Passport Photos

It's a lot of "fun" trying to get acceptable photos. Last week I went to my local American Automobile Association (AAA) office to get an International Driver's Permit (IDP). It's just a translation of your license, which is valid for 1 year. I had to take 2 passport-sized photos with me, which I did.

But I was told they wouldn't be accepted because I had long hair and a beard in them, but short hair and no beard now. That's absurd, because it's the same photo used in both of my passports, and there's no requirement that you don't alter your appearance from your passport photo. Somehow border guards can crack the code.

Amusingly, my California driver's license shows short hair and no beard, but the AAA person wasn't even looking at my CA license at the time. What happens if I grow long hair and a beard before I travel? Was he just trying to upsell me on a $9.99 photo?

We had a hell of a time getting the UK passport authorities to accept the photos we sent in for her passport; they recommend getting your photos taken at an "official" UK location where the digital photos are identified by a code you send in. Well, we happened to be traveling through Australia during this timeframe, so we were able to stop at an Australian Post Office, which supposedly had the same "digital" system, but instead of a code to send to the UK authorities, they handed us printed photos and a web link. Thankfully I was able to use the web link to download the photo and upload it to the UK site, where it was approved almost immediately, and the new passport arrived back at our home before we returned from our trip. But there's no user-obvious criteria that was being used to reject the SEVERAL rounds of photos we had sent to the UK earlier.

Public service message: in many countries, the IDP, International Driving Permit, is not needed.

Since it is only a translation, it carries no official weight.

Many countries that use the Latin alphabet only need a translation of the drivers license (ie IDP) if the alphabet on the driver’s license is not Latin.

Check online before you travel.

This can save you a trip to the AAA, a few bucks, and an encounter with a clerk who questions the validity of your beard.

Yeah; I'm a USian, and this one is for Japan which "requires" it. I also got one for Italy a bunch of years ago, as I was told the car rental agencies would not rent me a car without one.

Otherwise I've never bothered, and I've rented cars in a half dozen countries in Europe, Australia, NZ....