Head Coverings in Your Cambodia eVisa Photo: Religious and Medical Rules for US Applicants

Which religious head coverings are allowed

If you wear a head covering every day as part of your faith, you keep it on for the photo. This applies across the coverings American travelers most commonly ask about, and the validator does not treat one differently from another — what it parses is whether your face is fully visible underneath. A hijab, a Sikh turban or dastar, a Muslim kufi or taqiyah, a Jewish kippah or yarmulke, a tichel or daily headscarf, and a nun's habit veil all fall under the religious-covering exception.

The condition attached to all of them is the same: your full face must show. That means the bottom of your chin, your jawline on both sides, your cheeks, your mouth, your nose, your eyes, and your forehead up to the hairline edge of the covering all need to be clearly visible and free of shadow. A niqab or any face veil that covers the nose or mouth is not acceptable for the photo, because it hides the features the system is built to confirm — those have to come off for the shot even when the rest of the covering stays on.

A few practical points specific to each. For a hijab or headscarf, pull the fabric back so it sits behind the hairline and off the cheeks, framing the face cleanly rather than crowding it. For a turban, the wrap stays exactly as you wear it daily — no change needed — just make sure the front edge does not dip low enough to shadow the forehead. For a kippah or kufi worn toward the back of the head, there is rarely any issue at all, since the face is already fully open. The neutral expression, eyes-open, no-glasses rules still apply on top of the covering rule, and our note on Cambodia eVisa photo glasses and expression rules covers those in detail.

Why a baseball cap fails but a hijab passes

This is the distinction that confuses people, so it is worth being blunt about it. The spec bans head coverings as a default, then carves out an exception for ones worn daily for religious reasons. A baseball cap, a beanie, a fedora, a sun hat, a winter hood, a bandana worn for style — none of those are religious coverings, so none of them get the exception. They are rejected, every time, even if your face is perfectly visible underneath the brim.

The reason is partly practical and partly about consistency. A cap brim throws a shadow across the eyes and forehead, which is exactly what the validator is built to flag. But even a brimless beanie that leaves the face fully lit still fails, because the rule is about the type of covering, not just visibility. The system is not asking "can I see your face?" for fashion headwear — it is asking "is this a covering you are entitled to keep on?" and a baseball cap is not.

So if you wear a hat for any non-religious reason, take it off for the photo. There is no medical-style exemption for fashion headwear, no "but it is cold" allowance, no exception for a bad-hair day. The only headwear that survives review is something you wear daily as part of your faith, or — as the next section covers — a covering worn for a documented medical reason.

Medical head coverings and hair loss

American applicants going through chemotherapy, living with alopecia, recovering from surgery, or managing a scalp condition often wear a scarf, turban-style wrap, or soft cap every day. The good news is that the photo rule treats a daily medical covering the same way it treats a religious one: you can keep it on. The validator is checking whether your face is visible, not auditing the reason the covering is there.

You do not upload a doctor's note or any medical proof alongside the eVisa photo — there is no field for it and the system does not ask. What matters in the image is identical to the religious-covering rule. The wrap or cap stays back off your face, your full face from chin to hairline is visible and evenly lit, your eyes are open, and nothing shadows your features. A soft jersey scarf or a chemo cap photographs cleanly when you pin it back the same way you would a hijab.

One thing worth knowing if you are between treatments and your appearance has changed: the photo just needs to look like you do now, taken within the last 6 months. If your hair situation today is different from your passport photo, that is fine — Immigration matches your face to the photo at the gate, not your hairstyle. A wig is also acceptable and needs no special handling, since it reads as hair and leaves the face fully open. If a covered-head photo of yours has already been bounced, our guide to fixing a rejected Cambodia eVisa photo maps each flag to its exact correction.

The contrast and shadow traps with covered heads

Almost every head-covering rejection my desk logs comes down to one of two things, and both are about light, not about the covering being disallowed. The first is shadow on the face. A covering with a front edge — a turban, a low-tied hijab, a chemo cap pulled forward — can throw a shadow across the forehead, the eyes, or one cheek if the light is coming from the wrong angle. That shadow reads to the validator as part of the face being obscured, and the photo bounces.

The fix is even, frontal daylight. Face a window so the light lands on your face from the front or slightly to the side, never from above or behind, and push the front edge of the covering back so it sits at or above your hairline. Take the shot in daytime; warm evening bulbs both yellow your white background and deepen the shadows under a covering's edge. Pin a loose hijab or scarf so it frames the face cleanly and does not drift over the cheeks between frames.

The second trap is contrast against the background. A dark covering — a black hijab, a deep navy turban — against a plain white wall is actually ideal, because the edge of your head reads clearly. The problem is a light or white covering against a white wall, where the system struggles to find the outline of your head. If your covering is white or very pale, you can use a very slightly off-white or light-grey backdrop so there is a faint edge between the fabric and the wall, while keeping it plain and shadow-free. Our Cambodia visa photo background rules guide covers how to handle that without breaking the plain-background requirement.

The at-home routine for a covered-head photo

You do not need a studio or a booth for this. A phone, a plain wall, and daytime light is the setup that works, and the routine is only slightly different from a standard headshot. Here is the version my team gives travelers who wear a covering and call in unsure.

Set the covering exactly as you wear it day to day, then adjust the front edge so it sits above your eyebrows and off your cheeks — you want the whole face framed, not crowded. Stand about two feet from a plain wall so you do not throw a shadow onto it. Face a window with daylight coming from the front or side, mid-morning or mid-afternoon, so your face under the covering is lit evenly with no shadow on the forehead or jaw.

Use the rear camera, not the selfie camera, held in portrait at eye level, and have someone else take the shot if you can — an arm's-length selfie warps your features and the validator catches it. Neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open and looking at the lens. Take the glasses off. Shoot five or six frames, check that your chin, jawline, and forehead are all visible and shadow-free in each, and pick the cleanest. Save it as a JPEG under 2 MB, ideally 600 pixels or more per side, and do not apply filters or beauty smoothing.

That is the whole routine. The covering does not change the file rules — JPEG, under 2 MB, roughly square, plain background — it only changes how carefully you watch the light and the front edge of the fabric. Before you upload, it is worth running through the full Cambodia eVisa photo checklist so nothing else slips, and the broader required documents checklist for US citizens confirms the four other items you will need alongside the photo.

What happens after you upload

Once a covered-head photo passes the upload check, it travels with the rest of your application and you do not think about it again. If it is flagged, you get an email with a specific list of what to re-upload — almost always "face partially shadowed" or "edge of head unclear against background," both of which are a two-minute re-shoot with the light adjusted. There is no extra charge to fix it. Free resubmission is part of the all-in price, and the moment you reply with a corrected photo the 3-business-day clock keeps running. Wearing a covering does not put you at any disadvantage in review.

That is the whole head-covering story: keep a daily religious or medical covering on, show your full face from chin to hairline, light it evenly, and lose any fashion hat. The Tourist eVisa is $80 USD all-in and the Business eVisa is $90 USD all-in, both approved in 3 business days and delivered as a printable PDF by email, with US-timezone support if anything snags. When your photo is ready, the next step is the application itself — our step-by-step Cambodia eVisa application guide for Americans walks through every field.

Next steps and related reading for US citizens: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when your photo is ready, bookmark the Cambodia visa hub for United States citizens as your single reference, review the full photo requirements if you are unsure about size or background, and keep the photo checklist open while you shoot.