Greece Schengen Visa Photo Requirements (Type C)

Photo size and shooting rules

This page covers the photograph for a Greece short-stay Schengen visa (Type C) — the visa for short stays of up to 90 days within a 180-day period. National visas (Type D) for longer stays, residence, work, or study follow a different document list on the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs portal and are not covered here.

The ICAO MRTD Photo Guidelines that Greece applies as a Schengen member specify 35 mm in width with the face at 70–80% of the photograph, a plain light-coloured background, colour with natural skin tones, sharp focus, photo-quality paper, and no more than 6 months old. The Greece MFA-hosted Schengen Visa Code Annex VII (annex_20_en.pdf) sets the same 70–80% head ratio and a minimum resolution of 300 ppi uncompressed as the Greece-adopted technical standard for the photograph integrated in the Schengen visa sticker. Neither Greek official source states a face-height figure in millimetres; sizing is ratio-based, and the standard Schengen print is 45 mm high. Use this conclusion when you print.

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 Greek mission 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 as adults: a recent photo, a plain light-coloured background, the child alone in the frame, eyes open and visible, a neutral expression with the mouth closed, and both edges of the face clearly shown.

Greece does not publish a Greece-specific age-banded child face-size table for Schengen visa photos (unlike some member states whose national ID-photo standard defines numeric age bands that the visa checklist incorporates). The Greece MFA visa pages reference the Schengen/ICAO standard, which does not publish numeric child face ranges either, so the reference basis for child photos here is the ICAO MRTD Photo Guidelines in general (no Greece-specific millimetre values). The Hellenic Police passport-photograph specification (passport.gov.gr) does allow smaller photo dimensions for children under 12 and babies, but that is a national-passport (40×60 mm) rule and no Greece MFA visa page we could verify incorporates it into the Schengen visa photo standard — do not transfer those numbers to the visa photo.

Fingerprint and live-photo capture rules for children (for example, that under-12s are exempt from fingerprint collection under the Visa Information System) are part of the application and biometrics process, not the photograph 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 ICAO MRTD Photo Guidelines wording (the substantive standard Greece applies) with general Schengen/ICAO-style preparation checks.

Greece-specific risks: using the Greek national-passport format (40×60 mm, face 31–35 mm) instead of the Schengen visa photo (35 mm wide, face 70–80%); face under 70% or over 80% of the image; non-plain, dark, or patterned background; shadows on the face or behind the head; tinted or reflective glasses; head covering other than religious; tilted head or portrait-style framing; photo older than 6 months; low-resolution print under 300 ppi.

Watch for mission-level variants too: some Greek missions ask for a white background or a 3-month age limit that is stricter than the global ICAO baseline. If your accepting office publishes such a requirement, follow it — otherwise a plain light-coloured background and the 6-month age rule are the global standard.

• 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.