Emirates ID photo · 4.5 × 3.5 cm

Checked and laid out to the UAE ICP’s official Personal Photo Specifications and the photo conditions in its Services Guide. Checked by us on 2026-08-17.

Two official ICP documents govern this photo: the general leaflet (35–40 mm wide, face 70–80%, plain light background) and the service conditions for identity and residence files (4.5 × 3.5 cm, white) — we follow the stricter white. One trap worth knowing: for passport-linked services ICP requires the photo not be identical to the one already in your passport, so do not recycle it. No millimetre head height is published — our layout sits at the middle of the official 70–80% band, and we say so.

Which document is this photo for?

Check your photo

Free check, free watermarked preview — you pay only to download the finished file.

Head and shoulders in frame, with clear space above the hair — the head should fill about half the photo, not all of it.

Drop your photo hereTap to choose a photoor click to browse your filestake one now or pick from your library

JPG · PNG · HEICshorter side at least 600pxup to 12 MBor paste with ⌘V

Official specification

Finished size	35 × 45 mm
Head height (chin to crown)	not published by this authority
Eye height	not published by this authority
Background	white — the general photo leaflet says plain and light-coloured, and the service conditions require white
File formats	not published by this authority
File size	not published by this authority
Taken within	the last 6 months

Full rules

Personal photo 4.5 x 3.5 cm in size with a white background — the condition ICP's service guide states for identity and residence services.
No more than 6 months old.
A close-up of your head and the top of your shoulders so that your face takes up 70–80% of the photograph, 35–40 mm in width.
Looking directly at the camera, facing square on — not portrait style or tilted — with both edges of the face clearly shown, eyes open and clearly visible with no hair across them.
Uniform lighting with no shadows or flash reflections on the face, no shadows behind the head, no red eye, natural skin tones, appropriate brightness and contrast.
If you wear glasses, the eyes must show clearly with no flash reflection and no tinted lenses; frames must not cover any part of the eyes, and lighter frames are preferred.
Head coverings are not permitted except for religious reasons, and then the facial features from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead and both edges of the face must be clearly shown.
In sharp focus and clear, of high quality with no ink marks or creases, printed on high-quality paper at high resolution if taken with a digital camera.
For passport-linked services ICP also requires that the new photo not be identical to the one already printed in the passport.

Sources

https://icp.gov.ae/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/icao_english.pdf
Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security (ICP), UAE — Personal Photo Specifications · we checked it 2026-08-17

The photographs must be: no more than 6 months old; 35–40mm in width; close up of your head and top of your shoulders so that your face takes up 70–80% of the photograph; in sharp focus and clear; of high quality with no ink marks or creases … be taken with a plain light-coloured background … head coverings are not permitted except for religious reasons.

https://icp.gov.ae/wp-content/themes/ica_v3/assets/images/servicesGuideEN2024.pdf
Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security (ICP), UAE — Services Guide 2024 · we checked it 2026-08-17

Personal photo 4.5*3.5cm size with white background. Controls and conditions of the personal photo: … The photo background should be white. … The photo must be recent and comply with the specifications of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and must not be identical to the current photograph printed on the passport.

Questions

What are the Emirates ID photo requirements?

ICP's service conditions ask for a personal photo of 4.5 x 3.5 cm with a white background, recent and ICAO-compliant: a close-up of your head and the top of your shoulders with the face taking up 70–80% of the photograph, no more than 6 months old.

Does the background have to be white?

For identity and residence services, yes — the service conditions state the photo background should be white. ICP's general photo leaflet speaks of a plain light-coloured background, and where the two differ we follow the stricter service condition.

Which services use this photo?

ICP's identity and residence services — Emirates ID issuance and renewal and residence-visa files — list the same personal-photo condition in the official services guide.

Can I reuse my passport photo?

Careful here: for passport-linked services ICP requires that the photo not be identical to the one already printed in your passport. A freshly taken photo is the safe route.

What about glasses and head coverings?

Glasses only with the eyes clearly visible — no tinted lenses, no flash reflections, frames clear of the eyes, lighter frames preferred. Head coverings only for religious reasons, with the face clearly shown from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead and both edges visible.

Does ICP publish a head height in millimetres?

No — it publishes the 70–80% face proportion and a 35–40 mm width. We lay out at the middle of the official band and say plainly that the millimetre figure is derived, not official.

Our own assumptions

Two official ICP documents govern here: the general photo leaflet (width 35–40 mm, face 70–80%, plain light-coloured background) and the services guide for identity and residence services (4.5 x 3.5 cm, white). Where they differ we follow the stricter service condition — white, at 35 x 45 mm.
ICP publishes a face proportion (70–80% of the photograph) but no head height in millimetres, so head size is not shown as an official millimetre range; our 75% layout is the middle of the official band.
The ICP leaflet is typeset right-to-left, so ranges appear reversed in the raw text (40–35, %80–70); our source record notes the normalisation.
ICP publishes no upload file parameters in these documents, so we state that rather than inventing limits; what we produce prints exactly to 4.5 x 3.5 cm.
The chin is measured by 68-point facial landmarks; the crown comes from the top of the cut-out outline. Assumed accuracy ±5%, calibrated only on synthetic fixtures.

Where the authority does not specify something, we say so rather than pretending it does. The points above are our engineering choices, not official requirements.