It Pays to Read the Fine Print

[NOLALADY]

Renewed ours late 2016. Were told to leave our glasses on. We had no trouble on our Mediterranean cruise using the passports.

[bluegiraffe]

Just got our pictures taken for our new passports. Dh always attaches his glasses to the neck of his shirt when he takes them off. The CVS employee made him remove them even from there. He said "they" would reject the picture. Doesn't matter to us because no matter what the pictures always look like the mug shots you see on tv of the "wanted by police"! hehe!!:p:p:p

 

The Walgreens guy told me "no smiling" back in 2009 when I had my passport photo taken. I have Resting Ax Murderer Face, so the picture looks awful. :evilsmile:

[Cruise_More_Often]

I have several pair of glasses - some days you want something more fun, others more serious/plain.

 

Am I the only one with multiple Rx glasses?

I doubt it, and who waits 10 years to get a new Rx and new frames?

[Sequim88]

Apparently it isn't about how you look normally, just how you look without anything added.

 

The pupils of the eyes are a key geometry factor in facial recognition scans and glasses can obscure them. There are a bunch of measurements that are ratios of various distances between points on the face and how they compare to each other. As evidenced lately at six test airports (and later all international flights) when boarding people are being scanned which can be linked to their passport photo measurements as a positive biometric ID. Partly to track international visitors that have left the country and partly to make sure US passport holders are the real owner of the passport.

[Djptcp]

Very interesting thread since DH and I are about to renew our passports. My January 2008 passport has me in my glasses (old pair I no longer wear) and I am smiling. Have never had a problem going through customs or told I should have left the glasses off and no smiling in my passport photo. I appreciate the new information. Thanks.

[Keroppi2011]

In a vain attempt to avoid the dreaded "mug shot" look for a new 10 year passport, I took extra care with makeup, hair and clothing choice. The photo studio was very diligent about ensuring a photo with no glare from my glasses, as per Canadian requirements. All to no avail. The clerk at the passport office rejected the picture and sent me to the studio next door. No make-up, hair askew and I'm stuck with it for 10 years. Made me appreciate the line "If you really look like your passport photo, you are probably too sick to travel".

[joekerstef]

I mailed my passport renewal off on 6/26. Preparing the form online, I thought it was quite evident that no glasses, hats, smiling, etc. were to be in the photo.

 

I also had my American passport renewed earlier this year, and although I do not wear glasses, I also thought the new requirement was very evident on the State Department website (I don't recall where exactly but no doubt where they discuss requirements for the image). Also, for those of you with currently valid passports in which you're wearing glasses in your picture, you do not have to go get a new photo sans glasses and get a new passport (ie no need to renew early). You just won't be able to wear your glasses in the photo whenever you next have to renew.

 

You can take your own passport photo now too, and although I am quite capable of doing this myself, I didn't want to take any chances that I'd send off my passport application only to have my photo rejected for improper lighting or whatever since I was cutting it really close between anticipated renewal time and my cruise. So I went to Kinkos or somesuch and had them do it and they took a decent enough image that met the requirements for $15. So I was pretty horrified when I got my passport back and saw my image in it. Their digitization process turned my face into a combination of an orange cheeto and a yellow canary. Which I am now stuck with for the next ten years. Awesome.