No Room for Blue: Excluding Sadness from Passport Photos

Maintaining a neutral facial expression is key in passport photos. Showing emotions, such as sadness, is not acceptable according to guidelines.

Sadness or sorrow is an emotion that can be expressed when someone is feeling negative and lacks positivity. It is often accompanied by a feeling of unhappiness, and can manifest in different ways such as short-term sadness (feeling down), neutral sadness (disappointment or anger, or long-term sadness (disgust, anxiety, and tantrums).

Facial Expressions of Sadness

When people experience sadness, their facial expressions can be quite telling. These expressions often include:

Rules for Showing Sadness in Passport Photos

However, in certain situations, it is important to maintain a neutral facial expression. In passport photos, a neutral expression is required, which means that the person must look directly into the camera with a neutral expression and a closed mouth. The forehead cannot be furrowed, and the eyebrows cannot be lowered.

Showing any emotion, including sadness, anger, surprise, disgust, joy, or fear, is not allowed., Is not allowed.