A baby cannot sit against a wall, hold still or keep a neutral expression, so most authorities suspend those requirements for the youngest applicants. What they never suspend is the frame: one person, plain background, even light, face fully visible. Everything below is about getting that frame without asking a six-month-old to co-operate.
A baby who cannot sit up yet
- Spread a plain white sheet. On the floor, the bed or the changing mat. White or very light grey, smooth, with the creases pulled flat — a fold reads as an edge and an edge reads as a background object.
- Lay the baby on their back. Nothing under the head, nothing around the face: no hood, no hat, no blanket edge, no dummy.
- Keep every hand out of the frame. A hand supporting the head is the most common reason an infant photo is refused. If the baby has to be held, drape the white sheet over a car seat instead and photograph them in it.
- Hold the phone flat above them. Parallel to the sheet, directly over the face, about half a metre up. An angled camera gives a three-quarter view, which no document accepts.
- Use the window, not the flash. Daylight from the side of the room, with your own body out of its path. Check that your shadow is not falling across the baby before you press anything.
- Take many, quickly. Talk to them, wait for the eyes to open, keep shooting. Twenty attempts is normal; choose the one where both eyes are visible and the face is straight.
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What the rules actually relax
For infants, most countries accept a photo in which the mouth is open or the expression is not neutral, and many accept closed eyes below about one year of age. Some ask that the baby be lying down, others that they be upright; the age limit differs from country to country.
Because it differs, the only reliable source is the page for your own document, which states its requirements with the date they were last checked and a link to the authority. If the rule is not stated there, ask the authority rather than an internet forum.
Two things are never relaxed: nobody else may be visible in the photograph, and the background must be plain and free of objects.
Toddlers and older children
From the age a child can sit unsupported, treat it like an adult photo with a shorter attention span:
- Sit them on a chair against a plain wall, a metre in front of it, facing a window.
- Put the phone on a stack of books at the child's eye height, about a metre and a half away.
- Stand behind the phone and get their attention just above the lens — a toy held there, not a screen.
- Shoot in bursts between instructions. "Look at me" works for about two seconds, so use them.
From school age onwards the ordinary rules apply: neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open, head straight, hair off the face.
What our checks do with a baby photo
The automatic checks are built for adult faces, so an infant photo can come back flagged for closed eyes or an expression that is not neutral even when your document permits both. That is a check being careful, not a refusal.
If your document allows the exception, the reviewed option puts a person in front of the photo who can approve it. And if a check is simply wrong about your photo, write to us with the order number — nothing is charged for re-uploading a better attempt, and the preview stays watermarked until you pay.
Read next: taking the photo at home, or six mistakes that get a photo rejected.