Make UAE Passport Photo

The ICP states that the photograph must be recent, must comply with ICAO specifications, and must not be identical to the current photograph printed on the passport. The same sentence appears for the Emirates ID, with the ID substituted for the passport.

That last clause is the one that catches people. Renewing a passport is exactly the moment you reach for the photo you already own — it is the right size, it is already approved, and it is in your hand. It is also specifically excluded.

This is the same rule the UK applies to its ETA, where the guidance says the image must not be from a previously taken digital facial image. Two authorities, different documents, the same closing of the same loophole: a photograph proves what you look like now, and a copy of an old one proves only what you looked like then.

So take a new one, even if the old one still looks like you.

The ICP's own requirement is a personal photo sized 3.5 x 4.5 cm with a white background. It states this twice — once under the documents required to issue a passport, and again under renewal for citizens outside the country.

A light grey background at 40x60mm circulates very widely for the UAE, and this page said exactly that until 17 August 2026. The sources behind it were four commercial passport-photo sites. Four sites agreeing is evidence that they copied each other, not that the issuing authority agrees with them.

We changed it because the authority that prints the passport is the only party whose opinion decides whether your application proceeds. If you have already had grey prints made, they may still be accepted — but white is what the ICP asks for.

The passport and Emirates ID photo is 3.5 x 4.5 cm. UAE visa applications are commonly prepared at 43 x 55mm, and this site still uses that figure for the visa route.

Worth being straight about why: the ICP lists the visa photo only as "a colored personal photo with a white background" and publishes no dimensions for it at all. The 43x55mm figure is in wide use but is not the authority's. We have not replaced it, because swapping one unsourced number for another is not an improvement.

What this does mean is that a photo made for a UAE visa is not automatically right for a UAE passport, and the reverse. Check which document you are applying for before you print anything.

Passports are issued 48 hours after all requirements are fulfilled, at 90 AED for the ten-year version plus a 15 AED delivery fee. Applications go through the ICP smart application or the official website.

Applicants over 15 must have a signature and fingerprint registered on their Emirates ID. Applicants must be over 21 for a ten-year passport, and under 21 receive a five-year one.

For a child under five whose appearance has changed noticeably, there is a specific route — the Passport Replacement Service for change of personal photograph, 65 AED including issuance and delivery, usable once during the first five years.