Bangladesh Passport Photo Requirements 2026

Written and fact-checked by the PassportLayout team · Last verified: 7 July 2026

Official requirements from the Department of Immigration & Passports (DIP) e-passport portal and Bangladesh missions abroad, checked against the sources on the date above.

Photo Dimensions

Bangladesh is unusual in running two printed formats side by side. Where a conventional passport-sized print is requested — most visibly for Machine Readable Passport (MRP) reissue at missions abroad — the size is 40 mm × 50 mm: the High Commission in Abuja, for instance, asks for four copies of 40 mm × 50 mm photographs with the face clearly visible and no cap or covering. For children under 6 applying for an e-passport, the required print is far larger: a lab-printed 3R photo, 89 × 127 mm (3.5 × 5 inches).

Note that this differs from the 35 × 45 mm format used by neighbouring countries — a Bangladeshi 40 × 50 mm print is 5 mm wider and taller, so leftover 35 × 45 mm prints from an Indian or Schengen application cannot be reused on Bangladeshi forms.

Do You Need a Printed Photo at All?

For a standard adult e-passport, no. Bangladesh's application runs through the DIP's five-step online process: check availability, apply online, pay the fee, then visit the passport office for biometric enrolment — where your photograph, fingerprints, and iris scan are captured live — and finally collect the passport. The DIP's enrolment document checklist (application summary, NID or birth certificate, payment slip, previous passport) contains no printed photograph for adults.

Children under 6 are the main exception: they are exempt from the live photo capture, so the lab print stands in as the passport image. The second exception is paper-based processing — MRP reissue and related consular files at missions abroad — where 40 × 50 mm prints are glued to physical forms. Personal presence is still mandatory in those MRP cases because fingerprint biometrics are taken at the counter.

Face and Head Size

The recurring official phrase is that the face must be clearly visible. For a child's 3R print, missions add a precise composition rule: the white background should cover at least 40% of the photo area, which forces the child's face to be framed generously rather than filling the print, and both ears should be visible. For 40 × 50 mm prints, follow the ICAO portrait convention of the head occupying roughly 70–80% of the frame height — about 35–40 mm from crown to chin — with the face centred.

Our tool handles the geometry: drag the red line to the crown, the blue line to the chin, and the green line down the middle of the face, and the crop is computed to the preset proportions.

Background Requirements

The background for printed photos must be white — the instructions for under-6 photos from the Bangladesh High Commission in London repeat it twice: the background of the photo must be white, and it should cover at least 40% of the whole photo. Light it evenly so it prints as true white rather than grey, and keep the frame free of toys, hands, furniture, and shadows.

Expression and Pose

Face the camera straight on with a neutral expression, mouth closed, and both eyes open — the ICAO standard that the e-passport's facial recognition chip depends on. At the enrolment booth the operator will direct your pose; for printed photos you are your own operator, so avoid tilted heads, angled shoulders, and smiles that show teeth. For babies, both eyes open and both ears visible are the two details most often missed.

Glasses

Keep glasses off. The governing ICAO portrait rules (see Sources) require the eyes to be fully visible with no glare, no tinted lenses, and no frames crossing the eyes, and enrolment operators routinely ask applicants to remove glasses before the live capture. For the printed photos that become a child's passport image, glasses have no place at all — a clear view of both eyes is what the biometric systems index on.

Attire and Head Coverings

Two clothing rules are distinctly Bangladeshi. First, at enrolment, light-coloured dress — white, sky blue, ash — may cause the capture software to refuse the photograph, according to the London High Commission's guidance, because the outfit merges into the light backdrop. Wear something darker and plain. Second, for a child's 3R print the instruction runs the other way: the child should wear a colourful dress so the small figure separates cleanly from the white background.

Head coverings follow the "face clearly visible" rule: the MRP photo requirement explicitly says no cap or covering, and a religious covering is workable only when the full face — chin to forehead, both eyes — remains unobstructed.

Photo Recency

A child's 3R photo must be not older than 3 months — a tighter window than the 6 months common elsewhere, which makes sense given how quickly infants change. Adult prints for paper files should equally be recent and a faithful likeness: the officer comparing your face to the print at the counter is the first biometric check the application passes through.

Complete Specifications Table

Common Rejection Reasons

• Light-coloured clothing (white, sky, ash) refused by the enrolment capture software
• Child's photo with an ear hidden, eyes closed, or background under 40% of the frame
• Cap or covering obscuring part of the face
• Child's 3R photo older than 3 months
• Home inkjet print instead of a lab print
• Grey or shadowed background instead of clean white
• Wrong print size — 35 × 45 mm photos glued where 40 × 50 mm is required
• Toys, pacifiers, or a parent's hands visible in a baby's photo

Tips for Bangladesh Passport Photos

Start by working out which of the three photo situations applies to you: adult e-passport (no print — dress dark and show up), child under 6 (two 3R lab prints), or an MRP/paper form at a mission (four 40 × 50 mm prints). Missions vary in the copies they want stapled to summaries and forms, so check your specific mission's checklist and print spares — a single correctly cropped photo laid out on one sheet costs the same to print as one copy.

For a baby's photo, lay the child on a plain white sheet in bright, even daylight and shoot from directly above, waiting for open eyes and visible ears. Then crop in PassportLayout.online with the crown, chin, and centre guide lines — the Bangladesh preset loads the 40 × 50 mm size, so for a 3R print switch the photo size to Custom and enter 89 × 127 mm — and have the sheet printed at a photo lab at 100% scale — lab printing is part of the requirement, not a luxury.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Bangladesh e-Passport Portal — 5 Steps to your e-Passport — biometric enrolment process and document checklist (verified 7 July 2026)
• Bangladesh High Commission, London — e-Passport Application — under-6 3R photo specification, clothing-colour warning (verified 7 July 2026)
• Bangladesh High Commission, Abuja — MRP Reissue — 40 × 50 mm printed photo requirement (verified 7 July 2026)
• ICAO Doc 9303 — Machine Readable Travel Documents — international biometric portrait standard