Mongolia Passport Photo Requirements & Guidelines

A Mongolia passport photo is a standard 35 × 45 mm on plain white — the same format used across the region. What sets Mongolia apart isn't the print; it's how digital the process has become. Photos flow through an official portal, photo.burtgel.gov.mn, and enrolment often happens on the spot at State Registration offices and e-Mongolia kiosks.

That means two things can decide your photo: the physical print you bring, and a precise 413 × 531 pixel digital file. This guide covers both, following the General Authority for State Registration's standard.

The specification, at a glance

The digital side: photo.burtgel.gov.mn

Mongolia runs an official photo portal as part of the e-Mongolia ecosystem, and the file it expects is specific: 413 × 531 pixels, a 7:9 aspect ratio, saved as a JPG, kept small — roughly 10–300 KB. That's a low-resolution web file by design, so a full-size phone photo has to be resized to fit.

The order of operations matters: resize to exactly 413 × 531 first, then compress, and check the face still looks sharp at that size. If you'd rather not wrestle an export slider, you can create your Mongolia passport photo and get a file already matching the pixel and size targets.

The print and the in-person capture

The printed photo

A clean 35 × 45 mm colour print on photo paper, plain white background, head about 34–36 mm chin to crown with roughly 3 mm of clearance above the head. Studios in Mongolia commonly hand over a set of four identical prints — keep them, as more than one may be needed.

Enrolment is largely in person

Much of Mongolia's passport enrolment is biometric capture on site, at State Registration offices or e-Mongolia kiosks. The photo taken there often supersedes a bring-your-own print, so — as with the print — arrive looking exactly as a compliant photo requires: plain white behind you isn't your job at the kiosk, but a neutral face, no glasses, and hair off your eyes are.

Background, glasses, and expression

White, evenly lit

The background must be plain white with no shadow behind the head. Some older references mention off-white or light grey, but white is the current standard — and an undersized head in the 35 × 45 frame is one of the more common rejection reasons, so fill the frame properly.

Glasses

Best removed. Glasses are permitted only if your eyes are fully visible with no glare and the frames don't obscure them; heavy or tinted frames are rejected. Removing them is the safe choice.

Expression and head coverings

Keep a neutral expression — mouth closed, no smile, eyes open and looking straight at the camera. Hats aren't allowed; religious or medical headwear is accepted only if worn daily and the full face stays visible from chin to forehead.

How Mongolia compares

Mongolia's 35 × 45 mm white-background photo is shared with neighbours across Central and East Asia, but its 413 × 531 px portal file recalls the compact digital specs of countries like Kazakhstan — small, precise, and easy to get wrong if you just upload a phone photo. The print is standard; the digital target is the fiddly part. If you're preparing photos for more than one country, our passport photo tool for 150+ countries applies each country's own rules to the same source image.

The short version

A Mongolia passport photo is 35 × 45 mm on plain white, glasses off, neutral, with the head filling most of the frame. The part to plan for is digital: the e-Mongolia portal wants a 413 × 531 px, 7:9 JPG under ~300 KB. Resize first, compress second, keep a set of prints, and you'll clear both the counter and the portal.