OpenPhotoId · Documents
Passport photo white background: which documents need one, and how to get it
Most passports and visas ask for a plain white or off-white background, but not all of them, and a few refuse a background that was changed with software. OpenPhotoId is a free passport photo maker that knows which is which: it sets a passport photo white background where the rules allow it, and keeps and checks your own wall where they do not. No sign-up, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded.
Documents that ask for a passport photo white background
These are the documents in the app whose official page asks for white. The wording is the official page's own, and each row links to the entry on the supported documents list, where the source is named.
| Document | Background, as the official page puts it | What the app does |
|---|---|---|
| United States, passport | white or off-white | keeps your own background and checks it |
| South Korea, passport | white; a photo whose background was removed or replaced with editing software is not accepted | keeps your own background and checks it |
| United States, DV Lottery | plain white or off-white; a photo that has been manipulated in any way may make you ineligible | keeps your own background and checks it |
| India, Passport Seva online | white; “Photos should be unaltered by computer software” (Indian missions) | keeps your own background and checks it |
| Canada, passport | white, taken by a commercial photographer or studio and not edited in any way | a crop to check the framing; submit the photographer's print |
| China, passport | white (Chinese Embassy in the US) | sets a white background |
| China, online visa | white or near-white, with no border (Chinese Embassy in Morocco) | sets a white background |
| Schengen visa | white or off-white (German missions; other states publish their own rules) | sets a white background |
| Japan, passport | white recommended; no shadow, pattern or gradation (Osaka Prefecture) | sets a white background |
| Russia, passport | plain white, with no stripes, spots or shadows | sets a white background |
| Singapore, passport | white; light grey if the hair or head covering is white | sets a white background |
| United Arab Emirates, ID card | white | sets a white background |
| Brazil, passport | white; only applicants under 5 bring a photo | sets a white background |
The rules change, and each official page is the final word. The sizes that go with each background are compared on passport photo size.
When a replaced passport photo white background is not accepted
Five documents in the app do not accept an edited photo, so the white has to be in the picture when you take it:
- United States, passport: the State Department says “Do not change your photo using computer software, phone apps or filters,” and for online renewal “Do not use any kind of filter or retouching tools to change your appearance.” Repositioning or cropping is allowed. See the US passport photo page.
- United States, DV Lottery: the DV instructions say an entry photo that has been “manipulated in any way” may make you ineligible, and the State Department’s visa photo page says photos “must not be digitally enhanced or altered to change your appearance in any way.”
- India, Passport Seva online: Indian missions’ photo guidelines say “Photos should be unaltered by computer software.”
- South Korea does not accept a photo whose background was removed or replaced with editing software.
- Canada requires a passport photo taken in person by a commercial photographer or studio, not edited in any way.
For the US passport, the DV Lottery, India’s Passport Seva and South Korea, the app keeps the background that is already in your photo, crops around it and measures how flat and how white it is. If the check fails, take the photo again against a whiter wall rather than editing it.
How the app sets a passport photo white background
- Pick the document. Its background colour comes with it.
- A matting model separates you from what is behind you, then a second pass, zoomed in on your head, resolves hair at full resolution.
- The background is filled with the exact colour the document names: pure white, #FFFFFF, for every white document above.
- The background check measures the result against that colour on the photo itself, never on filled-in edges, and shows the value next to its limit.
Nothing leaves your device while this happens. The face detector and the matting model run in the browser tab, and after the first visit the app works offline.
Shooting against a white wall
A good passport photo white background starts with a plain white or light wall, even when the app will replace it, because a clean edge makes for a clean cut-out:
- Stand a little away from the wall so your shadow falls behind you, not beside your head. Japan and Russia name shadows on the background as a reason to refuse.
- Light your face evenly. A window works, direct sun does not.
- Keep head and shoulders in frame, with a little room above your hair, and face the camera straight on.
- Avoid a wall with a pattern, a picture or a door frame behind you.
The full routine, with the checks that catch the usual mistakes, is in how to take a passport photo at home.
Not every passport photo is white
Some documents ask for a different colour, and a passport photo white background would be wrong for them:
- United Kingdom: plain cream or light grey. The app uses light grey.
- Australia: plain light grey or off-white, and not pure white for a photo handed in in person. The Australian Passport Office also advises against online passport photo services and apps.
- India, OCI card: a plain light colour, not white. The app uses light grey.
Pick the document first and the app chooses the colour, so you do not have to remember which is which.