Here’s Why You Can’t Smile When Taking A Passport Photo

Photo 178860061 © Iaroslavchemerys | Dreamstime.com

Okay, so it does feel amazing to be able to travel after a couple of years of delays, but hold that grin until you get on the plane.

Or, at least, after you get your passport photo taken, because flashing your pearly whites would result in your picture getting rejected. On that note, smiling isn’t actually banned in many parts of the world, including the US, contrary to what many people may believe.

“Yes,” you can smile in passport photos, the US State Department stresses. “But make sure both your eyes are open and your mouth is closed in your photo.”

Importantly, applicants must maintain a “neutral expression,” which is why smiling in the natural sense is discouraged. In other words, you might want to practice what Tyra Banks calls the smize.

It’s not just for formality’s sake. As it turns out, immigration officers need travelers to keep a neutral face so they can be identified by facial recognition technology at airports, Karolina Turowska of Passport-Photo.Online tells HuffPost.

While humans can easily recognize each other’s faces at various angles, computers don’t have the same eyes as we do. They struggle to sort out CAPTCHA puzzles and can’t check that box that says “I am not a robot.”

Smiling alters your facial features, which may throw machines off, according to iVisa. Being undetected is great for evading Big Brother, but not so when you want to pass through airport security quickly.

Photo 95793217 © Vchalup | Dreamstime.com

Algorithms recognize your facial features by the distance between your pupils and ears, and so on, says Turowska, so keeping a relaxed appearance is crucial.

For the same reasons, bespectacled applicants are urged to remove their glasses when taking their photo. You also can’t purse your lips or frown.

[via HuffPost and Upworthy, images via Dreamstime.com]