Passport renewal - recognisable photo?

benjus

I'm about to get my passport renewed... it's over 9 years old now, and looking rather well-used. It's also got a photo that looks quite strikingly different from how I look now. I travelled to Kiev last week, and the immigration people there looked it over for a long time before letting me through, and the guy at Heathrow immigration also commented on how different I look. Having said that, I've never actually had a problem getting through immigration, just a few raised eyebrows and comments.

I haven't had plastic surgery or anything... other than 10 years of ageing, the differences are:

• In the old photo I had a "short back and sides" type haircut, which made my ears look quite big; now I have my hair covering my ears (only just covering - it's not hugely longer than it was)
• My skin was very pale and the photo was taken with a powerful flash, meaning that I look as white as a ghost (combined with the fact that the colours look a bit faded on the photo). Now I'm rather more tanned.
• I was clean-shaven, while now I wear a very short beard

Obviously I could just get the new photo countersigned, but it's a bit of a pain to find someone to do it - I'd probably ask someone I know who's a police officer, but I hardly ever see her these days.

Any experiences on here with how much difference in appearance they will tolerate before requiring a countersignatory?

balletshoes

I think you're going to have to find someone to countersign your new passport photos - if immigration officials are having even slight issues with your current one, its best to get the new ones countersigned.

slinga

Just renewed mine.
Like you my photo was well different. In fact I had the guy take the new photo 3 times to try to get a good likeness. No joy.
So I took it in to the post office for their passport renewal service and asked the girl behind the counter what she though of the likeness between the new and old photos.

She said no problem so I sent it off and the new passport was with me in 10 days.

Good service akchewlee which did surprise me.