Newsstand - No Smiling for Passport Photos in Germany

No Smiling for Passport Photos in Germany
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/15/international/i084727D17.DTL

Germans were ordered Thursday to stay serious when having their photographs taken for new passports, wiping away any grins, smirks or smiles so that biometric scanners can pick up their facial features.

Interior Minister Otto Schily ordered passport authorities to only accept pictures taken from the front showing the "most neutral facial expression possible," starting Nov. 1.

Same for the UK. Smile at your peril!

My daughter was given the same orders when she renewed her American passport two years ago.

Same in Canada too.

Easy way to fool the bio-metrics, then. Get your grim photo taken, then "let a smile be your umbrella" when walking near security cameras. They'll never recognize you. ;)

Easy way to fool the bio-metrics, then. Get your grim photo taken, then "let a smile be your umbrella" when walking near security cameras. They'll never recognize you. ;)


i once made a picture smiling in a passport, no one trusted me that this was me....

i had to smile like an idiot when i was 17...

after that i didnt smile anymore in my last passport, but made the mistake that my hairs were colored blond...

now in china everytime i try to go into the country, the officers there look 10 times at my hair ..

oh well... my passport is still valid until 2010.

dp

LOL, that is stupid.

FYI, I didn't smile for my passport photo--but that's because they took it before I was ready, and wouldn't let me take it again! I have, like, a part of my tooth showing in the shot. :rolleyes:

Easy way to fool the bio-metrics, then. Get your grim photo taken, then "let a smile be your umbrella" when walking near security cameras. They'll never recognize you. ;)

Or wear the popular burka. Today I read 6 guys did that then robbed a South Africa jewelry store with their hidden AK-47s.

MisterNice

Not to be too serious on FT, but if you are not smiling you will perhaps look more like your passport photo when they use the photo to ID your body in the morgue after. . .

I was laughing for my passport renewal in 1997. I guess I won't be able to keep that one in '07