Sorry, simple question, but I couldn't find any discussions.

As the forum title suggests....... Will standard UK passport photos suffice for K-1 Visa Interview?

I can't believe that they don't.....

Cheers to anyone who can comment.
Ed.

No, you need to get US style passport photos. There are several places near the US embassy in London where you can get these done.

http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/acs/p...orts/photo.html

Why can't you believe that the US gov't would want photos of a specific size?

Since the photos are used to create a variety of official documents, I can very much believe that UK/other specs wouldn't be acceptable.

Recommend you get US size photos for your US applications.

Gonna disagree with meauxna here (note: I didn't actually check any specs in London).

The photos Pras sent me for the K-1 petition were roughly 39 x 49 mm (slightly different from Canadian Citizenship card size of 35 x 53)--and USCIS accepted them. So why won't they do so in London if they'll do so in Chennai?

Agreed! I ended up getting my photos taken at the Consulate when we attended for interview, since previous Frankfurters had advised here on VJ there was one, and it happened that the photo machine there was in the German size rather than the slightly wider US size. However, would you really want an extra wait on your visa because you had photos of the wrong size? If you can get them in US size, and in the UK it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem (try a search, there are a few posts where people mention even being able to get them at their local photo store) I would certainly recommend getting them that way, to save a few grey hairs through worry if nothing else

I gave the link to the US Embassy in London where they say to US style photos, give an explanation as to why only those are acceptable and give links to where to get them.

Not sure why this is a debate? The instructions are pretty clear, and its always good to follow instructions!

UK passport photos are much smaller than US ones. You need to get US ones.

I got my ones from the usual machines in London that are used for all sorts of purposes.

Can not remember if I cut them down or not. Don't think so.

I do remember getting the scissors out when I renewed my UK passport, which suggests US ones are larger.

Not a big deal if you can get the precise size ones anyway.

Because the London Consulate might be more anal retentive..........

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I just got photos done in a normal UK both in my local post office.... didnt have any problems at all


Good Luck!

So I take it I am the only person ever to be sent out of the embassy to get the correct size photos then?

They all just got lucky I guess!

'xactly. Why wouldn't you follow instructions (especially such easy-to-follow ones!) when you're given them? You might get lucky and get the CO who couldn't care less whether you've taken the scissors to an old holiday snap and given them that (ok, I exagerrate a touch, maybe), just so long as they can get your visa done and get on their lunch break... or you might get the CO who thinks 'good grief, we sent you a sheet of instructions about this stuff for a reason, you know, why ignore them?' and tells you to come back when you've got the right sized photos. Why cause yourself potential delays unnecessarily... just because some COs might be a bit lax about it, doesn't mean they all will be, or that they have an unofficial 'feel free to ignore the instructions' rule about photo sizes!

US embassy is so strict so i'm not surprised. (I always follow their instructions less trouble ) GOOD LUCK TO YOU

I naively just got the good old picture machine in tesco's jobbys, and it was ok.

Probably cause the CO felt bad cause he gave me and RFE for something else

Incredible isn't it. On a process that we all consider extremely important, where we ourselves are really anal about getting it right, it simply staggers me that anyone would want to risk bucking the system simply because they cannot be bothered to get photos of a specific size.

I think I'll send my mate to my interview. He knows all about me and can answer all the questions by proxy. I mean after all, they only asked me to come to the interview with my docs, what does it matter if I ignore that instruction?

It is really easy to get USA style photo's now, a lot easier then a couple of years ago so what is the problem?

Yeah, I guess Yanks need to stiffen their brains to imitate the "stiff upper lip" for Brits.

So agreed!

If I was a CO, I'd refuse anything other than what's stated...just for the sake of it. WHY WHY OH WHY would anyone want to do anything to show you're giving the old two fingers up to the whole process?

I do remember there was a bit in P3 which gave the sizes of the photos needed and all that occurred to me was that they were the same size as in my UK passport. It then listed the places that you can get the photos done in, Snappy Snaps being the one that springs to mind the most.

I know that the photos I took in were standard Snappy Snaps ones, smaller than USA ones (which I know now, didn't know then) and the woman who took all of my stuff didn't say a word, or blink an eye at them.

Just my own experience.

The US passport photo requirement is a 2"x2" photo. UK is 1.7"x1.4", i.e. much smaller. Hardly the same.

That's not what I said...

Back in the old days of the 3/4 view pictures, I still used a photo booth and checked the measurements were AOK. Nobody said anything because they were photo booth piccies and not from a lab.

Recently I used UK passport photos for the removing conditions. I realised they were not quite to size, so I cut them including all the extra border to get them to US size. Not a problem with that either.

As long as the size is OK, it doesn't matter where you get them done.

we didn't get any specific sizes photos. neil just sat down in the photo booth in the train station and get his photos done. they just cut them out and stapled them onto his stuff.

And also, that you could care less about following directions by actually reading your forms!

Its cool to ignore explicit instructions.

But it worked, right?

I have not come across anyone recently being told that their UK sized photos were incorrect. Perhaps this means that they do accept these sizes, rather than people just being ignorant and not taking in the correct ones.

Just my 2c.

But they ARE being ignorant, the instructions clearly state US SIZED pics, and there's a whole section(page?) on sizing stuff & head room, etc!

I think they're getting lucky.

I'll agree with this, having been the recipient of such "luck" at Chennai (as I posted earlier in the thread).

(while I did get an RFE in the original petition, it was due to the signatures on the G-325A pertaining to Pras--never received any guff about the photos).

And that's the key here. I think that the head size in the pics are FAR more important than the actual surrounding area. Maybe this is why they are being accepted.

What happens when the embassy decides that photo policy of 2"x2" needs to be strictly enforced and a bunch of people reading this thread get into trouble?

Is it really worth the hassle? No. Just get the correct photos, as I said you get get them done in 2mins at a chemist that on the way from Oxford St and Grosvenor Square.

I'm still not sure why this is being debated. People got away with it? Bully for you. Others might not be so lucky.

But who takes a ruler into the photo booth to measure if your head is .5" from the top & 1" tall????

Oh yeah, I agree completely with this. I'm not condoning going with the incorrect photo size and "hoping for the best", just trying to perhaps see a reason as to why people HAVE gotten away with it in the past. Just speaking out loud.

As opposed to speaking in silence?

I bet people wish I would speak in silence sometimes. I might shut up for a bit then!

I did with the old ADIT pic requirement.