Giovanna

How funny! We renewed a couple of years ago and I hated to give up that much younger looking me, but at least in my case my driver's license picture is much worse and I have to show it much more frequently!

And truthfully, I've yet to find a customs agent in any country that suggested he could arrange a screen test for me!

sandi

Most passport photos look as if all that is missing is the number below our chin - convicts all. But now that the US is allowing us to smile - wow! Maybe there will be some improvement for all of us. Surprisingly, when I look at my previous passport photos, it's this last/current one that makes me look easily 10-years younger than I was even then. But my current passport is coming due for renewal within the year; should be interesting to see what the camera has to say!!

Fodorite018

I can't stand my passport picture! Hated it from day one. Now my drivers license picture I love! I do not want to have to renew it, lol!

Do you ever wonder what the people who process the passports think about all the pictures they see? Do they pass them around the office making fun of them? lol!

Surfergirl

I have the same hair, and the same face if I'm looking up and you are taking the picture from 18 feet above me. Somehow gravity has set in in the last 10 years. I should have had them take 2 sets 10 years ago!

allisonm

My passport picture is new and awful. The good news is that in NY you can keep using the same drivers license picture when you renew, so I continue to believe that's what I look like, before the jowls started to hang a bit and the hair had to be colored. (Mine is good for another 4 or 5 years, I think!)

ilovelabs2003

In Massachusetts you can do the same with license photos. I really like the one taken when I was 25, so when I renewed it prior to my 30th birthday, I kept it!

I have to renew my passport soon for our summer trip. I was 20 the last time it was taken, sigh! I am not that crazy about the picture, BUT I WAS 20!!!!!

FainaAgain

I wish they'd allow a set of pictures, so the customs would know whe didn't always look like the last one! Starting with a naked baby picture - I bet everybody has one

mcmrjm

I LOVE this thread!! I was feeling so vain because I was so upset over my new picture. We always take them with our polaroid but this time I have to find another way...I look about 200 yrs old and I'm actually only half that, or so...Mary

carrolldf

I love my current passport photo. I had it taken as a spur of the moment thing in one of those photo booths at Gatwick waiting for my flight home after spending a few days in London. I'd had a great time, was relaxed and happy and therefore looked great. It was never planned to be used for my passport but when I realized I needed to renew it a few months later, I figured, why not?

And actually, you can create your own as long as they meet the requirements on the state department web site: http://travel.state.gov/passport/guide/guide_2081.html.

BethGL

I love both my driver's license photo and my passport photo.

The driver's license photo was an accident. I had to renew my license after I changed my last name for marriage. The day I went to the dmv to renew everything I was wearing my glasses and I didn't want my "corrective lenses" in the picture (since I normally wear contact lenses) so I took them off and was trying not to squint in the picture and it came off as a smoldering gaze! I LOVE IT and everyone agrees its a great picture!

My passport photo I was prepared to re-take and pay for as many times as it was necessary until I got a picture I liked. I think it took two tries. I also happened to put a little more effort into my hair and make up that day.

I know it all sounds vain, but those pictures are going to last me into my mid to late 30s!

P_M

I have re-read the posts from our Canadian friends and I must say, you guys got it right. I like the rules for renewing every 5 years and not smiling. Why? I'm glad you asked. It would be a lot less traumatic to look at a photo of myself taken 5 years ago than 10, so a more frequent renewal is a good thing. Also, smiling makes the lines under my eyes more visible, so no more smiling in passport photos for me.

Based on the Canadian way of doing things, I have made an important decision, and I suggest you all do the same. From now on, I will renew my passport at LEAST once or twice a year. This way I will look about the same as I did in my last photo, and if I get a photo I don't like, it doesn't matter that much because I'll have a new one in a few months anyway. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get my new passport photos made, as I do not care for the photo taken 5 months ago that is my current passport.

Tallulah

I spent ages getting the right photo taken last year - 10 years is a long time, after all and I'm really unphotogenic - before finding one I actually liked. Delighted, I sent away for my new passport.

When I got it back I found out that rather than stick the photo in like they used to, they now print a digital image onto the page. Alas this distorts it somewhat and I now look like a gargoyle. I am not happy. I think I might stick a copy of the original over it!

Dick

Passport photos at costoc for 4.99...that's about as cheap as I've seen

julie_Colorado

I can not believe there are people in this world that worry about their passport picture... I wouldn't care if I had my finger stuck up my nose as long as I can use it. Pay extra!?... no way.

Spygirl

Personally, I can't imagine NOT caring about it, since you and everyone else has to look at it for the next 10 years! Who wants to look at a picture of yourself that looks like a mug shot for 10 years? Not me! In fact, I just had my PP picture done at the end of December, as I had exactly 3 days to get my passport. (for those of you who don't know this: many countries require you to have 6 months or more validity on your passport when you enter the country-since I was going to Thailand and Hong Kong, where both have this requirement, and I had less than 5 months remaining, I had to get my passport renewed in a hurry). I made the photo person take the picture 5 TIMES on the digital camera, even then I wasn't satisfied, but that was all he agreed to do-I had to pick one and go with it!

And here was a first: when I went through Passport Control in Budapest's Ferihegy this past November, the passport control officer commented to me how lovely my passport picture was! Huh? It's almost 10 years old, and I always disliked it. (even my mother told me she's seen far better pictures of me). I just mention that because people who are required to look at your passport apparently do scrutinize the picture and the real person!

Kayb95

I got the free passport photo at AAA too, but after taking one look at it knew I couldn't live with that for 10 years. Not only was it an awful picture of me, the wonderful office lighting gave my skin this sickly green cast.

Marched myself right over to a portrait studio and paid for a passable one.

daph

My last pp photo is the best I've ever had. My hair was curled and looked better than usual and the face was acceptable [to me, I don't know about those officals in the boothes in other countries]. Alas, the hair had gone gray [daughter said that it finally looks my age!]. But the saddest part is that I know this will be my last passport. But it's been a grand ride!

StCirq

My current passport photo is ok, not really attractive, but not a mug shot, either. My former passport picture was SO bad that I actually had a United Airlines check-in person look at the passport, look at me, look at the passport, and ask "Have you had cosmetic surgery?" I didn't know whether to howl with laughter or fall over weeping.

chepar

Mug shot - yep, that's mine.

The menacing glower that the camera captured (and I thought I was showing a pleasant Mona Lisa like smile) combined with the weird greenish/grayish tint really make for a spectacularly unattractive photo. And now I've got to put up with it for another 7 years.

Surfergirl

Have you had cosmetic surgery?! That just floored me!!!