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Can You Wear Earrings In Passport Photo? Jewellery Rules Laid Out

woman wearing jewelry

We all want to look our best at all times: after all, it’s only natural! And jewellery has always been some of the most popular and ever-present means to complement a stunning appearance.

But no matter how important these personal ornaments are for us, they aren’t always appropriate. Take passport photos, for one.

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Can You Wear Jewellery In a Passport Photo? UK Specifics

Considering the other specifications, this may come as a surprise, but His Majesty’s Passport Office is kind of friendly towards applicants who want to wear jewellery in their pictures. At least, there aren’t any explicit prohibitions saying that you can’t put on your favourite earrings, for example, when going for your photo session. The only condition is that it can’t obscure your facial features, create reflection or cast shadows.

Be it as it may, it doesn’t mean that you can wear absolutely anything you want. Say, you can’t enclose a passport application with a photo where you wear a pair of gorgeous-but-still-way-too-shiny hoops.

As with the other accessories, we should apply our common sense here.

Passport Photo Earrings: Yes Or No?

ear rings in hand

Despite there being no strict prohibitions on the use of this type of jewellery, we wouldn’t recommend you get overly creative here.

Better safe than sorry: put on a pair of beautiful earrings of moderate size and more or less humble shape. Also, pay attention to the number of shiny materials in their construction. Even if you can’t see the glitter at the first glance, it may well show itself in the different lighting used at the photo shoot.

Another important aspect to note: don’t put larger earrings that dangle for your photo session. They may be gorgeous in themselves and there’s no explicit prohibition for them, but they also clearly break the common sense rule and the HMPO will most likely consider them inappropriate.

Can You Wear a Necklace In a Passport Photo?

Same as with earrings, necklaces are generally allowed but you need to make sure they are not too flamboyant.

This means you can’t put on a massive shimmering pendant or a large pearl-beaded collar: as beautiful as such necklaces are, they constitute perfectly understandable grounds for the rejection of your own passport photo.

Wearing more business-like necklaces is a far better idea.

For one, it can be a thin and neat smaller necklace made of lowkey-coloured (but still charming, mind you!) materials. It can have jewels in it, but they shouldn’t shine too much. Such a choice will be a fair compromise between beauty and formal style.

Can You Wear Hair Clip In Passport Photo?

Even though you can arrange your hair in a neat bun, make an impressive braid or make a cute ponytail, you can’t use your favourite hair clip to fasten your hairdo. Same as with head coverings, HMPO doesn’t allow the applicant to have such accessories in their passport picture, and it doesn’t matter if the clip is shiny or not.

If you need to fasten your hair so that it doesn’t cover your face, try using a tie that’s transparent or matches the colour of your hairstyle – this way it won’t even be visible.

Can You Have Facial Piercings In a Passport Photo?

Surprisingly, HMPO allows you to keep your piercings in your headshot no matter where they are (say, it might be nose, ear or lip rings).

woman with makeup and piercing

But please mind that if you’re heavily pierced, this might be a problem, as your piercings may obscure your face and cause unwanted reflection thus rendering your new photo unscannable for biometric software. Your face must be perfectly visible!

If you have a lot of facial piercings, try to remove as many as possible before taking your picture – this will increase your chances to comply.

Once you’ve figured out what jewellery to wear (and the other passport photo requirements), it’s time for you to have your photo taken! And to do that, you needn’t actually go anywhere and spend hours of your time. Just use our fast and convenient UK passport photo maker, and you’re all set!