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Russia: three routes under one name
"A photo for a Russian passport" describes three different requirements, and the one that applies depends on which passport you are getting and how you are applying. Two of them do not take a photograph from you at all.
Checked 7 August 2026 · МВД России · Госуслуги
The biometric ten-year passport is photographed on the spot, at a police-service office or in a booth at an MFC, using their own equipment. Paper photographs are not accepted for it, and neither are files on a memory stick — the photograph that ends up in the document is the one taken during the appointment, and it is not retouched afterwards.
The old-style five-year passport still works the old way: printed photographs, 35 × 45 mm, handed over with the application.
The third case causes the most confusion. An application filed through Gosuslugi asks you to upload a photograph, and people reasonably assume it is the one that will be printed in the passport. It is not: it belongs to the application file. For a biometric passport you will still be photographed at the appointment.
The practical consequence is worth stating: for the biometric route, the photograph in your document is taken on a day you can choose. It is worth arriving having slept, in clothes you would not mind seeing for ten years.
Biometric, ten years: photographed on the spot. Old-style, five years: bring prints. Gosuslugi: upload a file for the form, which is not the one in the passport.
The documents this concerns
This is an independent site, not a government body. Requirements change, so check them against the official source before you apply. We promise a photo that matches the published specification. We never promise that an application will be approved.