Travel visa appointment - What exactly is passport photocopy?

Upvote:5

I successfully went through multiple USA visa applications providing print-outs of (smartphone) photographs of my passport pages, which I believe is what you are describing.

In my case, I took the photographs once, via a Google Drive mobile app that creates a PDF file, and then stored the PDF and printed from it (on a variety of printers, generally in black-and-white) as required.

So yes, at least in the most general sense, this can work. Whether this will work for you may depend on the country you're seeking a visa from, and perhaps even the exact embassy location you're applying at.

It may also depend on the quality of the photograph, but if the result looks to you pretty identical to (or better than) photocopies you've seen in the past, then it's highly likely to be fine.

On the other hand, if the image includes your fingers holding the pages open, this may raise queries - or even then, perhaps it won't.

For a country like the USA, consular officials are working through 100s or 1000s of applications per day and will only give your documents the briefest glance. Provided they can read the pertinent information (name, date of birth, and so on) they will probably be satisfied.

Upvote:17

Although you could check with the consulate etc. the answer is almost certainly "yes". There is pretty much no difference, physically, between a printout of a scan of something and a photocopy of something. Even if the embassy wanted only a photocopy they probably couldn't tell the difference.

Modern photocopiers actually work by scanning the document and then printing it. There is no difference in the end result between a photocopy and a scan+print.

You should make sure that the copy quality is good, at least good enough for everything to be clearly readable, and not distorted.

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