No Smiling In Your Passport Photo!

by Danny Sullivan on April 24, 2005

in Britain

My wife tried to renew her British passport today, but the application was rejected because of her smile. Smiling in your passport photo, it turns out, is not allowed! I
couldn’t believe it when I took the call from the Royal Post, which was handling the application. Seriously, no smiling?


Nope. Nor is it just a UK thing. A quick search
brought up information that there’s no smiling allowed for US passports, either. Grins banned from passport
pics from the BBC explains how the no smiling rule came into being for the UK in the middle of 2004. Facial recognition software has a tough problem with grins, its
appears. You better not crack a smile in your passport photo from ABC News in Chicago has a short
story on the US rules.

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