I need to renew my British passport and am confused as to whether I can use the ephoto option that some photo booths provide for French ID, driving licences etc.
The idea is that it provides you with a code you can use to upload the photo to your online application.
The UK government website talks about ephotos even for applications from abroad but French websites refer to these ephotos for French purposes only.
If it isn’t ok they tell you and you redo it, you may have to get someone to take it rather than do a selfie. One of my daughters did mine. You can resubmit it and they don’t charge you anything.
If you take a photo with your phone, as Vero says it’s probably better to get someone else to actually take the picture. Pay attention to the guidelines about background, expression etc. It’s not too hard.
That’s not correct. The portal software analyses the photo for framing, presence of unwanted items (hats etc) and exposure. If it gets past those checks it’s been accepted. If it doesn’t, you can keep on submitting new ones until all is well.
Given it’s based on machine learning it may well have got considerably better over time but it was previously rather notorious for giving people ‘Green for go’ which then got rejected, or on the flipside refusing photos that then got passed during manual review.
I took a selfie and used some software to make it a bit brighter, the system then accepted it. Much easier than faffing around in a booth - which i did at great expense and didn’t get a pic that was acceptable.
Speaking of what’s correct, did you hear about the woman whose passport was rejected at the boarding gate because, despite still having 8 months left on her passport the passport was ‘valid’ for 10 years and one day?
In 2018 the Passport Office stopped carrying over any unused time from the previous passport but it seems the change has never been explained properly and several people are being turned back at ports, airports etc.
Just to confirm what the others have said, get someone to take your photo on their phone or tablet preferably against a white wall, remove any glasses if you wear them and submit. You will be guided if the background is too bright or too dark. Good luck, I got turnaround within two weeks of them receiving the old passport via International LRAR from France, don’t send by normal letter post whatever you do. Delivery right to front door by FedEx and signed for.
I thought the passport had to have a minimum of 6 months before expiring since Brexit. Ridiculous state of affairs all round now and I hate the almost black new colour, reminds me of a banana republic passport not a nice red EU one.
