Passport photo background: white, off-white or light grey?

Background colour by document

From each office’s own rules (follow the link for the source, listed on each page):

So “white” isn’t the rule everywhere. The UK passport and the OCI card don’t list white at all, and New Zealand asks for plain and light, but not white.

A plain background at home

1. Check the colour. Choose your document in Passport Photo: it shows the background the office asks for.
2. Find a plain wall. A plain, light wall in that colour, or a smooth sheet or large card fixed flat behind you.
3. Stand away from it. About half a metre in front of it, so your shadow doesn’t fall on it.
4. Face the light. Face a window, for even daylight on both sides of your face. No flash.
5. Keep your background. Add the photo and leave Keep mine on. Look at the background checks before you print.

Shadows and even light

Shadows are the usual reason a plain wall stops looking plain. Standing close to the wall puts your shadow on it, and a flash or a lamp to one side makes it sharper. Stand about half a metre out from the wall, face a window, and have someone else take the photo at eye level from about 1 to 1.5 metres.

The app looks at the finished photo and checks:

• Plain background: no patterns, shadows or objects behind you.
• Background colour: close to the colours your document allows.
• Background too dark: it should be light.
• Even light on the face: one side of the face isn’t in shadow.

These are advice against the published rules. The office that takes your photo decides.

Keep mine or Make it white

Once a photo is in, the Background section has two choices.

Keep mine uses the photo as taken. With a plain, light wall behind you, that needs no change, and it’s the safe choice for strict offices.

Make it white (it says Make it plain when your document’s first colour isn’t white) cuts you out with an AI model on your own device and puts the document’s colour behind you. The first time, it downloads the cut-out, about 44 MB; your photo is never uploaded. Check the edges round your hair. The colour swatches are the ones your document allows; any other colour is part of Passport Photo Pro.

If the photo was taken too close and the crop needs more room than the picture has, the app fills the gap with your background’s own colour and tells you under Room around the head. A photo from further back avoids it.

Where an edited background is refused

Where a document’s rules forbid altering or retouching the photo, the app quotes them under Make it white and says that a plain wall behind you is the safer way. Two offices name the background outright:

• Australian passport: “Retouching is prohibited, and removing or replacing the background is not allowed.” (passports.gov.au)
• South Korean passport: “Photos edited with software or filters (including AI editing or compositing), or with the background removed or replaced, are not allowed.” (passport.go.kr)

Others forbid changing the photo with software in general words:

• US passport: “Do not enhance or change the photo using software or digital tools.” (travel.state.gov)
• Canadian passport: “Photos must be original and unaltered in any way, including by software, filters, or AI tools.” (canada.ca)
• UK passport: “Photos must be unaltered by computer software.” (GOV.UK)
• German passport: “Retouching and soft-focus filters are not acceptable.” (Bundesdruckerei)
• Singapore passport: “Do not alter or enhance the photograph, apart from resizing.” (ICA)

For any of these, take the photo against a real plain wall in the right colour and leave Keep mine on.