The honest answer is it depends on the country — and two major ones ban them outright. The US banned glasses in passport and visa photos on 1 November 2016, and Australia followed on 1 July 2018. Most of the rest either allow clear glasses without glare or officially discourage them. The table below is the current rule for every spec in our dataset.

The rule by country

Country / document	Glasses rule
United States — passport, visa, DV lottery	Banned since Nov 2016 — medical exemption only, with a signed doctor’s statement
Australia — passport	Banned since 1 Jul 2018 — medical exemption only
India — passport, e-visa	Not allowed
China — visa	Discouraged; varies by application centre — removing them is safest
Schengen — visa	Discouraged
Germany, France — passport	Discouraged
United Kingdom — passport	Allowed — no glare, frames must not cover eyes
Canada — passport	Allowed if eyes fully visible, no glare
Japan, New Zealand, Brazil — passport	Allowed — no glare

“Discouraged” means the photo is legal but more likely to fail screening — remove them if you can. The full per-document detail, with the authority link and last-verified stamp, is on each country’s spec card.

Why the bans happened

The US ban is the best-documented one: the State Department removed glasses from the acceptable list in November 2016 after lens glare and frame shadows became one of the top causes of photo rejection — over 200,000 applications a year were stalling on glasses alone. Australia’s 2018 ban cited the same problem: reflections and obscured eyes defeat the facial-recognition checks the photo exists for. India adopted the ICAO-aligned no-glasses rule with its September 2025 passport spec.

The direction of travel is one-way. No country that banned glasses has re-allowed them, and the ICAO guidance national specs derive from recommends removing them. If a guide somewhere says glasses are fine for a US or Australian photo, it is quoting a rule retired years ago — check the date it was written before trusting it.

What “allowed” actually requires

Where glasses are legal — the UK, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Brazil — the permission comes with conditions that quietly cause most of the failures:

• No glare or reflection on the lenses. This is the failure that dominates; studio lighting bounced off a lens is invisible to you but obvious to the screening software.
• Eyes fully visible. Frames cannot cover any part of the eye, and there can be no shadow across the face from the frame.
• Nothing tinted. Dark or coloured lenses are rejected everywhere, no exceptions.

Canada adds the strictest phrasing — eyes must be clearly visible through the lenses — which in practice rules out thick rims even when they don’t literally cover the eye.

The medical exemption path

Where glasses are banned, a documented medical need is the only way through:

• US: include a signed doctor’s statement with the application — the photo may then show glasses.
• Australia: a documented medical reason (recent eye surgery, severe light sensitivity) is accepted; the documentation travels with the application.

Everywhere else the exemption question doesn’t arise — either the photo may show glasses anyway, or “discouraged” leaves it to the examiner.

The safe move

Whatever the country, taking glasses off is never wrong. If your spec allows them and you’d rather keep them on, check the exact wording on that country’s spec card — and watch for glare, because that’s the rejection even the permissive countries hand out.

Related: why photos get rejected · how old can a passport photo be · the spec change log tracks when each of these rules moved.

Frequently asked questions

Are glasses allowed in visa photos too, or just passports?

The same rule usually covers both — the US glasses ban applies to passports, visas and the DV lottery alike, and India's ban covers passport and e-visa photos. Where a country's passport allows glasses, its visa photo typically does too; the spec card for each document shows the published rule.

Are sunglasses or tinted lenses ever acceptable?

No — dark or tinted lenses are rejected everywhere, including in countries that allow clear glasses (UK, Canada, Japan, New Zealand). The test is always whether both eyes are fully visible without glare, shadow or colour distortion.

What if I can't remove my glasses for medical reasons?

Both countries with hard bans publish an exemption path. For US applications you submit a signed doctor's statement with the form; Australia requires a documented medical reason such as recent eye surgery or severe light sensitivity. Bring the paperwork — an exemption claimed without documentation fails like any other glasses photo.

My country allows glasses but the portal still rejected the photo — why?

Almost always glare or frames. 'Allowed' means allowed *without* glare: reflections on the lens, thick frames covering any part of the eye, or a shadow cast on the face all fail the check. The reliable fix even where glasses are legal is the same as everywhere else — take them off and reshoot.