New Zealand Passport Photo

New Zealand Passport Photo

The New Zealand passport is recognized as one of the most powerful passports in the world, allowing you to travel without a visa to over 100 countries around the world. Applying for this document is easy and takes up to 10 business days to complete. The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs allows you to apply for a passport by mail or online. Regardless of how you submit your application, you must include a NZ passport photo that meets government requirements. Meet New Zealand passport photo requirements and take a photo with your smartphone with the help of our PhotoAiD app or online tool.

New Zealand Passport Photo Requirements

The formal requirements for a New Zealand passport photo do not differ much depending on whether you are applying through an online service or prefer to send your application by regular mail. We post New Zealand passport photo requirements for both types of photos below, so you can always check which tips will be useful for you. You will see for yourself that in many ways the requirements for these photos are the same. In the following sections of this guide, you will find tips to help you prepare your NZ passport photo with your smartphone using our online photo editor. Requirements for NZ online passport photo

General requirements

• The NZ passport photo must be a biometric picture.
• The picture needs to be taken within the last 6 months.
• It has to reflect your current look.
• You need to provide 1 digital photo (applying online) OR 2 identical printed photos (applying via traditional postal service).
• Scanned photos are not acceptable.
• No selfie! They are not allowed because they can distort the face and distort its proportions.
• Do not alter or distort the picture in any way.

Size and dimensions

If you apply via traditional mail, you need to provide 2 identical photos, printed on photo quality paper. The NZ printed passport photo size is 35 x 45 mm each (width x height). When applying online, you just need to submit one digital passport photo that is between 900 and 4500 pixels wide and 1200 and 6000 pixels high. It should be a portrait photo with a 4:3 aspect ratio, or 3:4 when you take it with a smartphone. The New Zealand digital passport photo file should be between 250KB and 10MB and must be submitted in jpg or jpeg format.

Quality

The picture must be in focus and in colour. It shouldn’t be blurred , and paper photographs cannot be damaged, scratched or folded. If you want to apply via postal office, The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs recommends applying with a digital photo as it removes the risk of a physical photo becoming damaged on the way to the office.

Head and face in the photo

Your head needs to be centered in the frame. There must be a clear gap around the head. The photo frame should cover the upper arms or even the upper chest. You have to keep your face perfectly straight. You cannot tilt it in any direction and half-profile pictures are not accepted. It is very important that your face has a neutral expression. In NZ passport photo, don't smile, don't show your teeth or frost your eyes. The mouth must be closed and the eyes open.

Glasses

You can wear prescription glasses in the NZ passport photo, as long as the frames are not covering your eyes. Also, do not wear glasses with thick frames. There must be a clear gap between your eyes and the frames. There must be no glare in the lenses of the glasses. Sunglasses and tinted glasses are not allowed.

Headgears, scarfs and hats

No headgear, headscarf or headband should be worn on New Zealand passport photo. Exceptions are headcovers worn for religious or medical reasons. In this case, you will need a certificate from your doctor or religious community and the relevant endorsement in your passport. The scarf must not cover the face, so you have to fold it back to make the oval of the face visible. Hats and other headgear must not cast shadows on the face, background and shoulders.

Background

In the New Zealand passport photo, you must pose against a plain, light background. Important: The background cannot be white and cannot contain objects or other people. There should be a visible contrast between the background and the person in the photo (foreground).

Lighting and shadows

The face in the photo must be well and evenly illuminated. There must be no shadows on the face, background and on the shoulders. The color of the photo should be natural and reflect the true appearance of the person in the photo, especially the natural skin tone and eye color.

Photographing children

The requirements for New Zealand passport photos for children are the same as for adult pictures. With newborns and toddlers, the facial expression may be slightly different, i.e. the baby may have slightly parted lips. However, the baby cannot cry and the face has to be fully visible. Only the child must be visible in the frame, no other objects or other people may be seen. If you are supporting your baby's head, make sure your hand is not visible in the photo. For newborns and babies who can't sit up on their own, you can place your baby on a blanket on the ground and take a NZ passport photo from above.

The New Zealand passport photo with a phone

The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs allows you to attach a photo taken with your phone. Moreover, it even provides a number of tips for such photos. Only selfies are not allowed, but you can provide a photo taken with the phone by another person or yourself by a camera set on a tripod.

How to make the NZ passport photo with your phone?

• Ask another person to take a picture of you, or set the phone on a tripod and place the tripod on a level surface. Make sure it is placed around 1.5 back from the face.
• Take care of good lighting - natural light falling directly on the face will be the best. You can catch such light by positioning yourself in front of the window in the morning hours.
• Don't worry about the background - our app and online photo editor remove the background from your photo and insert as required by the New Zealand government.
• Pose in front of the camera according to the guidelines for New Zealand passport photo. Take more shots to choose the one that suits you best.
• Upload your photo file to our online photo editor or iPhone and Android app.
• Our editor will check the correctness of the photo in terms of formal requirements, cut it to the correct size, set the correct background and send the file with the ready photo to your email.
• You have a photo template with a biometric photo that you can print or attach to the online application - depending on which option you have chosen.

Why was my NZ passport photo rejected? Most common mistakes

Glasses with thick frames

Remember, on New Zealand passport photo you can wear prescription glasses as long as they are not thick-rimmed glasses that can slide off and blind your eyes.

Altered photo

You cannot alter or change the photo for the passport in any way. Do not apply filters to the image. Do not remove the background itself - use our tool and be sure that it is done in a professional manner.

Outdated appearance

When submitting a photo to your passport by post or online, you must attach a photo taken within 6 months from the date of submission of the application. The photo must reflect your current appearance. If your appearance has changed a lot recently - do not risk and take a new photo. Especially since you can prepare them with your smartphone with the help of the PhotoAiD application and photo editor.

A smile in the photo

Generally, in biometric photos for documents, smiles, even light ones, are forbidden. This rule also applies to photos for the New Zealand passport.

Selfie

You cannot attach a photo that is a selfie to your application. Selfies disturb the proportions of the face and are not accepted. Your application will then be rejected.