Kenyan Passport Photo: requirements and cropper
Crop a photo to the official Kenya spec and check the head height as you go — free, and entirely in your browser.
Crop a photo to the Kenya spec
Drag the two markers. Put the blue one on the very top of the head — including hair — and the red one on the bottom of the chin. Every measurement below is calculated from that, because Kenya measures head height as 70–80% crown to chin, not the face.
Your photo
Result
More options
Full requirements
| Printed photo size | 55 × 55 mm (2.17 × 2.17 in) |
|---|---|
| Head height | 70–80% of image height |
| Background | White |
| Digital dimensions | 207 × 207 px |
| How recent | Taken within the last 6 months |
| Head coverings | Headgear is generally not permitted. Religious headgear may be allowed case by case, provided the chin, nose, eyes, eyebrows and forehead remain uncovered and the main facial characteristics are apparent. |
| Expression & pose | Looking directly at the camera. Sharp focus and high quality with natural skin tone and appropriate brightness and contrast. Hair tucked behind the ears. No staple marks, creases or ink marks. |
| Not published | file size, file format, minimum resolution, copies required, glasses, children & infants — the official source does not state these, so nothing is shown rather than a number we made up. |
Source: Directorate of Immigration Services, Kenya — eCitizen photo requirements and guidelines — read 2026-07-26.
How to take and crop the photo
- Take or choose a photo shot straight on, from about arm's length or further, in even light with no shadow falling on the face or the wall behind it. Phone selfies taken close up distort the face and are a common rejection reason.
- Stand far enough from the wall that you cast no shadow on it. The background needs to be white — the tool fills only the area outside your photo's edges, it does not replace the wall behind you.
- Drop the photo into the tool above. Nothing is uploaded; the file is read directly by your browser.
- Drag the blue marker to the very top of the head, including hair, and the red marker to the bottom of the chin. This is the measurement every official spec is written against.
- Check the head-height readout against the official 70–80% figure.
- Download the photo, or generate a print sheet if you need physical copies.
Why Kenya photos get rejected
Drawn from the official guidance rather than guesswork. Most rejections are not about dimensions at all:
- Background not white
- Photo more than six months old
- Scanned or photocopied photo instead of an original colour photo
- Head covering obscuring the chin, nose, eyes, eyebrows or forehead
- Face not occupying 70–80% of the frame
Background and other notes
A kenyan passport photo is 55 × 55 mm — about 2.17 × 2.17 inches. That is not the 35 × 45 mm size most countries use, so a generic "passport photo" crop will be the wrong shape. The head must fill 70–80% of the image height. The background must be white. The photo must have been taken within the last 6 months.
Kenya's eCitizen portal specifies an unusual square format — 5.5 × 5.5 cm printed, 207 × 207 px for the digital upload — rather than the 35 × 45 mm rectangle used by many neighbouring countries. The 207 px figure is small enough that upscaling a cropped photo will visibly soften it; crop from the largest original you have. No glasses policy or file-size limit is published on that page.
File size and disclaimer
This is not official advice. img-fix is not affiliated with any government or immigration authority. The figures on this page were read from Directorate of Immigration Services, Kenya — eCitizen photo requirements and guidelines on 2026-07-26, and requirements change without notice. Check the official source before you submit.
Kenya photo questions
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The cropping, resizing and compressing all happen inside this page, using your browser's own image APIs. There is no server to upload to — the site is static files. Open your browser's network tab, use the tool, and you can watch nothing leave.
It also keeps working with your Wi-Fi switched off once the page has loaded.
What size is a kenyan passport photo?
55 × 55 mm (2.17 × 2.17 in), according to Directorate of Immigration Services, Kenya — eCitizen photo requirements and guidelines.
Can this tool change my background?
No, and that is deliberate. Background replacement means guessing where your hair ends, and the guess is visible — a halo or a chewed-up fringe is exactly the kind of artefact that gets a photo rejected as digitally altered. Kenya requires white, so photograph yourself against a matching wall.
The fill colour setting only paints the area outside your photo's edges when the required crop is larger than the image you supplied.
How recent does the photo have to be?
Taken within the last 6 months. Reusing the photo from your previous passport is a standard rejection reason.
Are head coverings allowed?
Headgear is generally not permitted. Religious headgear may be allowed case by case, provided the chin, nose, eyes, eyebrows and forehead remain uncovered and the main facial characteristics are apparent.
Will a photo from this tool definitely be accepted?
Nobody can promise that, and any site that does is selling you certainty it does not have. A photo is judged on framing, background, lighting, expression, sharpness and how recent it is. This tool handles the geometry and the file size precisely; the rest is down to how the photo was taken. The requirements here were read from Directorate of Immigration Services, Kenya — eCitizen photo requirements and guidelines on 2026-07-26 — check the source before you submit, because rules change.
Related specifications
Other passport specifications
- Brazilian Passport Photo 50 × 70 mm · not published for applicant-supplied photos
- Canadian Passport Photo 50 × 70 mm · head 31–36 mm · plain white or light-coloured · max 5 MB
- Chinese Passport Photo 33 × 48 mm · head 28–33 mm · white
- French Passport & CNI Photo 35 × 45 mm · head 32–36 mm · plain light-coloured — light blue or light grey. white is explicitly not allowed.
- German Passport & ID Photo 35 × 45 mm · head 32–36 mm · solid
- Indian Passport Photo 35 × 45 mm · plain white
Comparing print sizes across every country in one place is easier on the passport photo size comparison page.