Head size and position rules, country by country

Head size is the most measured rule in passport photography: nearly every authority states how many millimetres the head may span, and some add where the eyes must sit. It is also the least forgiving, because an automated template or a transparent ruler at a counter settles it in seconds. This guide collects the bands for the major documents, explains the two framing systems in use, and shows why a photo that passes one country fails its neighbour.

Fixed crops: the head band on the print

Countries that take a finished photo state the head size on the final crop. The US passport wants the head at 1 to 1 3/8 inches (25 to 35 mm) of the 2 inch photo, with the eyes 1 1/8 to 1 3/8 inches from the bottom. The UK printed photo wants 29 to 34 mm crown to chin on a 45 mm print; Australia wants a larger face, 32 to 36 mm on the same height; and Canada wants 31 to 36 mm on its unusual 70 mm tall photo, which makes the face proportionally smaller than Australia's despite similar millimetres. The overlaps are narrow: an Australian-framed head at 35 mm is already over the UK maximum, which is why reusing one country's print for another so often fails.

Loose framing: the authority crops for you

Digital-first countries measure nothing in your file and instead demand room to do their own cropping. gov.uk asks for head, shoulders and upper body with the instruction not to crop the photo yourself for the UK digital photo, and Ireland wants head to mid torso with visible space around the head and shoulders for Passport Online. Here the common failure is the opposite one: a frame that is too tight. The US State Department's own tool answers tight framing with 'your face is not the correct size or properly centered... Please submit a larger photo with ample space around your face'; our help entry unpacks that message.

Where the head is measured from

Crown to chin sounds unambiguous and is not. Most authorities measure to the top of the head ignoring hair; Finland says explicitly that hair and beard are not included and the crown is estimated if hidden, for the Finnish passport. USCIS measures from the top of the hair instead for its 2 x 2 photos, so a tall hairstyle counts against the US green card's maximum but not against most others. When a rule says 'face height', as Canada's does, it still means chin to crown, not chin to hairline.

Meeting the band without a tape measure

You do not have to hit the band in the camera; you have to give the crop enough room. Shoot from one and a half to two metres with the head and shoulders comfortably inside the frame, as the phone camera guide describes, and let the crop place the head. Our checker computes the head height and eye line from the face landmarks and shows the measured value against the document's band before you pay, so a 'head too small' is a number you can see rather than a surprise at the counter. On a print, the ruler check then confirms the paper did not shrink the head on the way out of the printer.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my US photo fail in Australia when both heads looked fine?

The bands barely overlap once converted to fractions: the US allows the head at 49 to 69 percent of the photo's height, Australia demands 71 to 80 percent. The same framing cannot satisfy both; each document needs its own crop.