Stephen’s due to get a new passport so last weekend, we brought him downtown to get his passport photo taken. We ended up at a small pharmacy where the pharmacist took his picture (because the photo studio didn’t have a person available to take a simple snapshot @#!). The two sets we got looked alright to me until this morning when I was gathering all the documents and materials. I sat down to measure everything and realized we were a couple millimeters off every which way.

The pharmacist hadn’t a photo cutter, so I was measuring and cutting them on my own using regular scissors. First, I noticed the size of Stephen’s face in the photo was hitting the max allowable at 35 mm from chin to top of head. Then, the distance from top of head to the edge of the photo was to be no less than 1/2 inch (13 mm) but if I framed the picture that way, I would have had to cut through his neck given the size of his head. I ended up compromising with a 10 mm top margin.

After I finished cutting out the 2 inch by 2 inch photos, I thought I’d check online to see some samples of other people’s passport photos. I also checked the US Department of State’s instructions and compared them to the ones given by the American Embassy in London. I shouldn’t have been surprised they did not agree.

The US State Department states that the mouth should be closed. Apparently, the no smiling rule was thought up sometime in 2004 along with the UK and Germany. Nothing on the American Embassy site (pdf) had that requirement listed. And not only that, the photo sample given had a woman with a broad smile on her face. The U.S. State Department also did not have any stipulation about the distance from top of head to edge of photograph.

Shoot me now. (har)

Because it is such a colossal hassle to get a passport renewed overseas for children under the age of 14–both parents must be present or have many notarized forms filled out and an appointment needs to be booked at least a week in advance–I’ll be schlepping Stephen down to take the “perfect” passport photo. Trouble is, have you ever tried telling a rambunctious four-year-old NOT to grin in a pic? We’ve been practicing all afternoon.

The practice must have wore him out too because he developed a slight fever and fell asleep two hours earlier than usual. I blame it all on the bad aura created by the passport photos.

Update: We got his pics taken at Snappy Snaps. They did a great job. I highly recommend them!