No Smiles on these Passports!
 

<i>Canada has banned the public from smiling or frowning for passport photos, the Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday. Canadians must send a photo with &quot;a neutral expression--that means so laughing, smiles, frowning,&quot; said Suzanne Meunier, a ministry spokesman.

&quot;The mouth must be closed,&quot; she added.</i>

Well! Whaddya think of that? What does YOUR passport photo look like? Would it fly in Canada?

I suppose they did this so someone cannot hide the way they normaly look. A post 9/11 thing.

I hate my passport photo as much as I hated my prior passport photo. Do I really look that bad?!

The only thing missing from most passport photos is that &quot;small board with numbers/date&quot; held below your face.

Most people look like current residents of a penal institution.

Though I must admit my current photo is pretty good - the best of any of my previous passport photos taken over the years - in fact, one of the best photos of me anywhere. Boy was I surprised.

By the time they did that holograph thing (or whatever it is) to my photo you can hardly see me it's so dark. I guess I'm lucky considering what my previous photos looked like.

A friend of mine once said:

&quot;The best passport you could carry is your smile.&quot;

So, it doesn't matter what any uptight government wants or doesn't want, carry your best passport with you and flash it every opportunity you get! :D

Are you kidding?? I just sent in my passport for renewal and I'm smiling. Where did you get the info from, dln?

that's weird, wonder why not. you can also ID people by their teeth when they smile - if they are BAD that is.

I just looked at mine. It looks like I'm trying to figure out what the stain on the photographer's shirt might be. And yes, I should be holding a number plate below my chin. Horrible picture.

I was just thinking that next time, I may try to pose with a &quot;What? What did I do??&quot; expression. That seems the surest way to ensure a postive ID if foriegn authorities nab me for something like jaywalking.

Tiramisu, hard to believe you haven't heard this already. It's been all over the news, even here in the UK. Here are just a few of the places you can read about it:

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/am...dian.smile.ap/

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_813475.html?menu=

http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/we....Rnet_DaQ.html

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...a-passport.htm

I am not smiling in my passport photo and it looks NOTHING like me!!
Aside from my hair being a different length, I look like someone just goosed me, I always feel I have to apologise to the Customs agent for the scary picture :(

I'm smiling in my passport photo. And I have lipstick on and my hair is nicely done. I figured if I had to live with it for ten years, I may as well try to gussie myself up!

The downside of this is that after a long over-the-ocean flight, I look like my passport photo's evil twin!

My passport photos always look so bad that I almost hope they think it's a fake! Once that actually happened - years ago, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, I drove with my family, through East Germany to Berlin (I'm from the US). No trouble going in, but leaving East Germany they held us up at the border for hours while they debated whether the picture of me on my passport was really me. (I had had the flu and a fever the day the picture was taken, so the picture was even worse than the usual abomination.) As a vain teenager at the time, I was secretly sort of glad they didn't think it was me - as long as the consequences stopped short of being thrown into prison...

I look tired, drunk, and stoned in my passport photo, which is usually how I look after a long, nasty flight.

I am reminded that a couple years ago when showing my passport at the airline counter, the woman said, &quot;I see you have new glasses, but still wearing the same shirt.&quot; I WAS!!!

lol Patrick

It is illegal to have a moustache in Dutch Passports...

What about sideburns? Some of the ones I've seen lately (who in the WORLD decided to bring those 60's/70's hirsute horrors back? EWWWWWW) have been soooo full and hairy, they almost hide the ears!

Have just reviewed my current and four previous passports and I'm smiling in each one.

I guess I'm happy in all these pictures because getting a new passport photo represents more world travel!

Also, I've always had them done by profesional photgs and not at one of those photo booths near the passport office. It doesn't cost a lot more and, as someone said, you do have to live with the results for a long time!

no. Apparently not.
Under the Hair Act of 1967 it states:
&quot; Sideburns are extremely offensive and thus any person or persons known to show them in public will be forcibly removed from society...&quot;

LOL LOL I love it LOL