Australian Passport Photos

Australian passport photos must be 35 millimetres wide by 45 millimetres tall (portrait orientation). This is the same physical size as UK passports, but the specific Australian requirements have important variations. For digital applications, your photo must be at least 600 pixels wide by 750 pixels tall in JPEG format, between 20 kilobytes and 10 megabytes.

Your head must fill an appropriate portion of the frame with eyes clearly visible and looking directly at the camera. Head positioning must be centred with appropriate spacing. Your expression must be neutral and your mouth closed. No glasses unless medically necessary, and no hats or head coverings except for genuine religious reasons with your full face remaining clearly visible.

Background must be plain and light-coloured: white, light grey, or cream are all acceptable. No patterns, shadows, or visible objects. The background must be uniform with no variations. Your photo must have been taken within twelve months, though DFAT prefers more recent photos.

Head too small or too large causes automatic rejection. Background shadows, colour variation, or patterns trigger rejection. Lighting is especially important: over-bright lighting, uneven exposure, or shadows behind the head are common rejection triggers, which is why many retail and booth photos fail DFAT checks even when taken by professionals. Image quality problems including blurriness or excessive compression also cause rejections.

Australian and UK passport photos use the same 35x45 millimetre format, but DFAT requirements have specific differences from HMPO around background colour preferences and head positioning tolerances. If you're applying for both UK and Australian passports, verify each country's current specifications before assuming the same photo will work for both.