How to scan a passport on your phone so upload forms accept it

Check whether the form takes a file, and which formats

Before you scan anything, look at what the service actually asks for, because a lot of passport checks no longer take an uploaded file. These are what the official pages say:

The UK ETA app asks for the original passport ("not a photocopy or digital passport") and reads its chip when you place the phone on it, so a scan saved on your phone isn't used. On a UK visa where the "UK Immigration: ID Check" app scans your passport, you then self-upload only the evidence the form asks for, which UKVI says can include "a copy of your passport"; if you give fingerprints at a visa application centre or UKVCAS service point, you upload through the commercial partner's website instead. Login.gov accepts a US passport book or card, and if you don't have a phone or tablet with a camera, you may be able to verify in person at a US Post Office.

For a live capture, the lighting and glare advice below still applies. Only the format and storage advice is irrelevant.

Which passport page to scan

Scan the personal details page, the one with your photo on it. The Home Office's own design guidance for passport uploads tells services to ask that the photo or scan shows:

• all 4 corners of the personal details page
• your personal details, including your photo
• the machine-readable zone (MRZ)

The MRZ is the 2 lines of letters, numbers and < symbols printed along the bottom of that page.

You don't need the cover. If a form asks for more pages, such as a signature page or the pages with visas and entry stamps, scan each page it asks for. If you're scanning a passport card or national identity card, use the ID card guide on scanning front and back on one page instead.

Set up the shot

Use the scanner built into the Files app on iPhone (see how to scan documents on iPhone) or the Google Drive app on Android.

• Background. Lay the open passport on a solid, dark surface, not a white or patterned one. The pale edges of the page stand out against it, so the scanner finds all four corners.
• Flatness. A passport doesn't want to stay open. Hold the facing page down with a finger well away from the photo page, or rest something light on it. Make sure nothing covers any information.
• Light. Take the scan in a well-lit area with indirect light.
• Flash. Turn it off. UKVI specifically says to switch the flash off for a laminated passport page.
• Angle. Hold the phone parallel to the page, directly above it, so the text lines stay straight.

Keep the machine-readable lines sharp

The MRZ is small and sits at the very edge of the page, and the Home Office notes that there's a small chance the computer misreads the characters. If the form fills in your details from the scan, check every one before you submit. To get the MRZ right:

• Move back if the scanner struggles. The UK ETA guidance suggests taking the photo of your passport at arm's length if you have problems. The crop removes the extra background.
• Check the bottom edge after cropping. If the auto-crop line sits on or above the MRZ, drag the corner down. Login.gov tells you not to crop the edges of your ID, and a crop that clips even part of a line can make a scan that looks fine fail the form's check.
• Don't use clean-up tools on the passport. Drive's Clean tool erases marks and fingers. On an identity document, leave the page exactly as it is.
• Zoom in and read both lines. Every character should be crisp, and you should be able to count the separate < symbols. If you can't read them easily, a computer probably can't either. Rescan.

Avoid hologram glare

Many secure documents carry holographic devices and optically variable ink, which the Home Office describes as changing colour when the document is tilted, and your passport's photo page may well have them. Because they're built to catch the light, they also throw bright patches into a camera, and the laminate or plastic surface of the page adds its own shine. The Home Office pattern says an upload must be clear, in focus and without glare or reflections.

• Watch the screen and tilt the phone slightly until the bright patch moves off the text. A small tilt is enough. Too much and the lines stop being straight.
• Check where any remaining sheen falls. A little shine on a blank area is fine. On your name, the passport number, your photo or the MRZ, it isn't.
• Watch for your own shadow too. The same Home Office pattern lists shadows among the quality problems services should check for, and leaning over the page to block a light often creates one.

Get the file past the upload form

A few things catch people out:

• iPhone photos may be HEIF. If you use the Camera app instead of the scanner, an iPhone 7 or later may save the photo as HEIF, which isn't on the UKVI or USCIS lists. Go to Settings > Camera > Formats and choose Most Compatible to save new photos as JPEG.
• Don't add a password. USCIS says not to encrypt or password-protect uploaded files.
• Name the file properly. UKVI asks for a descriptive file name. Something like "passport photo page" works better than the number the scanner gives it.
• Too big for the form? Shrink the file rather than taking a worse scan. A blurry MRZ will cause more trouble than a large file.

Where not to keep a passport scan

A passport scan carries the details that prove who you are, so keep the file out of places that copy it or show it to other people:

• Email, if you used it to move the file. UKVI lists emailing the photo to yourself as one way to move it to a laptop, alongside a cable or Bluetooth. If you email it, delete the email from both your inbox and your sent folder once you've uploaded the file, then empty the deleted items or bin folder too.
• Your photo library. If your photos sync to other devices or you share albums, a scan saved there goes wherever your photos go.
• Shared cloud folders. Google Drive's scanner saves into Drive, so make sure the destination folder isn't one you share with family or colleagues.
• Downloads folders and work computers. If you can, upload from your own device rather than a work computer, and delete the copy from whichever computer you used once the application has gone through.