Kuwait Passport Photo Requirements — Complete Guide

Official Photo Size

The required Kuwait passport photo size is 40 mm wide × 60 mm tall — larger than the usual 35 × 45 mm format. 2 photos must be submitted. The photo should show your head and shoulders, framed so you are alone in the image with no other people or objects. PicToPassport crops precisely to 40 × 60 mm for Kuwait. Always verify with the official Ministry of Interior before submitting.

Getting the frame to land on the exact millimetre is the fiddly part: Photo Resizer

Background and Lighting

Kuwait requires a sky-blue background — not white, cream, or grey. Lighting must be even and bright, with no shadows on the face or the background. Avoid tinting a white wall blue in editing, as this often produces uneven colour; a real blue backdrop or PicToPassport's background tool gives the cleanest result.

Expression and Pose

Kuwait calls for a plain expression with the mouth closed, the face turned squarely to the camera and nobody else in the frame. No grin, no tilted head, and no supporting hand or second person beside you. The backdrop must be sky-blue rather than white, which is what defeats applicants reusing a European-standard print. Every other requirement follows from that single, front-facing, uncluttered pose.

Glasses and Accessories

Kuwait's official guidance does not specifically mention glasses, so clear everyday prescription glasses are generally acceptable as long as your eyes remain fully visible and there are no lens reflections. To avoid any risk, many applicants remove glasses. Head coverings are only permitted for religious reasons, and the face must stay fully uncovered and visible.

Face Visibility

The Kuwaiti sheet is 40 mm × 60 mm, larger than the familiar European format, and the published rules describe positioning instead of millimetres: face square to the lens, applicant alone, head uncropped. Because no head-height figure is published, the working test is whether the whole face sits inside the taller frame with even margins and a continuous sky-blue background behind the head and shoulders.

Photo Recency

A Kuwaiti passport photo must have been taken in the last month — one of the tightest windows anywhere. A print that felt recent at the studio can already be stale by the time you reach the service centre, so shoot and submit close together. Age rather than size is what invalidates an otherwise correct 40 mm × 60 mm photograph, so note the shoot date before you lodge the application.

How Many Copies You Get

You need 2 photos for a Kuwait passport application. When you use PicToPassport, you receive a digital file cropped exactly to 40 × 60 mm, ready for upload, plus a print-friendly sheet with multiple copies on one page. Because the recency rule is so tight, generating a fresh print whenever you apply keeps you compliant.

Printing them yourself? Lay the whole set out on one sheet: 4x6 Passport Photo Print Sheet

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The most common errors are using a white or cream background instead of sky-blue, submitting a photo older than one month, or cropping to the wrong 40 × 60 mm size. Smiling, tilting the head, or including other people or objects in the frame will also cause rejection. Always check the Kuwait passport photo requirements before you submit.

Baby Passport Photos

Kuwait publishes no separate infant rule, so a baby is photographed in the same 40 mm × 60 mm sky-blue frame as everyone else. Rest the child on a light blue sheet, keep the head centred with no support visible, and shoot from slightly above so the face squares the lens. Nothing enters the frame except the baby — no hands, no toys — and the published closed-mouth, plain expression still applies.

Framing an infant is where most adults go wrong, and this one measures the head for you: Baby Passport Photo Maker

Using PicToPassport

PicToPassport is built for Kuwait's unusual rules: it crops to 40 mm × 60 mm and sets the sky-blue background, because white, cream and grey are all refused. The face sits square to camera with the applicant alone in frame, and the output is print-ready for the 2 photos a passport application needs — a visa requires none at all. The tool costs nothing, runs entirely in your browser, and keeps the photo on your device rather than any server, uploading nothing.