INS photo guidelines

Here's my INS photo journey:

1. Went to the USCIS (INS) website to get photo specs for my green card
2. Was directed to this page, a pdf document. This document contains the information that photos are now to be full-frontal, not 3/4 pose and a webaddress (not hyperlinked) where full specs can supposedly be found. The webaddress is http://www.travel.state.gov/passport/pptphotos/index.html
3. Here, I navigated a sidebar to find photo composition guidelines and head position and background, with a listing of more guidelines. The photo after this list is one of their sample photos on this site. Note her facial expression, particularly her teeth.

I will be posting a scan of my photo series that I had taken, trying to get an acceptable shot. Ah, if only I had gone to the FAQ section of the website, where I would have read the following:

What pose should the photos show? The photo should show a clear, front view, full face of the customer. The customer should be in normal street attire, without hat or dark glasses against a plain white or off-white background. The customer should have a natural expression, mouth closed, and eyes open and looking directly ahead. Photos in which the face of the person being photographed is not in focus will not be accepted.

Note the words that I've highlighted: mouth closed. This was not mentioned in the composition guidelines or in the head position specs. One of their sample photos clearly shows someone open-mouthed (showing teeth). And, if you download their complete photo guide, which presumably would contain all the information one would need to take or have taken a proper photo, it's full of photos of people just grinning their fool heads off. Not a mention of a closed mouth in sight. You can probably guess where this is going. Yes, I arrived for my green card finalization appointment and was turned away because I was showing teeth in my photos. Sigh. At least the customer service person was very pleasant about it, told me where I could go to get another set done and said I didn't have to wait in line a second time when I returned with new photos. She handed me a sheet with photo guidelines that clearly said no teeth could be visible. I didn't bother to point out that the sheet she handed me isn't available to anyone but INS staff and that those explicit guidelines aren't available either in the waiting room at the local office or on the website. Double sigh.

The real downer for me was that the photo that I had taken in a rush, trying to complete this process, the thing that will be on my new green card, looks disgruntled and puffy. Triple sigh.

"You're so vain ..."