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Schengen visa photo (35×45 mm), free, at home

By PassportNinja Team · Last updated: July 2026

Every Schengen visa application needs a 35×45 mm photo with the head at 32–36 mm and a plain light background. Upload any straight-on photo: PassportNinja crops it to spec, checks the head size and replaces the background with clean white. Free, no watermark.

Make my visa photo →

Requirements last checked: July 2026. Always confirm with the issuing authority.

Why photos get rejected (and how this tool prevents it)

• Wrong head size: the most common rejection. We measure chin-to-crown and warn if you're outside 32–36 mm.
• Busy background: replaced automatically with plain white.
• Wrong proportions from cropping by hand: the crop is computed from your face position, at exactly 35×45 mm.
• What remains yours: neutral expression, even lighting, no reflections on glasses, nothing covering the face.

Make it at home in three steps

1. Take the shot. Face the camera square-on about 60 cm (2 ft) from a plain, light-coloured wall, with someone shooting from roughly 1.5 m (5 ft) away at eye height. Soft daylight from the front avoids shadows behind your head — the thing that most often ruins a "plain background".
2. Upload and pick your template. Choose Schengen visa for the general 35×45 mm spec, or your specific country's passport template if you're renewing a national document. The tool crops to 35×45 mm, checks the head sits at 32–36 mm, and replaces the background with clean white.
3. Print the sheet. Download the 10×15 cm (4×6 in) sheet — it lays out eight 35×45 mm photos with cut lines — and print it at any photo kiosk for around €0.15. Most consulates want a physical print stapled or glued to the form.

One visa, twenty-nine countries

A single Schengen visa lets you travel across the whole Schengen area — 29 European countries as of 2025, including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and the Nordics. You apply at the consulate of your main destination, but they all work from the same photo specification, so the 35×45 mm result here is valid whichever country you apply through. It also matches the photo rules for most European national passports and ID cards, which is why the same page covers both a tourist visa and a passport renewal.

Visa photo vs biometric passport photo

They look identical — same 35×45 mm, same white background — but a biometric passport photo (the chip photo taken when you renew an EU passport) is judged by stricter machine-readability rules on head tilt, lighting evenness and neutral expression, because a computer has to match it to your face at the border. A visa photo is checked by a person and is a little more forgiving. This tool sizes and frames both correctly; the biometric extras — dead-level head, no shadow on the wall, no smile — are the parts you control when you take the shot.

Same format, many documents

The 35×45 mm format is used for Schengen visas and for most European passports and ID cards (plus the UK, Australia, Japan and others). Each country tweaks the head-height rule slightly, so pick the specific template in the tool when there is one (Netherlands, UK, Australia, Japan…); the EU/Schengen template covers the general case. The Netherlands (26–30 mm) and the UK (29–34 mm) use their own head-height ranges. Pick your country's template in the tool and the right range is applied. Want to know why these millimetre ranges exist at all? See passport photo requirements explained.

Common questions

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