Syrian Passport Photo — 40×40 mm, White Background, Dark Clothing

How Many Photos and What Size for a Syrian Passport? (2026)

The official service pages of the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates state the photo requirement in one line: **two recent colour photos, white background, dark clothing, size 4×4 cm**. In millimetres that is **40×40 mm** — a square ID photo. The same sentence appears verbatim in three separate services: first-time issuance, renewal of an expired passport and renewal because the pages are full. Whichever transaction you are filing, the photo side does not change.

The square format is unusual in Türkiye, where the default studio output is a vertical 50×60 mm or 35×45 mm print. Putting a vertical photo into a Syrian passport file breaks the size requirement outright. In our system this product is defined as 40×40 mm and prints at **472×472 pixels (300 DPI)**; that pixel figure is not a Syrian published requirement but simply the 300 DPI print equivalent of 40×40 mm. For the full size logic, see the table of all document photo sizes.

What Do the White Background and Dark Clothing Rules Mean in Practice?

The official text carries two visual conditions and they work together: **white background** and **dark clothing**. The goal is a clean head-and-shoulders silhouette. In a frame shot in a white shirt or a light T-shirt, the shoulder line merges into the white background and the silhouette disappears at card production. For dark clothing, black, navy and charcoal are safe choices; since the official text gives no colour list, avoiding patterns, logos and shiny fabrics is a sensible safety margin.

On the background side the requirement is pure white: wall shadows, yellowed paint or objects left in frame all raise the risk of refusal. In the AI analysis, background whiteness, shadow density and clothing-to-background contrast are reported as separate lines, and the background is pulled to pure white automatically where needed. Documents issued in Türkiye also require a white background but at a different size — the Turkish ID card photo and the 50×60 mm biometric size behind it are portrait. Not mixing the two is the single most important warning on this page.

Which Documents Are Required for Each Transaction?

The striking thing about the table is that the photo line does not change across the three transactions: **two prints**. Missions may nevertheless ask for extra copies for the file, so reading the document list on the appointment screen is essential. This is where the cut-marked 10×15 sheet helps — spares come out of the same shot, so no reshoot is needed if more are requested.

A frequently confused point is the "6 months" rule. The six-month limit in the official text applies **not to the passport photo** but to the photo on the ID card or civil registry extract: that document's photo cannot be older than six months and needs Mukhtar certification plus Ministry authentication. For the passport photo itself the official text only says "recent" and publishes no numeric limit. Reusing the frame from your old passport is still a bad idea; a fresh shot both satisfies "recent" and guarantees the square size.

How Do the Appointment and the Application Day Work?

Appointments run through a single official channel: the MOFA SY appointment app. On the app's announcement page the Ministry stresses two points: booking is **free of charge**, and **no broker or intermediary should be used** — all services are provided directly through the official platform. The current list of missions, Türkiye included, is on the Ministry's diplomatic missions page.

The application day runs like this: attend in person at the booked slot, hand over the documents, provide the electronic signature and fingerprint on the passport system, then pay the fees. For applicants under eighteen, the father or paternal grandfather must be present at the mission; if the mother applies, she needs a guardianship certificate from the Sharia Court, authenticated by the Ministry and no more than three months old. On glasses, headscarves, beards or expression, the official service page publishes **no rule at all** — for those items the mission's own announcement governs. Our recommendation is a neutral expression, open eyes and a glare-free frame; these are good practice that raise the chance of acceptance, not published requirements.

What Other Photos Do Syrians Living in Türkiye Need?

The passport file also asks for a copy of your residence card in the host country. In Türkiye that document is the residence permit handled through the e-ikamet system, and it has its own photo standard: the residence permit photo is 50×60 mm biometric. So the same person usually needs two different sizes — a 40×40 square for the Syrian passport and a vertical 50×60 for the Turkish residence card. Producing both from one shot saves a second trip to a photographer.

Other formats frequently prepared from the same account: the 35×45 mm international standard used in many applications, the passport photo standard for documents issued in Türkiye, and the Umrah and Hajj visa photo that has to be uploaded to a portal. A consolidated summary of sizes and rules for documents issued in Türkiye is in the biometric photo guide by document.