not cover the eyes.
At the office or the studio, getting this right is the photographer's job. It matters most to you in the one case where you supply the photo yourself, which is below. For what "biometric" is checking for in the first place, see what makes a passport photo biometric.
Applying at a German embassy abroad
If you apply at a German mission outside Germany, a conventional printed photo, 45 mm high by 35 mm wide with no border, may still be accepted. The ministry says this exception lasts until embassies, consulates and honorary consuls have their own photo equipment. The photographer cloud upload only works inside Germany, so missions abroad are excluded from it entirely. The Madrid embassy, for example, states that applications in Spain still need paper photos.
This is the one route where a photo you make yourself can work. The 35 x 45 mm passport photo maker crops your picture to the 35:45 shape with a box you can drag and resize, then outputs a 413 x 531 pixel JPG, which prints at 35 x 45 mm at 300 DPI. It runs in your browser, so the photo is not uploaded. It does not replace your background or measure your face, so take the photo against a plain wall and size the crop so your face lands in the 32 to 36 mm band. Then print it at exactly 35 x 45 mm with no border; how to print passport photos covers getting the scale right. Check your own mission's page before you go, since each one runs its own appointment and document list.
Questions people ask
Can I take my German passport photo at home?
Not for an application inside Germany. A home photo can only reach the office as a print, and prints are no longer accepted there. Abroad, a correctly sized home print may still be accepted at a German mission.
What can I do with my old paper passport photos?
The ministry suggests keeping them, or using them for other cards such as swimming or angling passes if they are still recent enough. Self-made photos remain allowed for many documents other than passports and ID cards.
Is a German visa photo the same thing?
No. These rules are for documents Germany issues to its citizens, plus the residence permit. A short-stay visa for Germany is a Schengen visa with its own photo rules, covered in Schengen visa photo requirements, and you can make one with the Schengen visa photo maker.
For other countries, the passport photo maker hub lists each one we cover.