Pakistan Passport Photo Requirements 2026
Written and fact-checked by the PassportLayout team · Last verified:
Official requirements from Pakistan's Directorate General of Immigration & Passports (DGIP), Ministry of Interior, checked against the sources on the date above.
Quick Summary
At Regional Passport Offices the photo is captured live at the counter. For DGIP's online renewal you supply your own: 45 mm high × 35 mm wide, professionally taken, plain white background, neutral expression, not more than 6 months old, digital file up to 5 MB.
Photo Dimensions
Pakistan uses the international rectangular format: photos must be 45 millimetres high by 35 millimetres wide, and — in DGIP's own words — professionally taken. The DGIP photograph requirements add two warnings that trip up home printers: you cannot use photos that have been cut down from larger pictures, and the image must not be edited in any software such as Photoshop.
"Professionally taken" is about quality, not venue — sharp focus, even lighting, accurate colour, and a clean crop at exactly 35 × 45 mm. A good phone camera plus a correct 300 DPI print meets that bar; a scissored-out corner of a group photo does not.
Do You Need Your Own Photo at All?
For in-person applications, no. DGIP's process flow for Regional Passport Offices in Pakistan and Pakistan missions abroad puts photo capture right at the start: the official verifies your fee payment, captures your photograph, and issues your token, after which a separate counter takes fingerprint impressions of both thumbs and index fingers. The picture in the booklet is always the one taken at the office — which is why the official application process requires every applicant, of any age, to appear in person.
Your own photo enters the picture with DGIP's e-Services. The online passport renewal — currently offered to applicants outside Pakistan, and used by overseas Pakistanis for renewals and for new passports for newborns — asks you to capture a photograph yourself and upload it to the application. Everything on this page describes the standard that upload must meet.
Face and Head Size
The photo must show a close-up of your full head and shoulders, and it must contain only you — no other people or objects in the frame. The head should sit centred, facing forward, filling roughly 70–80% of the frame height in line with the ICAO portrait convention that machine-readable passports are built on (about 31–36 mm of the 45 mm print). Both eyes must be open, visible, and free from any obstruction.
In our tool, drag the red line to the top of the head and the blue line to the chin; the green centre line keeps the face on the vertical axis while the crop is computed for you.
Background Requirements
The photo must be taken against a plain white background, with you in clear contrast to it, and without any shadows in the picture. Shadows are called out twice in the official criteria — no shadows anywhere in the photo — so light the scene evenly from the front and keep some distance between yourself and the wall. Off-white, cream, or grey walls read as "not white" once printed, and patterned backdrops fail outright.
Expression and Pose
Face forward and look straight at the camera with a neutral expression and your mouth closed. Smiling, frowning, raised eyebrows, or a tilted head all change the facial geometry that biometric matching relies on. DGIP also lists red-eye as a rejection trigger — a flash artefact you cannot fix by editing, since edited photos are themselves disallowed. Turn off direct flash or bounce the light instead.
Glasses
The rule is written around the eyes: they must be open, visible, and free from reflection or glare from glasses, and they must not be covered by sunglasses, tinted glasses, glasses frames, or hair. In practice that leaves a narrow path for clear prescription lenses with thin frames and zero glare — and a much simpler one: take the glasses off for the photo and eliminate the risk entirely.
Attire and Head Coverings
Photos are rejected unless they show you without anything covering the face. A religious head covering such as a hijab is fine when it frames rather than covers the face: chin, mouth, nose, both eyes, and forehead all clearly visible, with no fabric shadow falling across the features. A full-face veil cannot be worn for the photograph. Choose clothing that contrasts with the white background — a white shalwar kameez against a white wall makes it hard to see where you end and the backdrop begins.
One disambiguation worth making: the photo NADRA takes for your CNIC or Smart Card at its registration centres is a separate process run by a separate agency. At the passport office the CNIC serves as your identity document; it does not supply your passport photograph.
Photo Recency
The photo must not be more than 6 months old and must reflect how you look now. If your appearance has changed noticeably — new facial hair, significant weight change, surgery — take a fresh photo even if the old one is technically within the window. For online renewals, the uploaded photo is compared against the biometric record from your previous passport, so an accurate likeness speeds up processing.
Digital Upload Specifications
For the online renewal in DGIP's e-Services portal, the one technical constraint published officially is file size: the digital photograph must not exceed 5 MB. DGIP provides a photograph verification tool inside the portal that checks your image against the specifications before submission — run your upload through it rather than guessing. Beyond the size cap, the same visual rules apply: white background, sharp focus, no editing, no cut-downs.
Complete Specifications Table
| Requirement | Specification |
|---|---|
| Photo size | 45 mm high × 35 mm wide, professionally taken |
| In-person applications | Photo captured live at the RPO / mission counter |
| Online renewal | Self-captured photo uploaded to the e-Services portal |
| Background | Plain white, clear contrast, no shadows |
| Framing | Close-up of full head and shoulders, only you in frame |
| Expression | Neutral, mouth closed, facing forward |
| Eyes | Open, visible, no glare; not covered by glasses, frames, or hair |
| Face | Nothing covering the face; no red-eye |
| Editing | No software editing; no cut-downs from larger pictures |
| Recency | Not more than 6 months old |
| Digital file size | Up to 5 MB |
Common Rejection Reasons
- Shadows on the face or background
- Eyes obscured by hair, glasses frames, tinted lenses, or glare
- Photo cut down from a larger picture
- Image edited or retouched in software
- Red-eye from direct flash
- Non-neutral expression or open mouth
- Poor contrast between subject and the white background
- Photo older than 6 months, blurry, or out of focus
- Other people or objects visible in the frame
Tips for a Perfect Pakistani Passport Photo
Because DGIP forbids both editing and cut-downs, everything has to be right in camera: white wall, subject a step away from it, soft even light from the front, camera at eye level, and the full head and shoulders in frame. Avoid direct flash — it is the usual source of both red-eye and lens glare, and neither can be fixed afterwards.
Cropping to the exact 35 × 45 mm geometry is not editing — it is framing. Load the photo into PassportLayout.online, set the crown, chin, and centre guide lines, pick the Pakistan preset, and export at 300 DPI. Use the result for the online renewal upload (keep it under 5 MB) or print it at 100% scale if a mission asks for physical copies.
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Create your Pakistani passport photo — freeFrequently Asked Questions
Do I need to bring a printed photo to a Pakistani passport office?
Not for a standard in-person application. At Regional Passport Offices and Pakistan missions abroad, your photograph is captured live at the counter — fee verification, photo capture, and token issuance happen at the same step, followed by fingerprints. You need your own photo only for DGIP's online services, such as the online passport renewal, where you capture and upload a photograph that meets the 35×45 mm rules.
What size is a Pakistani passport photo?
45 mm high by 35 mm wide, professionally taken, against a plain white background. DGIP warns that you cannot use photos cut down from larger pictures, and the image must not be edited in software like Photoshop. For the online renewal upload, the digital file must not exceed 5 MB.
Can I wear a hijab or head covering in a Pakistani passport photo?
A religious head covering is acceptable as long as nothing covers the face itself. DGIP's photo rules reject pictures with anything covering the face or with the eyes hidden by hair, so the full face — from chin to forehead, including both eyes — must be clearly visible and in clear contrast to the background. Full-face veils cannot be worn for the photo.
Is the NADRA CNIC photo the same as the passport photo?
No. NADRA captures your CNIC photo at its own registration centres, and DGIP captures or accepts the passport photo separately — they are different agencies with different processes. You present the CNIC or Smart Card as an identity document at the passport office, but its photo does not substitute for the passport photograph.
Sources
- DGIP Online Passport — Capturing your Photograph — official photo specifications for the online renewal (verified 7 July 2026)
- DGIP — Passport Application Process — live photograph capture and biometric steps at Regional Passport Offices (verified 7 July 2026)
- ICAO Doc 9303 — Machine Readable Travel Documents — international biometric portrait standard