Netherlands Passport Photo Size & Requirements

Most countries publish a single head-height range for everyone. The Netherlands is an exception: rijksoverheid.nl states a wider 19-30mm range (chin to crown) for children age 10 and under, and a narrower 26-30mm range for applicants age 11 and older. This tool is calibrated to the 11+ range, since that covers the vast majority of applicants — the wider children's range still fits comfortably within the same 35×45mm guide.

Unlike countries that specify a single required shade, the Dutch government explicitly accepts light grey, light blue, or plain white — as long as it's a single, even colour with no gradient. This tool's background-swap feature defaults to white, but light grey or light blue are equally compliant if that's what you have on hand.

Most authorities either say nothing about resolution or set 300 DPI as the minimum. The Dutch government states 400 DPI, which is the highest explicit floor among the countries covered here.

Translated into pixels, a 35 × 45mm photo at 400 DPI is 551 × 709. That is not a demanding number for any camera made in the last fifteen years — but it is a demanding number for a photo that has already been through a few rounds of being messaged, downloaded and saved, each of which tends to shrink it. A photo that arrived over WhatsApp has usually been resized to around a thousand pixels on its long edge, and once you crop a head out of that you can easily end up below the floor.

The export from this page sits above the 400 DPI minimum with margin, provided the photo you feed it is reasonably large to begin with. Use the original file from your camera roll rather than one that has been forwarded to you.

Alongside the chin-to-crown measurement, the Netherlands specifies the width of your face from ear to ear: between 16 and 20mm. Very few countries constrain both dimensions, and the pairing tells you something about how the photo is actually assessed — the checker is looking for a face at a particular scale, not merely a head at a particular height.

The age split is a genuine, government-stated distinction rather than a third-party approximation, and the reasoning behind it is practical: a small child cannot be posed at a fixed distance, and their head is proportionally larger relative to their body, so a well-framed photo of a toddler naturally lands lower in the range. The cropper is calibrated to the 11-and-over band, which is what most applicants need; if you are cropping for a younger child, the wider 19 to 30mm allowance means the guide lines are stricter than they strictly need to be, and anything that fits them is safely inside the published range.

One more thing the Dutch head-height band changes: at 26 to 30mm in a 45mm frame, the head fills less of the photo than it does in most other European specs, which sit at 32 to 36mm. A crop made for a German or Schengen application will have the head visibly too large here. These are not interchangeable, despite the identical outer dimensions.

The background may be light grey, light blue or white. It must be egaal and éénkleurig — even and single-coloured — with geen kleurverloop, no gradient. That last word is the one worth dwelling on, because a gradient is exactly what a plain wall produces when it is lit from one side: brighter near the window, darker towards the corner. The wall is one colour; the photograph of it is not.

Light blue being explicitly permitted is unusual and useful, since it is a common studio backdrop and a common paint colour. It also gives a genuine option to anyone with very fair hair who would otherwise disappear into white.

The head-covering rule carries an extra condition most countries do not state. A covering worn on religious grounds is allowed, but it must itself be plain and single-coloured and it must contrast with the background. A white hijab against a white wall fails that clause even though both elements are individually acceptable — pair it with the light grey or light blue option instead.

The rest is the standard set: neutral expression with the mouth closed, looking straight at the camera, both eyes fully visible, fully transparent lenses with no disruptive glare if you wear glasses, and a photo taken within the last six months.