Austria Schengen Visa Photo Requirements (Type C)

Photo size and shooting rules

This page covers the photograph for an Austria short-stay Schengen visa (Type C) — the visa for short stays of up to 90 days per 180-day period. National visas (Type D) for stays of 91 days to 6 months, residence, work, or study follow a different document list governed by the Aliens' Police Act (FPG) and are not covered here.

Austria explicitly applies its national passport-photo standard to visa photos: the oesterreich.gv.at "Applying for a visa" page requires the photo to be "in accordance with the specified passport photo criteria", and the BMEIA visa page requires "a passport photo according to ICAO criteria (colour, 35×45 mm)". The BMI Passbild-Kriterien fixes both dimensions at 35 mm wide × 45 mm high — a single 35 mm width rather than the broader ICAO/Schengen 35–40 mm band — with the head about 2/3 of the image and no taller than 36 mm, and an eye distance of at least 8 mm (optimal 10 mm). The ICAO face ratio of 70–80% also applies because the BMEIA page cites the ICAO standard. Prints must be in colour with natural skin tones on photo-quality paper.

The number of prints and the exact submission steps are set by the office that accepts applications where you live. Confirm the live checklist on the official Austrian representation page for your country of residence before you book or print.

• Recency: no more than 6 months old; must look like you today.
• Quality: colour, sharp focus, high quality, no creases or ink marks. Digital captures printed on photo-quality paper at high resolution.
• Background: plain light-coloured (a plain light grey can work if even). Avoid busy scenes and strong shadows on the face or behind the head.
• Lighting: even light, natural skin tones, appropriate brightness and contrast; no flash reflection on skin, no red-eye.
• Pose and expression: look straight at the camera; face square-on, not tilted; eyes open and not covered by hair; neutral expression, mouth closed; alone in the frame.
• Glasses: eyes fully visible; no tinted lenses; no flash reflection on the lenses; frames must not cover the eyes. Remove glasses if those conditions are hard to meet.
• Head covering: only for religious reasons, and the full face from chin to forehead and both edges of the face must still be clear.
• Editing: keep brightness and crop adjustments that do not change how you look. Avoid contour reshaping, eye or nose changes, and heavy beauty filters. The photo must remain realistic with natural skin tones.

Photos for children

Children need a photograph that meets the same quality rules: recency, a single-colour light background, and the child alone in the frame. The BMI Passbild-Kriterien has a dedicated "Kinder" (children) section: the child must appear alone in the photo, the face must be fully visible, and the eyes must be open. Austria applies this national passport-photo standard to visa photos via the oesterreich.gv.at visa page (childPhotoBasis: national-passport). The general criteria also permit deviations where the person's stage of development or physical condition makes compliance impossible, which accommodates infants.

Austria does NOT publish an age-banded child face-size table (unlike Germany or the Netherlands, whose national ID-document photo standards define age bands). The BMI child criteria are qualitative only, so there is no separate millimetre range for young children — use the same head-height ceiling (no taller than 36 mm) and framing unless the accepting office's checklist says otherwise. Re-check the BMI page if it is updated.

Fingerprint and live-photo capture rules for children (for example, that under-12s are exempt from fingerprints) are part of the application process rather than the photo specification. The office that accepts your application can confirm the current biometric procedure for children.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

These points combine the BMI Passbild-Kriterien wording with general ICAO-style preparation checks.

Austria-specific risks: wrong print size (not 35×45 mm); head taller than 36 mm; a black-and-white print instead of colour; a patterned or dark background (the BMI standard asks for single-colour, light, ideally grey); shadows on the face or behind the head; eye distance under 8 mm; tinted or reflective glasses; head covering other than religious; tilted head or portrait-style framing; photo older than 6 months; low-resolution print.

Note the background rule differs from some other Schengen states: Austria does not require white. A single-colour, light, ideally grey background is the BMI/oesterreich.gv.at standard; medium-grey is recommended for light hair and light-grey for dark hair. Confirm the accepting office's checklist before you print, since a mission-level checklist may add tighter wording.

• Head cut off or tilted: retake with more distance, face square-on to the camera, both edges of the face visible.
• Uneven colour, shadows, or blow-out on the background: use a plain light background and even light so the face and the back of the head stay free of hard shadows.
• Glasses glare: remove glasses if practical, or use clear lenses and lighting that shows the pupils fully.
• Old photo: replace any portrait older than six months or that no longer matches your appearance.
• Heavy beauty filters: start again from a natural image; do not change face shape or skin texture.
• Pixelated print: export a high-resolution colour file and print on photo-quality paper.