FAQ

ICP uses 35 × 45 mm with a white background for the passport, Emirates ID and family book. Visit visas, residence permits, other entry permits and the newborn leave permit use 40 × 60 mm. Choose the document and IDPhotos.ai uses the right size.

Yes, head coverings worn for religious reasons are accepted, as long as your face is visible from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead and both edges of your face can be seen.

Official sources differ: the brochure allows clear, non-glare glasses, while the FAQ mentions medical glasses only. Remove them if you can. If you keep them on, IDPhotos.ai checks for tinted lenses, frames over the eyes and reflections.

No. Keep a neutral expression with your mouth closed. IDPhotos.ai measures this and asks for a retake if your smile shows.

Yes — taken within the last six months. For a passport renewal it must also differ from the photo in your current passport.

It helps. IDPhotos.ai replaces the background with white, but a plain, light wall gives the cleanest edges around hair and headwear and the most even light.

Having someone take it from about 1–1.5 m away gives the most natural proportions. If you are alone, prop your phone at eye level and use the guided camera's auto-capture.

Rule checks measure things like head size, tilt and lighting. The AI review looks at the finished photo the way a trained reviewer would, for things that are hard to measure, such as whether a head covering is religious, whether glasses frames cover the eyes, or whether the background edge looks natural.

Nobody but the issuing authority can promise that. IDPhotos.ai checks every published ICP rule it can measure, tells you clearly when something is wrong, and offers a new photo or a refund if a photo we produced is rejected for a photo-related reason.

JPEG, PNG, HEIC (iPhone) and WebP, up to 25 MB. Use the original photo, not a screenshot.

A JPEG photo sized for your document for online applications, a square version of the same photo for ICP smart services that ask for one, and a 10 × 15 cm print sheet with several copies that any photo shop can print. With the prints plan we also deliver printed photos.

It depends on the service, and the portal's photo step tells you. New passports, Emirates ID and residence services show the ICAO photo rules and check the photo on the server: upload the document photo (35 × 45 mm or 40 × 60 mm). Most visit-visa, entry-permit, family-book and in-country passport-renewal services instead ask for a square photo between 600 × 600 and 1200 × 1200 pixels: upload the square version. Both files are JPEG under 2 MB, the only format and size the portal accepts.

Ask any photo shop or kiosk for a standard 10 × 15 cm (4 × 6 in) print at actual size, without cropping, then cut along the guides.

Anywhere in the seven emirates.

Unpaid photos are deleted automatically after 24 hours, and paid photos after 30 days. After paying you can choose to save your photos to an account: they are then kept for 2 years after your last visit to My photos, so you can download them again whenever you need them. You can delete a photo yourself at any time from the result page, or delete your account and its photos from My photos.

No. Live guidance runs inside your browser. Only the photo you choose to use is uploaded.

Only for the AI expert review, which you can switch off before uploading. In that case the photo is sent to our AI provider for the review only and is not used to train models. We never sell or share photos.