White isn't universal. Most of the 110 documents in our registry use one of three colours — and there's at least one real exception.
Why background colour matters
Most passport and visa photos are checked by automated software before a human ever looks at them — edge-detection that separates your head and shoulders from the background, then a biometric match against your existing record. A background too close to your skin tone, or with any texture or shadow, makes that harder and is a common cause of an automated rejection before the physical requirements are even checked.
The three colours you'll actually see
Across the documents we track, pure or off-white (#FFFFFF) is by far the most common, followed by light grey (#E0E0E0) — the UK, most of the EU, and Australia use grey or accept it as an alternative. A small number specify cream or off-white tones instead. Several countries accept more than one — check your specific document's page rather than assuming.
The exception: coloured backgrounds
Indonesia is a genuine outlier: its passport photo requires a red background, not white or grey. If you're applying for an Indonesian passport and format your photo against white like everywhere else, it will be rejected on sight — this is exactly the kind of country-specific detail that makes copying a friend's "generic passport photo" a bad idea.
How to know your exact requirement
Open your specific document below — the background colour and its swatch are shown in the Requirements table, sourced from the same registry entry that powers the photo tool itself.