we love your smile, really! But you can not for your photo: No Smiling in Foreign Passport Photos
“NO SMILING!”
At first, I thought it was odd that smiling was not allowed in foreign passport images (it is still allowed in
US passport images). Then I heard that many foreign governments are using facial recognition software
to catch the bad guys, and they will often scan your passport photo to put it in their system. A smile
distorts the face and inhibits the software’s ability to find the correct match.
Now the question becomes… if the rest of the world is utilizing this method of making us safer, why isn’t
the US government doing the same thing? Obviously, there are people waaay smarter than me that might
have an acceptable answer to that question, I just haven’t met them yet (maybe someone can answer it
here for me).
One way or the other, for all my Canadian and European friends needing passport photos, citizenship
photos, immigration photos, or DV Lottery photos… NO SMILING!
Bring your unhappy face to Thomas Bruce Studio of Photography in St Petersburg and we’ll promise not
to make you laugh!
