Australian passport photo requirements: 35 x 45 mm, a 32 to 36 mm head and a white or light grey wall

An Australian passport photo is 35 x 45 mm, with a head of 32 to 36 mm from chin to crown, on a plain white or light grey background. Glasses are accepted only for a medical reason. Two of those four rules are tighter than the UK’s, which uses the same paper size, and that is why a photo taken for one country so often fails the other.

This page puts the rules in one table. The figures were read from the Australian Passport Office’s photo page, named below, on 17 September 2026, and they are the same ones getPNG’s passport photo maker uses. getPNG crops and places the photograph at these sizes. It does not judge the biometrics, and nothing here is a promise that your photo will be accepted. What the page does not publish, such as a pixel size for an upload, is said so below rather than guessed.

The table

Every row comes from one page, checked on 17 September 2026. It is the issuing authority’s own page and it can change, so the application you are filling in is the source that settles your case. A digital photo size, a file limit and a minimum resolution are not in what was read, so they are left out. A table with a made-up row is worse than a table with four true ones.

What the numbers add up to

The head band is the rule that does the work, so it helps to see what it means for the picture rather than for the ruler.

The head fills 71 to 80 percent of the height. The photo is 45 mm tall, so a 32 mm head is 32 / 45 = 71 percent of it and a 36 mm head is 36 / 45 = 80 percent. That leaves 9 to 13 mm of the height for the space above the crown and below the chin together. It is a tight frame: the face is large and the shoulders are cut off early.

The print is 35 / 45 = 0.78 wide for its height. That proportion is shared with the UK, Ireland, France and the Schengen visa, which is why a crop made for any of them has the right shape for this one. The head band is what changes between them, not the rectangle.

At print resolution the head is easy to count. At 300 pixels per inch a 35 x 45 mm photo is about 413 x 531 pixels, and the head is about 378 to 425 pixels from chin to crown. At 600 pixels per inch it is 827 x 1063, with a head of about 756 to 850. getPNG saves at 600 pixels per inch when a document gives no pixel size of its own, as is the case here. That is a property of the tool, not Australia’s rule.

Compare it with the UK. The same paper, a different head.

A head that is correct for the UK can be a few millimetres too small here, and the other way round. UK passport photo requirements has the second column in full. If you need both, crop twice from the same original, and do not reuse a crop.

White or light grey

Australia allows white, which the UK does not, and that is the one place where the two are easier here. The Australian Passport Office asks for a plain background in either colour, and the word that matters is plain.

Plain means no pattern, no texture, no door frame or picture behind you, and no shadow. A wall that is bright on the window side and dim on the other is not plain, and neither is the dark line a shadow draws where your head meets it. White that is lit unevenly turns grey on one side and looks like a mistake in a way a light grey wall lit evenly does not.

If your hair or top is pale, a white wall can leave your outline hard to see. A light grey wall separates you better than white does, and it is allowed.

Do not paint the background afterwards. A replaced background is an edit, and an ID photo is checked for exactly that. A cutout tool is right for a sticker or a product picture and wrong here; passport photo backgrounds explains why, and the white background photo guide sorts out which documents ask for white and which do not.

Cropping to 35 x 45 mm with a 32 to 36 mm head

Because the head band is tight, the crop is where this photo is won or lost. Start with a photograph that has clear space above the head and around the shoulders, taken from about two metres away at eye height, so you can crop in rather than out. A tight original cannot be made wider.

Work backwards from the head to see how much picture you need. If the head measures 1,200 pixels from chin to crown on your original, the crop is 1,200 / 0.80 = 1,500 pixels tall for the largest allowed head and 1,200 / 0.71 = about 1,690 pixels tall for the smallest. Anywhere between is inside the rule, and the width follows from the 35 : 45 shape, so 1,500 tall is 1,167 wide.

If the head is only 400 pixels tall, the crop would be near 500 to 560 pixels and the photo would have to be enlarged to reach a useful size, which only makes it soft. The fix is a new photograph taken from nearer, not a tighter crop.

You do not need to do the sum. The passport photo maker draws the 32 to 36 mm band and you move the photo until the crown and chin sit inside it. The sum tells you how much picture you must have taken.

Glasses

The Australian rule is the strictest of the 35 x 45 mm documents here: glasses only for a medical reason. The UK is slightly more open, allowing them if you have to wear them, and Ireland allows them if the frame covers none of the eye and there is no glare. Tinted lenses and sunglasses are out under all of them.

If you do wear glasses for a medical reason and decide to keep them on, the practical problem is glare, which depends on a window or lamp you cannot easily move. Take several shots at different angles to the window and keep the one with the clearest lenses. If you do not need them to see, take them off for the ten seconds the photo takes. The page linked in the table is the place to read what the authority wants for your case, and this page is not advice about it.

Taking one at home

It is the same job as for any other country, with a wall that fits the rule:

1. Find a plain white or light grey wall with nothing on it, and stand about a metre in front of it so your shadow falls behind you.
2. Face a window in daylight, on an overcast day if you can, with no flash and no ceiling light.
3. Turn off portrait mode, beauty filters and skin smoothing, and use the rear camera.
4. Have somebody take it from about two metres away at eye height, with your head and shoulders in the frame and clear space all round.
5. Crop to 35 x 45 mm with the head inside the 32 to 36 mm band.
6. Print at 100 percent with no border and no fit to page, then measure the cut photo with a ruler.

How to take a passport photo at home has the detail on each of those steps.

What the tool does, and what it does not

getPNG crops and places the photograph at the official size and shows you where the head sits against the range the Australian Passport Office gives. It does not change the background, smooth the skin or lift the lighting.

It does not judge the photograph. Whether your expression reads as neutral, whether the light across your face is even, and whether the wall is plain enough are decided by the authority that receives the application. The page linked in the table is the only source that settles it. No website can promise your photo will be accepted, and one that does is telling you something it has no way of knowing.

The sizes for the other documents getPNG knows, with the official source for each, are in the passport photo requirements table. Before you upload any ID photo to a site, read whether it is safe to upload photos online.

Questions

What size is an Australian passport photo?

35 x 45 mm printed, a portrait rectangle. It is the same size as the UK, Irish and French passport photos and different from the US passport photo, which is a 2 x 2 inch square. A photo cropped for the US cannot be used here without being cropped again from the original.

How big should the head be in an Australian passport photo?

32 to 36 mm from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head, according to the Australian Passport Office page read on 17 September 2026. In a 45 mm tall photo that is 71 to 80 percent of the height. It is a tighter band than the UK, which asks for 29 to 34 mm.

Can an Australian passport photo have a white background?

Yes. The page names plain white or light grey, and either is fine as long as it is plain and even. White is not allowed for the UK passport, so a photo taken against white for Australia is not right for a British application.

Can I wear glasses in an Australian passport photo?

Only for a medical reason, according to the page getPNG's figures come from. If you do not need them to see, take them off. The page linked below is the place to read what the authority wants if you do.

What size is the digital photo for an Australian passport?

This page cannot tell you. The source read for it gives the printed size and the head range, but no pixel size, file size or format for an uploaded photo, so none is stated. Use the figures the application itself shows at the upload step.

Does getPNG make an Australian passport photo that will be accepted?

It crops and places your photograph at 35 x 45 mm, shows the head against the 32 to 36 mm band and saves the file. It does not judge the photograph, and it never changes the background. Whether the light, the expression and the wall are acceptable is decided by the Australian Passport Office.