Smiling and Glasses in Passport Photos
Smiling is out almost everywhere, but the glasses rule genuinely differs country to country. What the US, UK, Canada and Australia each require, from source.
You cannot smile in a passport photo. Every major issuing authority asks for a neutral expression with your mouth closed, so an open-mouthed grin is one of the most common reasons a photo is sent back. Glasses are the part that actually differs: the United States and Australia want them removed, Canada allows plain prescription glasses if your eyes stay clearly visible, and the United Kingdom accepts them only if you genuinely have to wear them. Because these two rules trip up so many applications, it is worth checking your own authority's exact wording rather than assuming one global standard.
This guide covers expression and glasses specifically. For the full set of rules a passport photo has to satisfy — size, head height, background, recency — see passport photo requirements explained.
Can you smile in a passport photo?
No. A neutral expression with the mouth closed is the standard across the authorities people ask about most, and the wording barely changes from one to the next:
- United States — face the camera directly with a neutral expression, both eyes open and mouth closed (U.S. Department of State).
- United Kingdom — the photo must show "a plain expression and your mouth closed" (GOV.UK).
- Canada — a neutral facial expression, mouth closed, no smiling (Government of Canada).
- Australia — a neutral expression, not smiling, laughing or frowning, with the mouth closed (Australian Passport Office).
So a slight, closed-mouth expression that keeps your face relaxed is fine; a broad smile that shows teeth, raises your cheeks, or narrows your eyes is not. If you are not sure whether your expression counts as neutral, it probably reads as too much — the safest photo is the one that looks almost blank.
Why a smile gets rejected
The rule is not about looking stern for its own sake. Modern passports are read by face-matching software, and a smile moves the exact landmarks that software measures — the corners of the mouth, the width of the cheeks, the openness of the eyes. A neutral face is the reference state those systems are trained on, so it matches most reliably at a border gate years later. That is the same machine-readability standard behind what makes a passport photo biometric, and expression is one of the failure modes covered in why passport photos get rejected.
Can you wear glasses in a passport photo?
This is where the authorities stop agreeing. Some want glasses off entirely, one allows them with conditions, and one sits in between. Here are four of the busiest, each taken from that government's own photo page.
| Country | Glasses rule (official) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Remove your glasses. Only a medical reason is accepted, with a signed doctor's note. | U.S. Department of State |
| United Kingdom | Do not wear glasses unless you have to. If you must, no sunglasses or tinted lenses, and your eyes must not be covered by frames, glare, reflection or shadow. | GOV.UK |
| Canada | Plain (non-tinted) prescription glasses are allowed if your eyes are clearly visible with no glare. Sunglasses and tinted glasses are not accepted. | Government of Canada |
| Australia | Do not wear glasses unless you cannot remove them for medical reasons. Needing them for vision alone is not an accepted reason. | Australian Passport Office |
The pattern worth remembering: the trend has moved firmly toward taking glasses off. The simplest way to avoid a glasses rejection anywhere is to remove them for the shot, even where they are technically allowed. If you keep them on in a country that permits it, the deciding factor is always the same — both eyes fully visible, no glare on the lenses, and no frame crossing your pupils. For any country not listed here, read the glasses wording on that country's own passport service rather than a third-party photo site.
If you have to keep your glasses on
Where a medical reason applies, the practical problem is glare, and it is solvable without editing the photo. Glare comes from a light source reflecting off the lens straight back at the camera, so the fix is to change the angle between the light and the glasses:
- Light your face from slightly to one side rather than dead-on, so any reflection bounces away from the lens instead of into it.
- Tip the arms of the glasses up a fraction where they rest on your ears, angling the lenses down just enough to throw reflections below the camera.
- Use soft, indirect light — a window or a bounced lamp — never a direct flash, which is the single worst cause of lens glare.
Do not try to paint out a reflection afterwards. Authorities increasingly require the original, unedited photo, and a retouched lens can be read as a manipulated image. Fix the glare with lighting, not software.
The safest expression and setup
Put the two rules together and the target photo is plain in every sense: face square to the camera, eyes open and clearly visible, mouth closed, no smile, and — wherever you can — no glasses. Even, soft, front-on light and a plain background do the rest. Our guide on taking a passport photo at home walks through the pose, lighting and background in full, and passport photo background colour rules covers the background wording each country uses.
One thing to be clear about: no photo tool can turn a smile into a neutral face or remove a pair of glasses convincingly. If your expression or your glasses are wrong, the answer is to take the photo again, not to edit it. What a tool can do is the exact-sizing step once the shot itself is right.
Getting the size right once the photo is good
After you have a compliant, neutral-expression shot, the last step is cropping to your country's exact dimensions, which is easy to miss by a millimetre by eye. Start from your country's page so the crop box is locked to the correct aspect ratio and output size — US, UK, Canada, Australia, or the standard 35 x 45 mm page that most of the world uses. You can reach any of them from the Passport Photo Maker hub. Every one runs entirely in your browser, so your photo — an identity document — is never uploaded to a server.
FAQ
Can you smile in a passport photo?
No. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia all require a neutral expression with the mouth closed. A slight, relaxed, closed-mouth expression is fine, but a smile that shows teeth or narrows your eyes will be rejected because it disturbs the biometric face match.
Can you wear glasses in a passport photo?
It depends on the country. The US and Australia require you to remove them (medical exceptions only), Canada allows plain non-tinted prescription glasses if your eyes are clearly visible with no glare, and the UK allows them only if you have to wear them. Removing your glasses for the photo is the one choice that is accepted everywhere.
Are tinted glasses or sunglasses ever allowed?
No. None of these authorities accept sunglasses or tinted lenses in a passport photo — your eyes have to be clearly visible. Even where clear prescription glasses are permitted, tint is not.
What if I need glasses for medical reasons?
The US asks for a signed note from your doctor, and Australia allows glasses only where they cannot be removed for a medical reason. In those cases, focus on eliminating lens glare with side lighting rather than editing the photo, since a retouched lens can be treated as a manipulated image.
Can a photo app remove my glasses or fix my smile?
No, and you should not try. Authorities increasingly require an original, unedited photo, so a digitally altered face or lens can be rejected. If your expression or glasses are wrong, retake the photo; use a tool only to crop the good shot to the correct size.