Which passports and visas refuse a photo made with an app?
TL;DR Two outright: Germany's passport and New Zealand's visa. Germany names passport-photo apps as not permitted since May 2025; Immigration New Zealand names "cropping your head and shoulders to place it on a plain background" as a banned edit. Two more say "no alterations" in a way their own examples show is aimed at retouched faces — Singapore's ICA and Taiwan. This site does not sell the first two and warns on the second two.
The two that name the tool
Germany: since 1 May 2025 the picture must be taken by a studio or by the passport office and sent over an encrypted cloud link with a data-matrix code; photos taken on your own phone and photos from passport-photo apps are named as not permitted. New Zealand's visa: "You cannot manipulate or digitally alter your photo using Artificial Intelligence (AI) or other digital editing tools", and the banned list includes placing your head and shoulders on a plain background.
The two that say "no alterations"
ICA: "Digital photo must be original without alterations using computer software/mobile app" — the ✗ example is a retouched face, and the same page recommends photo apps for taking the picture. Taiwan: "Alteration of the digital image is not permitted", inside a paragraph about print resolution and resampling. Both read as rules against changing the face; neither says so in as many words, and both pages on this site say that is our reading.
And one that expressly allows cropping
New Zealand's passport — the same country as the visa rule above — tells applicants to "take a wider shot… then crop it to the correct head-size", while forbidding filters and AI that change how you look. The difference between the two New Zealand pages is the clearest statement anywhere of where the real line is: the face, not the frame.
The catalogue's position, document by document
| Document | Authority's words | This site |
|---|---|---|
| Germany passport | Apps "not permitted"; studio or office only | Not sold. No purchase button. |
| New Zealand visa | No AI or digital editing; background replacement named | Not sold. No purchase button. |
| New Zealand passport | No changing how you look; cropping expressly allowed | Sold; real-face output only. |
| Singapore passport / IC | "Original without alterations using computer software/mobile app" | Sold with a warning; real-face output only; AI-face is keepsake-only. |
| Taiwan passport | "Alteration of the digital image is not permitted" | Sold with a warning; the sentence is quoted on the page. |
A real case
A German-Singaporean dual national renewed both passports in one month. The Singapore one: photographed by a friend, cropped and background-replaced here, accepted. The German one: this site declined, she went to a studio in Tanglin that had the encrypted-transfer setup, and the office scanned the code off her receipt.
Common questions
- Why sell the ICA one but not the German one?
- Germany names apps. ICA names alterations, shows a retouched face as the failure, and recommends apps for taking the photo. One is a rule against the tool; the other is a rule against retouching. The page says which reading we took and that ICA decides.
- Will more authorities go Germany's way?
- The trend across the pages read for this site is toward in-person biometric capture and in-app photo capture for e-visas. Where that happens, the answer becomes "no photo from you at all" rather than "no app".
Related documents
- Germany passport — 35 × 45 mm
- New Zealand visa — 35 × 45 mm
- New Zealand passport — 51 × 68 mm
- Singapore passport — 35 × 45 mm
- Taiwan passport — 35 × 45 mm
Sources
Read on the issuing authority's own pages on the dates shown on each document page:
- Germany passport: www.personalausweisportal.de (read 2026-09-06)
- New Zealand visa: www.immigration.govt.nz (read 2026-09-06)
- New Zealand passport: www.passports.govt.nz (read 2026-09-06)
- Singapore passport: www.ica.gov.sg (read 2026-09-06)
- Taiwan passport: www.roc-taiwan.org (read 2026-09-06)
SGfoto is independent — not affiliated with or endorsed by any government or issuing authority — and does not guarantee acceptance. Requirements change; the authority's page is the one that counts. Rebuilt 2026-09-16.