NZ passport photo online

Yes — passports.govt.nz says you can take a photo with your own device, but someone else has to press the button, because selfies will be rejected. The passport photo NZ requirements for a home photo: the photographer stands 1.5 m away and holds the camera at your eye level; you stand at least half a metre in front of a plain, light-coloured background and face forwards with a neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open and hair out of your eyes, with a clear gap around the sides and top of your head and your shoulders and upper chest in the frame. Then crop it here to 3:4 at 1200×1600 px, check that the line under the download says it is inside 250 KB–5 MB, and run the file through the official online photo checker before you start the application. Scans of printed photos will not be accepted.

The New Zealand passport online photo size is set in pixels and ratio, not centimetres: a 3:4 portrait between 900 and 4500 pixels wide and 1200 and 6000 pixels high, saved as a JPEG of 250 KB to 5 MB — this tool makes 1200×1600 px, or 2400×3200 px from a high-resolution original. On the pages we checked, passports.govt.nz gives no NZ passport photo size in cm or in inches for the online photo; the one physical size in its NZ passport photo size requirements is for prints with a paper form, the standard 35 mm × 45 mm (3.5 × 4.5 cm, about 1.38 × 1.77 in), which the “NZ paper application” preset makes at 413×531 px and 300 DPI. The NZ passport photo size ratio is 3:4, width to height; the older technical-requirements page (as archived in February 2026) writes the same shape as 4:3 (height to width), “or 3:4 on a smartphone”.

“Too small” means the file is under 250 KB: the technical-requirements page of passports.govt.nz (as archived in February 2026) says that if your photo is smaller than 250 KB you need to upload a larger photo, and that if it was sent to you in an email you should open the attachment again and re-save the image. This tool saves each crop as a JPEG at quality 0.92; if the file is under 262.5 KB (250 KB plus a 5 % margin, so it passes whether the portal counts 1000 or 1024 bytes per KB) it re-encodes at quality 0.97 and then 1.0, and when even full quality stays under the line it shows “only N KB even at full quality — below the 263 KB minimum; use a sharper original photo” (263 is 262.5 rounded) instead of a tick. Then use the original camera photo rather than a copy that a messaging or email app compressed, or, with a high-resolution original, pick the 2400×3200 px option, which has four times the pixels and so a larger file.

For the file, yes; for the face, no. As a passport photo NZ checker it covers the technical part: every download from the online presets is a 3:4 JPEG at exactly 1200×1600 or 2400×3200 px — inside the 900–4500 × 1200–6000 px range — and the line under it shows the file size with “under 5000 KB ✓” (5000 KB = 5 MB) when the file is between 262.5 KB (250 KB plus a 5 % margin) and 5 MB, or a warning when it is not. It does not judge the background, expression, glasses, head size, shadows or lighting. The NZ passport photo online checker at onlinephotochecker.passports.govt.nz tells you whether a photo is suitable for upload to the Online Passport Service and, if it is not, the reasons why; its terms say the photo is kept for 14 days and that a photo assessed as acceptable may not upload if it is altered afterwards — so crop here first, check there second, and do not edit the file again. A passport officer still assesses the photo when you apply.

passports.govt.nz names three places to get your photo taken — Warehouse Stationery, a pharmacy that offers the service, or a professional photographer — but the passport photo pages we checked publish no prices. The photographer should print the photo for a paper application or email it to you for the online application; scans of printed photos will not be accepted. Taking the photo with your own device and preparing it here costs nothing: this page makes a New Zealand passport photo online free, with no upload and no sign-up.

3:4 — the aspect ratio the official iPhone guide from passports.govt.nz tells you to pick in the Photos app (Edit → Crop → aspect ratio → 3:4), cropping so that your shoulders and a gap around your head, including hair and ears, are visible; the file must still be a JPEG of 900–4500 × 1200–6000 px and 250 KB–5 MB. No NZ passport photo app is needed: open this page in Safari or Chrome on the phone, and it crops to 1200×1600 or 2400×3200 px and converts HEIC to JPEG on the device. The guide’s setup for the person taking the photo (no selfies): a well-lit space, a plain light-coloured background — pale greys and blues work better than white — you 0.5 m in front of it, the photographer 1.5 m away with the camera at your eye level. To move the photo to a computer, the guide says to email it to yourself at actual size, because other applications may compress the file and make it unsuitable.

Yes, with the “NZ paper application” preset: it crops to 35 mm × 45 mm (413×531 px at 300 DPI) and its print sheet puts 8 copies with grey cut lines on one 4×6 in photo, while the form asks for 2 identical colour photos less than 6 months old. Order the sheet as a normal 4×6 in print at 100 % (actual size, no fit, fill or borderless crop) on photo paper: the form says to use high-quality, high-resolution photo paper and not matt paper, heavy-backed thermal paper or an ink-jet printer, so a home ink-jet print will not do. A single 35×45 JPG sent to a lab is scaled to fill the paper and comes out the wrong size. The red crown line sits 4.5 mm below the top edge and the shaded chin band 39.6–40.5 mm down, following the oval of the head template in the form, which the head, including hair, should fit within; the form also wants the head to be 80 % of the image height, centred with a clear gap around the sides and top. Its template labels the space above the head “3mm Gap”, but the oval itself is drawn about 4.5 mm below the top edge. The form also strongly recommends getting the photos from a business that provides a passport photo service, and wants a plain, light background that is not white.

Lay your baby on a plain, light-coloured sheet and take the photo from above; it should show the baby’s entire face with their eyes open, and no other people or objects should be visible. The file rules are the same as for an adult — a 3:4 colour JPEG, 900–4500 × 1200–6000 px, 250 KB–5 MB, less than 6 months old — so crop the photo here to 1200×1600 px and run it through the official online photo checker before you apply. For a paper child application the form (PAS305) asks for 2 identical 35×45 mm prints on photo paper with no other people in the photo and a plain, light but not white background.

No. The crop, the 3:4 JPEG, the file-size check and the 4×6 in print sheet are all made inside your browser; the photo never leaves your device and nothing is stored. The official online photo checker is different: its terms say an uploaded photo is retained for 14 days before being deleted.