Australian Passport Photo Services, Compared

Two of these brands are the same company

PhotoAiD and Passport-photo.online serve the same terms and conditions, naming the same operator: PhotoAiD S.A. of Białystok, Poland, registered under KRS 0000941997. A shopper who compares the two, finds different prices and different branding, and concludes they have surveyed the market has been shown the same company twice. There is nothing unlawful about running two brands. It is worth knowing before you treat them as two opinions about what a passport photo should cost.

They say they follow the official rules. Their own page doesn't.

Each of these services carries a line near its checkout claiming compliance. PhotoAiD's reads: “Photos taken with PhotoAiD comply with standards recognised by the Australian Passport Office.”

The Australian Passport Office states that the height of the face must be 32–36 mm, measured from the chin to the crown. PhotoAiD's own page publishes that measurement two different ways: its summary table gives the head height as 37 mm, and its body text describes the measurement as running “from the chin to the top of the hair”.

Neither matches the guideline. 37 mm sits outside the permitted range, and measuring to the hair rather than the crown gives a larger number again — on a baby with any volume in their hair, cropping to it puts the face outside the range. We publish the government's figure, say where it came from, and date it.

Two of them edit your photograph

PhotoBooth.online lists “image background — white” as a feature: it replaces the background behind you. PhotoGov goes further and sells nine extra clothing variations for $6.90, which changes what you are wearing. The Australian Passport Office does not permit retouched or digitally altered photographs, and lists an edited background among its own examples of unacceptable photos. A photo edited to look compliant is not a compliant photo — it is a rejected application with better lighting.

We correct exposure and crop to the required dimensions. We never change your background, your clothing, or your face.

Four of the five are overseas

A passport photo is a face measured to the millimetre and stored. Send it overseas and it is held under someone else's privacy law, by a company you cannot visit, for as long as their policy allows. The Australian Passport Office's own guidance warns against online photo services for exactly this reason — it names identity fraud, not photo quality.

Your photo is stored in Australia, encrypted, never used to train anything, and deleted automatically after 30 days. Australian Consumer Law applies to us the way it applies to a shop on your high street. Printed here, posted here, answerable here.