Your go-to facial expression might be to flash a huge smile when someone whips out a camera. This is fine in your day to day life. You can\u2019t, however, currently do this on your passport photo. This can be a real annoyance for some people, especially those who rarely pose for a picture without showing off their happiest face. The question is: could smiling soon be allowed on passport photos? Let\u2019s look at what you need to know about the future of smiling on passport pictures.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the current rule?<\/p>\n
The guidelines state that you must have a \u2018plain expression\u2019 with \u2018your mouth closed\u2019 on your passport photo. This guideline first came into effect in 2005 in the UK and is arguably one of the most unpopular rules that people have to abide by when submitting their passport application.<\/p>\n
Could it change?<\/p>\n
It seems that an argument is being built to remove the rule. According to a new study conducted by the University of York in 2018, it would actually be easier for border officials to spot fraud and forgery if people were allowed to smile on their passport photo. Research leader Dr. Mileva explained: \u201cOur research suggests that replacing the neutral expression we usually use when taking identification photographs with an open mouth smile can make face matching an easier decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Have officials commented?<\/p>\n
The Home Office have previously stood their ground against questions regarding the function of the \u2018no smiling\u2019 rule. In 2017, a spokesperson re-iterated that the guideline had been put into place as a result of the software now being used by e-gates at airports. The explanation read: “When the mouth is open it can make it difficult for facial recognition technology to work effectively.”<\/p>\n
It\u2019s picture time!<\/p>\n
While you still can\u2019t smile on your passport photo, it\u2019s more than possible to take an image that you\u2019re happy with \u2013 especially if you do so from the comfort of your own home. You can then send the image to the team at Paspic, who\u2019ll confirm that the photo meets the guidelines before sending the hard copies back to you.<\/p>\n
Your go-to facial expression might be to flash a huge smile when someone whips out a camera. This is fine in your day to day life. You can\u2019t, however, currently do this on your passport photo. This can be a real annoyance for some people, especially those who rarely pose for a picture without showing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paspic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}