What is a biometric passport photo?
Biometric passport photos are photos, that must be fulfill the properties set by authorities. “Biometrics” describes some constant features of the face, which will be measured, and allow a machine-aided identification of the person in this case. These biometric data can be stored on a chip on the passport or ID document.
In order that biometric features in the photo are perfectly visible and can be read out, the official regulations describe some requirements for the execution of the photos. Thus, the person’s face must be photographed for example absolutely frontal.
When do you need biometric passport photos?
Nowadays, biometric passport photos in Switzerland are required for passport and identity card. Even babies need biometric passport photos – luckily the requirements are not so strictly interpreted. However, classic passport photos are still sufficient for the driving license.
Even abroad, biometric passport photos are nowadays used for identity documents in almost all states. Outside of Switzerland, the required passport photo sizes vary sometimes. This is of course concerns Swiss citizens only, if a visa is required for entry. In some countries the photo necessary for the application must have larger dimensions, as a Swiss passport. The size of the face on the photo may vary from country to country. Many information concerning visa and the visa requirements of many countries, are summarized in our help section. If you have any questions you can freely contact us or determine the passport photo size using this tool:
determine passport photo size »
Where to get biometric passport photos?
Biometric passport photos can be obtained with good photographers – or you created it simply by yourself. You only need a digital camera and our passport photo generator. First one should have a look at the regulations containing sample images. After some photos one then quickly obtains usable output photo. This can be simply adapted to the biometric template in our passport photo generator.
