Passport formalities & photos

Yesterday I reaplied for a passport, as my previous one had expired months ago. I would have to do it anyway because I got married last year and my last name changed. Normally you don't need a passport when travelling within EU countries, however, I believe I will need a passport in the near future and prefer to have it ready.

To submit a passport application you have to visit a passport office and there is no option for applying on-line. It doesn't matter what office you go to, it is a place of your choice - and that changed, up to last year or so you had to apply in the office of your permanent residency. At first you have to pay a stamp duty of 140 zlotys (full charge) and 70 zlotys if you are studying (that's about 34 /17 Euros), and fill the form. Once you at the counter you provide an assistant with filled application, payment receipt, your id card and two photos. If you have your previous passport you hand it out, too. If everything is correct you will be asked to proceed with finger prints taking, and that's very easy and not messy at all.

What I want to tell you about is actually a tip regarding passport photos. Usually, when you need photos to documents (license, id, passport, cv etc.) you go to the professional. However, it can be quite expensive and some may feel uncomfortable - I know I sometimes did, especially when a photographer asked me if I liked a picture and I didn't... ;-) This time, I asked my husband to take a photo of me!
And it wasn't even professional camera or so, just a 80 Euro Kodak digital camera, very cheap and amateur. All you need actually, apart from the camera of course, is any image manipulation program, such as PhotoShop, however there is a very good free program called GIMP and it's just great for tasks like image composition or retouching. Anyways, after you take a photo and you like it ;-) you have to isolate your figure from the background and set a light and even one. Secondly, you have to cut and compose a photo in a way to meet passport photo requirements (size 35mmx45mmm, head and eyes on certain position). If needed, you may want to add some retouching.
We prepared that photo, then multiplied it by six to fit in 10cm x 15 cm format,  and printed it out in the photo kiosk. It maybe didn't look that much professional (but it was better than many photos I took at the Photo Points, believe you me!) and wasn't of very best quality but it was definatelly enough for passport photo requirements! The assistant just measured if all the proportions had been proper (head, eyes, background, size) and that was it.

This way I spent just 1 zl for my photos (six of them!) instead 40 zl (for just 4 items!)

The procedure I describe is a procedure we have in Poland, and it may very depending on what country you come from. Here you can see how the photo should look like:

source: msz.gov.pl