Saudi Arabia passport photo
Drop a photo here
or choose a file from this device
JPG, PNG, HEIC or WebP, up to 25 MB
Your photo is processed on this device and never uploaded.
The requirements
| Print size | 40 x 60 mm |
|---|---|
| Head height, chin to crown | The authority publishes no head height |
| Background | White background |
| Photo age | 6 months |
| Also required |
|
Scope warning. The 4x6 cm white background photograph above is published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the diplomatic and special passport service, not for the ordinary passport. The ordinary passport is issued by the General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) of the Ministry of Interior through Absher, and moi.gov.sa, absher.sa, gdp.gov.sa and my.gov.sa were all unreachable or blocked from the network used for this research, so no page from that authority could be read. 4x6 cm on a white background is the standard Saudi identity photograph and matches what the foreign ministry demands, but until a Passports Directorate page confirms it for the ordinary passport this spec stays secondary. No head height, eye line, expression, glasses or digital upload rule is published on the page that was read, so those fields are omitted.
Applying in Saudi Arabia
A Saudi passport application has no photograph step at all. The Passports Directorate uses the picture already held in the civil record, so there is nothing to bring and nothing to upload. If you want a different photograph in your passport, you change it at Civil Status, not at Jawazat. That single structural fact reorganises everything else on this page: a Saudi citizen needs a photograph for the national identity card, or for a visa, and never for the passport application itself.
Because the photograph belongs to the civil record rather than to any one document, it is also not something you refresh whenever you like. It is updated at identity card renewal, on a change of facial features, or on medical grounds. That makes the identity card photo the important one, and the Civil Status counter print is the version most people will actually need: 4 by 6 cm, two copies, white background, frontal, and taken without glasses.
The visa side is separate again, and the specifications must not be merged. The Saudi eVisa portal wants a 200 by 200 pixel image between 5 and 100 KB. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' newer platform wants 35 by 45 millimetres as a PNG or JPEG of 5 MB or less, with no smile. The Absher identity card upload wants a JPEG of 1 MB or less. These are four different requirements from three different systems, and a file built for one will fail another.
Why photos get rejected here
A background that is not white
The error message applicants are shown says the attached photo's background is not white. It is the most frequently quoted rejection in the exchanges we could read, and it applies across the identity and visa systems alike.
The photo does not match the civil record
The system compares your submission against the face already held in the record and refuses it when the two do not match. This is unusual: elsewhere a photo is judged on its own quality, here it is judged against a stored image of you.
A photograph of a printed photograph
Another error message tells applicants the image was captured from a printed photo. Photographing or scanning an existing print to produce a digital file is refused, so the file has to originate as a digital capture.
Wearing glasses
Glasses are excluded categorically for the national identity photograph, prescription lenses included. There is no glare-free exception of the kind several other countries publish.
Filters or retouching
The Civil Status guidance excludes effects and enhancement. That covers the smoothing some phone cameras apply by default as well as anything applied deliberately afterwards.
What helps
Work out which document you actually need a photo for
Not the passport. A Saudi citizen supplies a photograph for the national identity card at Civil Status, or for a visa through the relevant portal. Starting from the document rather than from the trip avoids preparing a file nobody will ask for.
Never reuse a file across the portals
The eVisa portal, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs platform, the Absher upload and the Civil Status counter print each want something different. A 200 by 200 pixel eVisa image is nothing like a 35 by 45 millimetre file, and neither is a counter print.
Register biometrics before you need the passport
Since 2026, biometric registration is a precondition for issuing or renewing a passport for everyone aged 10 or over. That is a separate errand from the application and it is worth doing in advance.
Collect within ninety days
A passport is available after three working days or by Saudi Post delivery, but it is cancelled if not collected within 90 days, and the fee is not refunded. The fees are SAR 300 for five years or SAR 600 for ten as of September 2026, with ten year validity from age 21.
Under 15s need no head covering for the photo
Civil Status states that applicants under 15 are not required to wear a shemagh or a hijab for the photograph. That is worth knowing before dressing a child for the appointment.
Babies and young children
Because the photograph lives in the civil record and is captured or updated through Civil Status, a child's photograph follows the identity card process rather than the passport one. The rule most relevant to families is the one about dress: applicants under 15 are not required to wear a shemagh or a hijab for the photograph. We did not find a published relaxation of the expression, gaze or open-eyes requirements for infants in the Saudi material we could reach, and because we did not find one we are not claiming that it exists.
Glasses
Glasses are banned categorically for the national identity photograph, and the wording covers prescription lenses and not only tinted ones. The Civil Status guidance says the personal photograph must be without glasses, with no conditional exception for clear lenses or careful lighting. The eVisa portal, by contrast, publishes no glasses rule at all in either its English or its Arabic version, so any site stating a Saudi eVisa glasses rule is not quoting the portal. For the identity photograph, take them off.
Head covering
The eVisa guidance states that head wear is generally not permitted, with exceptions possible especially for religious reasons, and that in such cases the face must be visible from the lower tip of the chin to the forehead with no shadows on it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs illustrates its own requirement with a photograph of a woman in hijab with the face fully uncovered, which is the clearest statement of where the line sits. A face veil is not compatible with a rule requiring the face to be visible from chin to forehead, though we did not find a sentence naming it directly.
Applying online
There is no upload for a Saudi passport, because the application uses the photograph already in the civil record. Uploads exist for the identity card through Absher, which takes a JPEG of 1 MB or less with dimensions in multiples of 2 by 3, and for visas, where the eVisa portal takes a 200 by 200 pixel image of 5 to 100 KB and the Ministry platform takes a 35 by 45 millimetre PNG or JPEG of 5 MB or less. The Civil Status office takes a physical print. Do not merge these.
Questions about Saudi Arabia photos
Do I need a photo for a Saudi passport?
No. The passport uses the photograph already held in your civil record, so there is no photo step in the application. To change the picture you go to Civil Status rather than to the Passports Directorate.
Where do I change the photo in my civil record?
At Civil Status. The photograph is refreshed at identity card renewal, on a change of facial features, or on medical grounds, rather than whenever you would like a newer picture.
Can I use the same photo for the eVisa and for my ID?
No. The eVisa portal wants 200 by 200 pixels at 5 to 100 KB, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs platform wants 35 by 45 millimetres as a PNG or JPEG up to 5 MB, and Absher wants a JPEG of 1 MB or less. They are different requirements from different systems.
Why does the system say my photo does not match?
Because it is compared against the face already stored in your civil record. A photograph can be technically perfect and still be refused on that comparison, which is a check most countries do not run at submission.
Does a child have to wear a shemagh or hijab in the photo?
Civil Status states that applicants under 15 are not required to. That is a specific published exception rather than an inference on our part.
Why is this page marked secondary rather than official?
Because the main government sites were unreachable when we checked, so the fees and rules here come from the verified official accounts of the ministries that publish them. They are official statements, but not pages we could read on the ministry domains.
Where these numbers come from
Secondary sourceThe issuing authority does not publish these numbers in a form we can cite directly. They come from a reputable secondary source and are marked as such.
- Isdar aw tajdid jawaz safar diblumasi aw khass (Issue or renew a diplomatic or special passport)checked September 2, 2026
Reviewed by Editorial teamHow we check our numbers