Your Passport Is Your Ambassador Somaliland Needs To Comply ICAO Passport Specifications: Part One By Abdirashid Mohamed Jama Belel
Passport printing is a high stakes job and only the most secure companies and facilities are up to the task. Many security features go into a passport that makes it next to impossible to forge or counterfeit. Passport specifications are set out by the International Civil Aviation Organization but each country has a right to choose which security features to include in its passport
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has stipulated certain mandatory specifications for passport photos. The salient points of the ICAO specifications are as follows:
- The image should be 2 inches by 2 inches;
- The image must have adequate brightness and contrast;
- The skin tone should be natural. In case of over-exposure or under-exposure of the photo, the skin is either too dark or too light, photo will not be acceptable;
- It should show a close up of the head and (partial) shoulders;
- The image should be straight looking, centered with neutral expression;
- Face should be in sharp focus and clear with no ink marks/creases/lines;
- The face (from forehead edge to bottom of chin) should be 70 to 80% of the photo or one inch height;
- The eyes must be open and no hair obscuring the face;
- Prescription glasses if worn should be clear and thin framed and should not have flash reflection or obscure the eyes;
- Head coverings, hair, head-dress or facial ornaments should not obscure the face;
- The photo must have plain light background;
- There must be no other people or object in the photo;
- The lighting must be uniform with no shadows on the face or behind;
- Red eye photos are not allowed;
- No lines are allowed.
- The photo should be ideally printed by professional photo studio with continuous tone; and good resolution. Polaroid photos or photos printed with ordinary Printers are not suitable.
Passports Applications with photos that do not match the ICAO specifications are liable to be rejected by foreign immigration authorities, and could result in extreme inconvenience to the passport holder .