Editorial policy

A requirement is published only when it can be read on the issuing authority's own website or in a PDF the authority publishes: the passport office, the immigration department, the ministry or the embassy. Photo shops, blogs, forums and other services are never used as the source of a rule, although user reports help us decide what to check.

When an authority's page cannot be reached directly and we read an archived snapshot instead, the entry says so and carries the snapshot date. Where a national authority publishes no photo specification at all, the entry is marked as using the ICAO 9303 defaults rather than presented as a national rule.

Each requirements page shows the authority's sentence verbatim next to our normalised figures. A quote is 45 words or fewer and every entry carries at least two of them, except entries that rest on the ICAO defaults. Our figures (head height as a fraction of the photo, pixel sizes, file limits) are derived from those quotes, not from other websites.

When the source is not in English we quote the original and translate it ourselves; the entry's confidence is then marked as translated so you know a translation step sits between you and the authority.

Two dates appear on every entry. Source read (verifiedOn) is the day we last read the authority's page. Updated (updatedOn) is the day we last edited the entry. When they match, the entry was checked against the source and left unchanged; when the update is later, the content changed after the last read and the change is listed in the change log.

Sources are re-read monthly against the copy we saved when the entry was written. A difference is reviewed by a person before the entry is edited; nothing is changed automatically.

If a figure on this site disagrees with the authority, tell us through the contact form or by email to support@surepassportphoto.com, with the authority page you are looking at. We check the source, fix the entry within 2 business days and record the correction in the change log.

• Acceptance rates or any statistic about how often photos are accepted; the authority decides each case.
• Promises that a photo will be approved. Our guarantee is a refund if it is not, nothing more.
• Prices or fees we have not read on the authority's or the shop's own page.
• Rules paraphrased from third parties without the official sentence behind them.

We are an independent service, not a government website. Applying for a passport or visa is done with your government; we only prepare the photo.

No authority, portal or photo shop reviews or approves what we publish. The records behind every page are published as an open dataset so they can be checked by anyone against the official source.