I am currently in the process of renewing my passport, I have downloaded all the relevant forms and information from the British consulate in Paris, blimey I am sure at one time it cost £25.00 now I have to shell out 171 Euro's. Not only that but I really liked my last passport photo, yes it was ten years ago but I was smiling, MG always say's I look like Wallace! Hence the photo, but I liked it, hey we have to travel around the planet with it for ten years.
Rules have changed now, smiling is not acceptable you have to adopt a neutral expression, I thought I would give myself an advantage by having the photo taken just after a visit to my hairdressers and being exceptionally careful with my make up. Once settled in the booth, I soon realised a fringe is also not acceptable, so I had to brush my freshly cut fringe back, adopt neutral expression and think of England...result terrible, if I did not look like an undesirable person before I certainly look like one now!
Is it for one of those new passports?
ReplyDeleteThe ones I did in the booth at Super U..in which I looked human...were rejected for not having my eyes at the right distance from my mouth or some such nonsense so I had to go to the local photographer.
Result?
I look like Grendel´s mother and they passed muster!
It's reassuring when immigration officials do a double take, though.
Hi Fly, yes it is one of those new passports I am applying for Biometric...whatever that means apparently it cuts down the waiting time in queues once entering; UK Borders!
ReplyDeleteAfter dealing for 10 years with a passport photo that was embarrassingly bad, the last renewal, I had a professional photographer take the photos !
ReplyDeleteI know, some people carry their vanity to great lengths ..
I have about 4 years before I have to go through that again.. Pup and I might look alike by that time ..
I really need to get my passport photo taken, but my vanity has me a bit shaken. I have seen some photos where perfectly normal people are portrayed as psycho lunatics. Definitely not the image I want to portray. I could handle looking like Grommet, however...
ReplyDeleteIn my passport photo, I look like something the dog dragged home. They did not offer biometric when I got a new passport last November but the price has since gone up.
ReplyDeleteHave fun using yours, so far, I've only scared the lady at the social security office with my photo!
They are so difficult about it now with all these silly rules! I found my old one the other day which I liked. I don't mind the one I have now but I don't think it looks much like me, the lady in the passport office picked it! It's bonkers. Hope you're good xx
ReplyDeleteI am sure you look lovely, no matter how neutral the expression, Dash.
ReplyDeleteAgree - its a nightmare re : photographs now for passports! And the cost has SHOT up!!! Could not believe it when I had to renew poor student daughter's (meant I had to shell out!!) X
ReplyDeleteDear Dash
ReplyDeleteAs an Australian, we generally have to take long haul flights everwhere so by the time we arrive, we generally look like something the cat dragged in (I comfort myself that it was all much worse when my children were smaller and I wanted to kill myself 10 hours in...) so it is of great assistance to immigration officers when your photo shows you looking as if you have been on the tiles all night too. One thing about the biometric photos is that when they implement the technology (we have SmartGate in Australia) no one actually looks at your photo however awful it may be - a machine simply compares your photos with you (and that is why you can't smile and your eyes have to be open, you can't wear glasses etc etc). However, don't you enjoy the possibilities that a new passport offers? Pages and pages to fill up going to exotic or favourite places...
I have just had the same problem with my son as he is wearing his hair forwards and ..it just past..
ReplyDeleteI need to do mine again in a couple of years and I am dreading comparing the difference xx
I'll be so sad when I'll need to renew my passport. I really like my picture ta the moment, I have a big grin (it was taken a month before starting my new adventurous life in the UK!).
ReplyDeleteLast time I came back, at Cardiff airport people with biometric passports had to go in special booths and it took them 5 minutes longer than those with normal passports as the software kept crashing. Worst, at Paris Charles de Gaulle it wouldn't let anyone go- it kept saying "this passport is not recognised"!!!
xxx
And then when you have finally got a photo you like, do you still have to sign within a tiny little box and if you go over the lines you have failed? I remember that from last time!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it expensive?! I kept putting off declaring the boys at the Consulate because of the cost of birth certificates and it just keeps going up.
ReplyDeleteA French passport costs €40, a child's was free until recently. Guess which one my son has!
Darling, no worries. If any of us looked as bad as our passport photos, they would surely deny us entry. The only one I ever had that was half decent was the one were I was 20 or so. And it still wasn't great, it only wasn't horrible.
ReplyDeleteNobody "travels" anymore, we are simply shipped and forced to carry around humiliating photos of ourselves.
ReplyDeleteIt is no longer about the journey, it is all about the destination and being grateful that you arrived alive.
X David
I have to renew my US passport, for the first time in my life it's expired (I've been traveling around on my EU one) and I simply hate all the new rules! I understand it's for safety but come on! I need a bit of a smile, otherwise it looks like a mug shot :-(
ReplyDeleteFor my recent U.S passport pic, I couldn't smile, either. I have bangs, and I was told I needed to put my hair behind my ears--it was not a good look.
ReplyDeleteOh no. Really?
ReplyDeleteIn my passport photo I am grinning like Christmas morning, and my fringe is almost in my eyes! I'm going out of the country in February. I need to check into this! Yipes.