As per article 7.1b of “The law on Foreigners and International Protection”, no. 6458, foreigners who wish to enter the Turkish territory must carry a travel document i.e, his/her passport. And the carrying passport should have an expiry date of at least 60 days more than the period of stay of their applied visa.

For further clarification, if you have applied for a visa Turkish that is valid for 90 days, you must hold a passport that will not expire in the next 90+60 days or 150 days.

There is a specific measurement for the passport-size photo for a Turkish Visa. The optimum picture can be taken if you stand 1.5-2.5 meters away from the camera. Make sure the camera has at least 5mp. There should not be any shadow in the photo, therefore, the light source should be in front, or side of the camera. It would be better if there is a gap of at least 0.5 meters between you and the background screen/wall. The background should be either white or grey.

In the photo, your ears should be visible, and both eyes should be wide open. The shoulders must be clearly visible in the photo. Avoid wearing any sort of accessories, i.e. hats, glasses, etc. And most importantly, you cannot go with an old picture of yours. The photo should be recent and you need to capture it within the past six months. It should reflect your current look. Otherwise, you might face problems with immigration.

The resulting picture will have the following features:

• 6 cm in Length, 5 cm in width.
• The head should cover at least 70-80 per cent of the frame.
• The photo should not be taken from too close a distance. A minimum gap from the camera is needed.
• It should be a colourful picture, Black and white picture is not allowed.
• White and plain background.
• No specific expression should be there. You should look neutral.
• Headgear is not allowed, but it can be overlooked only for religious purposes.
• You need to wear something bright, or a colour that differentiates you from the background. Avoid wearing white at any cost, as your background will be white too.

A passport/visa-size photo is one of the must-items that you will need while applying for a visa. No matter what your visa type is, or what country you are from, you will need to have a photo to apply for the visa. The picture should be of high quality and focused well. There should not be any ink marks, creases, or crinkles in the picture. The brightness and contrast should be appropriate. Your eyesight should be directed at the camera lens, and make sure there are not any staple marks in the picture. The photo should be fresh as new.

Make sure you follow all the processes mentioned above in order to get the perfect passport-size photo for your visa application. Otherwise, if you make mistakes in taking a nice photo, the immigration part will surely stop you from going to catch a plane. But there is no need to panic if you have properly gone through the rules and acted like it.

1. Advice for Applicants to Submit Proper Quality Photograph

We often find out that our passport picture is way scarier than our actual selves. This is actually funny but there are ways how you can improve the picture you take for your passport. But care must be given so that you do not delay the submission of pictures while trying to make it better. Below are a few points you need to keep in mind while clicking your passport picture.

• Do's and Dont's for a Proper photo:

  The photo should include your whole face, distinctly. Your eyes should be wide open and your face/head should be at the centre of the frame. From the top of your head to your chin, everything should be covered. Eye height should also be taken seriously. No shadow should fall on you or it will be distracting the main focus of the picture.

• Lighting on the face and background:

  The capture should be taken carefully, keeping in mind the brightness and lighting of the frame. As said earlier, no shadow should fall on the face. The lighting should be such that the background is not too distracting to your face due to the illumination.

• Photograph Print Properties:

  The dimension of the picture should not be more or less than 2”x2” (or 51 mm x 51 mm). And of course, the picture should be a coloured picture, not black and white. The photo should be printed on stock paper. You can edit the picture before printing but avoid too much of editing or else your photo might not be qualified as a passport picture.

• Resolution and Printing Quality:

  Do not zoom in on your picture or you will lose the optimum resolution required for the passport picture. In this case, a high-resolution image is highly recommended. You need to be careful that the digitalised picture is not dot-printed or pixelated. Your facial features should be vividly visible in the picture.

• Contrast and colour:

  As said earlier, you are allowed to edit and adjust your picture, but too much change in the brightness and contrast may result in the disfiguring of the image, and the resulting image will come out far from what is expected. You should maintain your actual natural skin tone while editing the picture. The whole exposure should be balanced properly before printing.

• Head & Eyes- Position and Background:

  Your head should not be slanted or leaned to the side or to the front. Rather, the edges of your face should be clearly visible. Make sure your face is at the centre of the frame and it is not covered by your hair.

• Eyeglasses:

  If you wear eyeglasses, you need to remove them while you are clicking the picture. Your face should not be covered with glasses or any other accessories.

• Head coverings:

  Many men and women wear many sorts of head coverings and accessories which they do not/cannot usually remove for various personal reasons. In that case, you need to make sure that the facial features from the top of your head to the bottom of your chin are visible at least, whether or not your head is covered. This is the minimum requirement for facial features while clicking a passport picture.

• Exposure andLighting:

  Too much picture and lightning exposure will result in the degradation of the picture. In this case, the picture will become unusable. The lighting should be balanced well and the extra light sources should be defused according to the estimation of the resultant picture.

2. How to Get a Photo for Your Baby or Toddler?

Clicking passport pictures for toddlers is a really difficult task to do. They do not usually sit still and as a result, the resulting picture always comes out blurry and unclear. And even if the picture comes out clear, the toddler is unlikely to directly look at the camera. As a result, you cannot get a decent picture that easily, that actually follows the passport picture requirements. In order for you to get a standard passport picture for toddlers, you can try to click the picture on your own at your home. You can follow the actions below:

• For a white background, use a white bedsheet. You can use a white pillow cover where you can lay down your baby/toddler. Using a white comforter would be a plus if you have any. There can be some slight wrinkles or foldings in the white sheet background, this is not much of an issue.

• Make sure that there is no other people in the picture, which is why you cannot take the baby’s picture while you are holding the baby. Make your baby sit or lay somewhere and the picture is to be taken from the top if the baby is lying, or from the front, if the baby is sitting.

• In the picture, the baby should look at the camera directly. It will not be accepted if the baby is looking at a distance, or the head position is side-wise. Make sure to grasp the baby’s attention so that it looks directly at the camera.

• Even if the baby looks directly at the camera, it will not be accepted if the baby blocks the face in some way or another. The face should be clearly visible and there should not be any object, even body parts obstructing the face.

• A bit of a smile is acceptable, but if the baby laughs or cries, the picture may not come out as a standard one. It will be optimum if the baby holds a neutral expression. Meanwhile, try to make the baby comfortable with the situation and gain its attention so the baby does not cry or smile way too much.

• Make sure the baby keeps its eyes open while clicking the picture. In the case of infants, the eyes being shut is acceptable. But older babies, have to keep their eyes open and be looking at the camera.

• While clicking the picture, be aware of any red-eye in the photo. Or if there is any, it should be removed carefully with additional software if possible.

• The photo should be clicked in the daytime, ensuring there is enough light and brightness in the photo. The photo shoot can be done in the late morning or early afternoon. At that moment of the day, the lighting is the best for clicking pictures.

Below are some suggestions you can follow additionally:

• You can position your baby accordingly with the help of some additional pillows, or rolled-up towels that match the background colour. You have to make sure that their ears are visible too.

• There is another advantage of shooting in the broad daylight. At that time, usually, the baby remains in a good mood, and that is why it would be easier to click a good picture of the baby.

• It is better not to use a flashlight, or the baby might shut its eyes too soon. You can rely on the natural light of the outside environment. Or you can also illuminate the room with additional lights, instead of using the flashlight of the camera.

• Using a fast shutter speed will be absolutely helpful in this case, as the baby is supposed to be always in motion. It will also make sure the picture does not come out that blurry.