Last updated on 2026-08-13
Two kinds of source, and we say which is which
A few documents are backed by a text published by the authority itself — the Qatari residence visa comes from a form issued by the Ministry of Interior. Every page names the source it uses and links to it.
The rest of the catalogue comes from an open aggregated dataset of photo specifications. It is a serious starting point for a format; it is not an administration. As long as a document rests only on it, we do not publish a page claiming an official source for it.
What the monthly check does
On the 3rd of each month, an automated task re-reads the upstream dataset and writes only the fields that changed. Every write is journalled with its old and its new value.
It has already caught a real error: the United Arab Emirates visa had moved from 43 × 55 mm to 40 × 60 mm since our first import. We were producing the wrong size without knowing it.
Three refusals protect it, because it writes without supervision: it rejects an implausible dataset, it rejects a batch touching more than 10 % of the catalogue, and it never overwrites the values we established ourselves.
What we do not invent
The head-height ratio is the criterion that decides whether a photo is accepted, and it is the one least often published. We did not reuse the seventeen ratios stated by the dataset: the one given for the United States contradicts the official rule.
About seventy-four documents have no ratio from an official source. They fall back on the ICAO standard, which is a reasonable default and not a national rule. We would rather tell you that than print a figure that merely looks authoritative.
What we are not
We are not an administration and we have no authority over your application. We check technical criteria — face detected, head height, eye line, framing, resolution, output dimensions, file size, background — and we show you the result of every one.
We also show you what we did not check: your gaze, your expression, your glasses, the angle the photo was taken from. The final decision belongs to the office receiving your application, and nobody can promise it to you.
Found a mistake?
If a requirement on this site does not match what an authority publishes, write to us with the link. A correction on our side benefits everyone applying with the same document.