Singapore passport and IC photo — 400 × 514 px for MyICA and 35 × 45 mm prints

The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) asks for a colour photo, sharp and clear, 35 mm wide by 45 mm high without a border, taken within the last three months, on a plain white background (light grey if your hair is white), with your face measuring 25 to 35 mm from chin to crown. For uploads through ICA’s e-Services, including passport applications on MyICA, ICA gives a dimension of 400 × 514 pixels and accepts jpg, jpeg, heic, heif or png files up to 8 MB. The photo must not be altered or enhanced in any way.

ICA’s requirements in one table

ICA says its requirements are based on the ISO and ICAO specifications that most passport issuers use. A face of 25–35 mm on a 45 mm photo is 56% to 78% of the height, a wider band than many countries allow, so there is room for a natural framing with the shoulders in view.

Online or on paper

Singapore citizens living in Singapore apply for a passport online, logging in with Singpass and uploading a digital photo. Citizens abroad can also apply online, or fill in form IMM(E)11 and hand it to a Singapore Overseas Mission with a printed photo pasted in the box on the first page. ICA’s photo guidelines cover both passport and identity card applications.

Making the photo here

1. Choose a front-facing picture taken by someone else against a white wall. Photo type shows Singapore passport & IC — 35 × 45 mm / 400 × 514 px.
2. Leave Show face-position guides ticked. The yellow line marks the top of your head about 4.5 mm below the top edge, and the blue band, from about 29.5 to 39.5 mm down, is where your chin belongs. Any position inside the band gives a face of 25 to 35 mm.
3. Fit the picture with Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position, or drag it, until your face sits on the centre line with both ears and the tops of your shoulders in view.
4. Keep Background on Keep the original. ICA rejects photos altered with software, and a replaced background is an alteration.
5. Pick a Print sheet format and press Make passport photos.

The file ending “-singapore-digital-400x514.jpg” is the one to upload. It is made from your full-resolution crop and has almost exactly the shape of the 35 × 45 mm print, so nothing is trimmed; it is saved at high JPEG quality, far below ICA’s 8 MB limit. You also receive a 413 × 531 pixel print image at 300 DPI and a 4 × 6 inch sheet of eight photos for the overseas form.

Checking the upload in pixels

You can check the file yourself before you submit it. Open it in any image viewer that shows sizes: it should report 400 × 514 pixels. ICA’s 25–35 mm face on a 45 mm photo converts to roughly 286 to 400 pixels of the 514-pixel height, so the distance from the bottom of your chin to the top of your head should fall in that range. The top of your head should sit about 51 pixels below the top edge if you followed the yellow line. Both ears, or at least both edges of the face, and the tops of the shoulders should be inside the frame, and the face should be centred left to right.

Printing for form IMM(E)11

ICA asks for prints on matte or semi-matte paper, so tell the photo counter not to use glossy paper. Print the sheet at actual size, then check that one photo measures 35 × 45 mm before you cut it out and paste it into the box on the form.

What the page cannot do for you

• See your face. The guides do not move to fit you.
• Grade the photo. Brightness, sharpness, pixelation, red-eye, reflections and expression are for you to check against ICA’s chart.
• Spot a mirrored image. Some phone front cameras save a flipped picture; ICA refuses those, and the tool cannot tell.
• Approve it. ICA reviews every photo and notifies you of a rejection.

The faults in ICA’s Dos and Don’ts chart

ICA’s chart sets refused photos beside accepted ones. The refused examples show uneven brightness, a photo older than three months, a smile with the mouth open, blur or pixelation, hair or shoulders cut off, a coloured background instead of white, pale head gear that merges with the white background, tinted lenses or frames over the eyes, coloured contact lenses and red eye, a face turned away from the camera, a distorted or mirror-flipped image, and a digital photo changed with software or a mobile app.

Other countries’ sizes are listed on the photo sizes table. The Passport Photo Maker carries every preset, HEIC to JPG converts an iPhone photo if your browser cannot open HEIC files on this page, and Image Compressor reduces other files for upload.