8 ms·

My favorite part of the UK’s eVisa was taking a portrait photo of my 1.5y old. I was losing my sanity over all the refusals (app refusing the photos).

by rkuska 24d ago

disgruntledphd2 24d ago
> My favorite part of the UK’s eVisa was taking a portrait photo of my 1.5y old. I have had to take photos of each of my two kids at six months old for passports. That was not a lot of fun (though it's nice to look at the baby photo for the older one now).
- iso1631 24d ago
  I had professional photographers (guy at timpsons) do it with when my kids were that age. Was a doddle and cost about £5 The hilarity of having to compare a baby picture with a 5 year old kid stood in front of you is a separate problem.
  - disgruntledphd2 23d ago
    Yeah, our first was during Covid so we had to do it, and then I just did child number two. > The hilarity of having to compare a baby picture with a 5 year old kid stood in front of you is a separate problem. Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous, I'd imagine that most border guards will just check the last name and assume it's OK in that case.
- benhurmarcel 23d ago
  I just did an ID picture for a 1 month old. I just did it flat on a bed and used a Nano Banana model to clean it up to match requirements.
  - vunderba 23d ago
    Most governments have strict rules around “photoshopping” or doctoring images, particularly for passports and other identification documents. I'm pretty sure Gemini embeds invisible SynthID watermarks into Nano-Banana images. So just be advised that this could get you into hot water.
    - benhurmarcel 23d ago
      There is no requirement about that here. Anyway I only provide a printed copy, which the employee visually compares to the person.
FireBeyond 24d ago
I am a UK citizen, born in Scotland, before 1983, to Scottish parents. We moved to Australia when I was young and I traveled on my mother's passport. Now I live in the US. The UK government has decided that to travel to the UK, a UK citizen MUST use a UK passport. They also, helpfully, don't offer passport services at their US embassies and consulates. So the process is this: I begin the process on gov.uk, and validate my identity to them, to their satisfaction, using questions only I should know (where did my parents marry, born where and to whom, what time of the day). Once I have done that, I get to upload a passport photo of myself... and then I have to find, and nominate another UK citizen who -does- have a passport, -who is not related to me-, who "has known me for two years", and "has the risk of loss if they were to make a false statement", to go through the same process themselves, validate their identity, and then state that the photo they have seen is of me, that they have known me for two years or more, what the nature of our relationship is, and more. Then the UK will issue my passport. Fun story of the app refusals though, id.me, as used by the IRS: "Scan the front and back of your Driver's License." [upload scan of front of DL @ 200DPI] "Unable to find a face in the image you uploaded." [upload scan of front of DL @ 300DPI] "Unable to find a face in the image you uploaded." Huh. Maybe I'll try with a lower resolution. [upload scan of front of DL @ 72DPI] "Thank you, now please upload the back of your Driver's License." Hmm, 72DPI worked for the front, so... [upload scan of back of DL @ 72DPI] "Unable to read a barcode in the image you uploaded." [upload scan of back of DL @ 200DPI] "Unable to read a barcode in the image you uploaded." [upload scan of back of DL @ 300DPI] "Thank you for verifying your Driver's License".

My favorite part of the UK’s eVisa was taking a portrait photo of my 1.5y old. I was losing my sanity over all the refusals (app refusing the photos).

by rkuska 24d ago

My favorite part of the UK’s eVisa was taking a portrait photo of my 1.5y old. I was losing my sanity over all the refusals (app refusing the photos).

disgruntledphd2 24d ago

> My favorite part of the UK’s eVisa was taking a portrait photo of my 1.5y old. I have had to take photos of each of my two kids at six months old for passports. That was not a lot of fun (though it's nice to look at the baby photo for the older one now).

iso1631 24d ago
I had professional photographers (guy at timpsons) do it with when my kids were that age. Was a doddle and cost about £5 The hilarity of having to compare a baby picture with a 5 year old kid stood in front of you is a separate problem.
- disgruntledphd2 23d ago
  Yeah, our first was during Covid so we had to do it, and then I just did child number two. > The hilarity of having to compare a baby picture with a 5 year old kid stood in front of you is a separate problem. Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous, I'd imagine that most border guards will just check the last name and assume it's OK in that case.
benhurmarcel 23d ago
I just did an ID picture for a 1 month old. I just did it flat on a bed and used a Nano Banana model to clean it up to match requirements.
- vunderba 23d ago
  Most governments have strict rules around “photoshopping” or doctoring images, particularly for passports and other identification documents. I'm pretty sure Gemini embeds invisible SynthID watermarks into Nano-Banana images. So just be advised that this could get you into hot water.
  - benhurmarcel 23d ago
    There is no requirement about that here. Anyway I only provide a printed copy, which the employee visually compares to the person.

FireBeyond 24d ago

I am a UK citizen, born in Scotland, before 1983, to Scottish parents. We moved to Australia when I was young and I traveled on my mother's passport. Now I live in the US. The UK government has decided that to travel to the UK, a UK citizen MUST use a UK passport. They also, helpfully, don't offer passport services at their US embassies and consulates. So the process is this: I begin the process on gov.uk, and validate my identity to them, to their satisfaction, using questions only I should know (where did my parents marry, born where and to whom, what time of the day). Once I have done that, I get to upload a passport photo of myself... and then I have to find, and nominate another UK citizen who -does- have a passport, -who is not related to me-, who "has known me for two years", and "has the risk of loss if they were to make a false statement", to go through the same process themselves, validate their identity, and then state that the photo they have seen is of me, that they have known me for two years or more, what the nature of our relationship is, and more. Then the UK will issue my passport. Fun story of the app refusals though, id.me, as used by the IRS: "Scan the front and back of your Driver's License." [upload scan of front of DL @ 200DPI] "Unable to find a face in the image you uploaded." [upload scan of front of DL @ 300DPI] "Unable to find a face in the image you uploaded." Huh. Maybe I'll try with a lower resolution. [upload scan of front of DL @ 72DPI] "Thank you, now please upload the back of your Driver's License." Hmm, 72DPI worked for the front, so... [upload scan of back of DL @ 72DPI] "Unable to read a barcode in the image you uploaded." [upload scan of back of DL @ 200DPI] "Unable to read a barcode in the image you uploaded." [upload scan of back of DL @ 300DPI] "Thank you for verifying your Driver's License".