Visa Photo Rejected x3

Visa Photo Rejected x3...I give up. Will have to cut my planned stay in Vietnam to only 45 days...Their visa online system SUCKS ! Hope the country itself is not as badly managed, but Im guessing it probably is LOL. Any tips on getting a photo NOT rejected by the visa machine? - @ushfuhg

Hi there ushfuhg, and welcome to the expat.com Vietnam forum.

Sorry to hear of the difficulty you're experiencing with your portrait picture's acceptance. What percentage match were you getting when you submitted each pic? Take a look here, post #629, for a recent post regarding a member who had been given a 62% match.

Included in that post are details provided on a previous eVisa faq page...

"Though no longer viewable, a previous faq  page for the application stated that the portrait picture was to be taken with a white background, no glasses, no shadows, and neutral facial expression. If your application is denied due to the portrait pic, try to follow those guidelines."

Your profile shows you as being Belgian. According to the information given by the VN immigration offices, citizens of Belgium require an eVisa to enter, be it for 45 or 90 days. See here for a list of visa exempt countries.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any additional questions you might have and, once again, welcome aboard.

Visa Photo Rejected x3...I give up. Will have to cut my planned stay in Vietnam to only 45 days...Their visa online system SUCKS ! Hope the country itself is not as badly managed, but Im guessing it probably is LOL. Any tips on getting a photo NOT rejected by the visa machine? - @ushfuhg

1. Never, ever simply copy your passport photo. Even if you have one of the original copies of the photo of that you submitted for your passport, it will be rejected because the photo must be different from your passport photo.

2. More and more these days people are attempting to do a Self-Made camera photo and that's not necessarily a bad idea. Even the US department of State has instructions on how that can be done.

But let's face it, some of us just can't get the lighting correct or other features done properly.

So it's probably Time to go to a professional passport photo shop. many of them are using camera phones these days to take your photo but they also have all the correct software and we'll make sure that the color of your background is a match for the legal requirements.

I agree with Oceanbeach. Just go to a passport photo shop. They have the experience and the tools to do it correctly and the cost is pretty minor. It should save you a lot of frustration and headaches.

@ushfuhg

Hi, I took a photo of the photo page of my passport. I made a copy and cropped it down to just the photo. Then, I uploaded it to the eVisa site. That has worked three times -- eVisa granted each time. So the passport photo and the visa application photo are the same. . . .

And yes, the site is clunky and slow. Patience and persistence furthers . . .

Good luck.

@ushfuhgHi, I took a photo of the photo page of my passport. I made a copy and cropped it down to just the photo. Then, I uploaded it to the eVisa site. That has worked three times -- eVisa granted each time. So the passport photo and the visa application photo are the same. . . .And yes, the site is clunky and slow. Patience and persistence furthers . . .Good luck. - @Lennerd

Good to hear that that works, Lennerd. Thank you for that.

An older application's faq  page had stated that the picture was to be recent, being not more than 6 months old. No mention of this requirement on the current application's "Instruction" page.

I'm curious, Lennerd. Do you recall what % match showed when you submitted the picture cropped from your passport's information page? I'm assuming a 100% match.

The reason I ask is because I'm wondering whether immigration has loosened up a bit on their portrait picture requirements, or whether the AI photo recognition algorithm hasn't yet been tweaked to flag 100% matches.

We used our passport photos for our e-visas in November or December of 2023, and didn't have any problems with them. Good Luck

@Aidan in HCMC

I *think* I applied for my current visa back in March 2024, so there may have been water under the bridge since then. I see below here [now above] a post from someone who "used their passport photo" for the application. That may or may not be the same as what I did. Did they do what I did or just use a *copy* of the same photo they used in their passport, for instance?

In my case, there are "wavy lines" on the photo. That wasn't any kind of deterrent, obviously for my application. I'm not sure about jpeg. pdf. and other file types. And this thread doesn't get into that as I recall, but I'll bet it's a factor in rejections, mostly due to size of file being uploaded, but could also be *file type* issues. I am not a computer expert by a long stretch.

And I'll reiterate: the gov't site is clunky and slow. I had better luck using Google Chrome than Apple's Safari browser. And that's an understatement. The site doesn't appear to like Safari, Chrome works much better.

I have used the passport photo before also and it was accepted, trouble is they accept the photo but then dont tell you till 6 days later that it has not been accepted. By which time your travel plans and lots of money has been wasted.... I guess its just  the usual ,couldnt give  a toss about the applicants...

I have used the passport photo before also and it was accepted, trouble is they accept the photo but then dont tell you till 6 days later that it has not been accepted. By which time your travel plans and lots of money has been wasted.... I guess its just the usual ,couldnt give a toss about the applicants... - @ushfuhg

"What percentage match were you getting when you submitted each pic?" (Link)

Did the application tell you the match % after you'd submitted your portrait photo?

See "GUIDE TO VERIFYING DECLARATION INFORMATION" (Linkchoose second subsection on that page)

When is your intended arrival date? There are local Vietnam visa agents available to "expedite" your application if your arrival date is soon.

Relevant to this topic, here is a repost from another thread

"The new application's document reading algorithm appears to be functioning properly.

I just uploaded my passport info page and a portrait picture cropped from the info page. It awarded a match of 92%, with approval.

The passport's information was also read correctly, and the relevant fields on the application were auto-completed (i.e. nationality, date-of-birth, surname-given name(s) etc.).

My name isn't so long that it appears as a contraction on the ICAO line. I'm curious as to how the application reads contracted/abbreviated/shortened names."