A Cambodia eVisa photo rejection feels worse than it is. The photo is the #1 cause of Aussie rejections — about 30% of all flags — and almost every fix is a 5-minute phone retake against a plain white wall. Here is the full troubleshooting playbook.
What do I do if my Cambodia eVisa photo was rejected?
Retake against a plain white wall in daylight, no glasses, no smile, neutral expression — 5 minutes on a phone is usually enough. Photo is the #1 Cambodia eVisa rejection cause (~30% of Aussie rejections). Through us, resubmission is free; we'll send you a plain-English email naming the specific spec that failed. Most common Aussie photo fails: glasses (auto-flag), cream/off-white wall (looks white but the spec wants pure white), shadow behind head, HEIC file from iPhone, and the wide-brim hat (yes, even in Australia in summer). Each fix is sub-10-minute.
Önemli Noktalar
Photo is the #1 cause of Cambodia eVisa rejections for Australians — roughly 30% of all flags.
Almost every fix is a 5-minute phone retake against a plain white wall in daylight, no glasses, neutral expression.
Through us, resubmission is free — we email you in plain English naming the exact spec that failed.
Top Aussie fails: glasses on, off-white wall, smile or open mouth, HEIC file from iPhone, wide-brim hat, shadow behind head, low-res selfie, face too small in frame.
If DIY is not your thing, an Australian chemist passport photo runs $15-25 AUD and works fine once scanned to JPEG under 2 MB.
Most Aussies fix this in 5 minutes — here is the rescue path
If you opened your inbox to a Cambodia eVisa rejection email and the reason listed is anything to do with the photo, the news is mostly good. Photo issues are the single most common reason Australian applications get flagged — roughly 30% of all rejections — but they are also the fastest to fix. Almost every photo rejection clears on the first retake, and almost every retake takes less than ten minutes with nothing more than a phone and a plain white wall.
The reason Aussies disproportionately get caught on this step is cultural muscle memory. Australian passport photos let you wear a faint smile until 2020, the average rental wall is magnolia rather than pure white, and modern iPhones save photos as HEIC by default — none of which Cambodian Immigration's auto-validator tolerates. None of it means you did anything wrong. It just means the spec is stricter than what you grew up with. The Australia country pillar covers the wider eligibility picture if you want the upstream context.
This guide is the playbook the photo-rescue desk uses internally — the eight fail patterns ranked by frequency, what we say in the plain-English email when one is flagged, the exact 5-minute phone-camera retake, how to convert HEIC to JPEG, where to upload the new file, and the chemist fallback if you would rather not DIY. If you have not applied yet, the Cambodia eVisa application walkthrough for Australians covers the upload flow end-to-end so you can avoid this step entirely.
The 8 photo fail patterns that catch Aussies — ranked
After thousands of Aussie photo rescues, the same eight patterns show up week after week. They are ranked here in order of frequency, with a short note on what the email from our desk actually says when one is flagged and how long the typical fix takes once you sit down to do it.
Glasses-on (30% of rejections)
Glasses are the single biggest auto-flag, full stop. The Cambodian validator catches prescription glasses, reading glasses, sunglasses, blue-light filters, even thin clear-frame styles, and even glasses pushed up onto your forehead. The rule has been in force since Australia's own DFAT dropped the glasses exemption back in 2020, but Aussies still routinely forget. Take them off completely, place them out of frame, and give yourself thirty seconds to settle your eyes before you shoot — the unfamiliar feel of having them off makes most glasses-wearers squint on the first try.
Off-white wall (20%)
The single most heartbreaking flag, because the wall looked white to you and the rejection email says it is not. Standard Australian rental walls are painted in shades like 'Antique White USA' or 'Hog Bristle' that read as white at a glance but fail Cambodian Immigration's background-colour check. The cheap fix is a clean white bedsheet pinned flat against any door — no creases, pulled tight, photographed in daylight. The validator-friendly test: hold a sheet of plain printer paper against the wall. If the paper looks clearly whiter, the wall will fail and a sheet behind a door is the rescue.
Smile, HEIC, and the wide-brim hat
Smile rejections (15%) catch Aussies who default to a friendly half-smile for any camera — neutral expression with closed mouth, full stop, no visible teeth. HEIC rejections (10%) catch every iPhone user shooting on factory defaults; the fix is share via Mail or Files and pick 'Most Compatible' to force a JPEG export. Wide-brim hat rejections (8%) catch Aussies who shoot in summer with a sun hat still on — hats are out entirely, even indoors. The remaining three patterns (shadow, low-res, face too small) come from lighting, camera choice, and framing, and the phone walkthrough below covers each one.
The 5-minute phone-camera retake walkthrough
Almost every Aussie photo rescue runs through this exact routine. The setup is simple, the equipment is what is already in the house, and the elapsed time from 'OK, let's redo this' to a compliant JPEG ready to upload is five to ten minutes. Walk through the steps in order — skipping any one of them is what creates the second round of rejections we see occasionally.
Step one — find your wall. Walk through the house, eye level, looking for a plain interior wall with nothing on it — no light switch in shot, no door frame, no skirting board cutting the bottom edge. Bedroom and hallway walls usually work. If every wall is magnolia, a clean white bedsheet pinned flat against any door is the rescue. Pull it tight so there are no creases or folds — folds throw shadows that the validator reads as background noise.
Step two — kill the artificial light. Turn off every ceiling light, downlight, and lamp in the room. Artificial overhead lighting casts a hard dark shadow behind your head onto the wall, which the auto-flagger reads as a non-uniform background. Daylight is the answer — softer, more even, and free of the warm yellow cast that makes a white wall photograph cream.
Step three — position relative to a window. Stand about 1.5 metres from a window with daylight coming through it. The window goes to one side of you — left or right — never behind you (silhouette) and never directly in front (squint and overexposure). Stand 50 centimetres out from the wall, not pressed against it; that gap is what stops any residual shadow from landing on the wall directly behind your head. Mid-morning or mid-afternoon light is best. Avoid late afternoon — the warm tones turn white walls visibly yellow on camera.
Step four — hand the phone to a partner. Selfie-arm shots distort facial proportions and the validator sometimes reads the warped face as a fake submission. Get a partner, flatmate, or family member to hold the phone at your eye level, about an arm's length out, in portrait orientation. Use the rear (main) camera — not the selfie cam — for better resolution and no mirror flip on export.
Step five — pose, then take three or four. Look straight at the lens, neutral expression, mouth closed but not clamped shut, eyes open, glasses off, hat off, hair tucked behind your ears. Have your partner shoot three or four times in quick succession. Pick the sharpest, best-lit shot — the one where you look most relaxed. Crop to roughly square (the upload form accepts anything close to 1:1) and you are done with the photo half.
How to upload the new photo (HEIC fix, file size, secure link)
The retake is the slow part — uploading the new file is two minutes. The three things that catch Aussies at this stage are file format (HEIC vs JPEG), file size (the 2 MB cap), and where to send it.
File format. The Cambodia eVisa portal accepts JPEG only. Modern iPhones save photos as HEIC by default, which the validator rejects at the upload door. The fix is to share the chosen photo through the Mail or Files app on iPhone and pick the 'Most Compatible' option in the share menu — that forces a JPEG export. Alternatively, open the photo in Files, tap-and-hold, and pick 'Save As' with JPEG selected. On Android, the Photos app exports JPEG by default, so this step is usually automatic.
File size. The cap is 2 MB. A raw full-resolution phone photo can easily run 6-8 MB, especially with portrait mode on. If your JPEG is over 2 MB, the easiest compression path is to re-save it at 'Medium' quality in any photo app, or email it to yourself and pick 'Medium' size in the Mail send menu. Resolution must be at least 600×600 pixels. Modern phones easily clear that, but heavy cropping or a low-quality screenshot can drop you below the threshold.
Where to send it. When we email you about a flagged photo, the message includes a one-click secure upload link tied to your application file — no need to re-fill the form, no need to re-attach to a brand-new submission. You hit the link, drag the new JPEG in, hit submit, and we resubmit on your behalf at no extra charge. The full Cambodia eVisa resubmission guide for Australians covers the resubmission flow for every type of fix, not just photo.
The chemist alternative — if you'd rather not DIY
If the phone retake feels like more trouble than it is worth, or you do not have anyone home to hold the phone, the Australian chemist passport-photo route is a reliable fallback. Cost runs $15 to $25 AUD depending on the chemist and the city, the turnaround is usually under 20 minutes in-store, and the resulting photo is already compliant with the Australian passport spec, which sits very close to the Cambodian one. Most metro pharmacies offer it as a walk-in service, and on a normal weekday you are in and out inside half an hour, photos in hand.
A few small things to mention at the counter when you ask. Tell the assistant the photo is for a digital visa application, not just an AU passport renewal — that signals you also want the digital file, not only the printed strip. Some chemists email you the file directly, which saves the photographing-the-print step entirely; others only print, which is fine but means you do the conversion step at home. Ask for two prints in case the first scan does not crop cleanly. The cost is the same either way.
The conversion from a printed AU chemist photo to a Cambodia-compliant digital file is simple: lay one of the prints flat on a clean white surface, photograph it directly from above with your phone in even daylight, crop tight to the photo edges, export as JPEG under 2 MB, and upload through the secure link. The Cambodia eVisa photo at chemist Australia guide covers which chains do them, what to ask for at the counter, and the cropping step in full.
One last note on the chemist route. The recency rule still applies — Cambodian Immigration wants a photo taken within the last 6 months, not a leftover from when you renewed your Australian passport in 2023. If you have spare passport-photo prints in a drawer from a recent AU renewal, brilliant; if not, get a new one taken. The full Cambodia eVisa photo requirements for Australians piece covers every spec the validator checks against, including the recency rule.
A Cambodia eVisa photo rejection looks scarier in the inbox than it is in real life. Eight fail patterns, all of them fixable in under ten minutes, and through us every resubmission is free with a plain-English email naming the exact spec that flagged. Plain white wall, daylight from the side, partner holding the phone, glasses off, mouth closed, JPEG under 2 MB. That is the entire job. The wider Cambodia eVisa rejected what to do guide for Australians covers the non-photo rejection causes if you want the full troubleshooting tree.
One last reminder. The photo is one piece in a slightly longer chain — passport validity, the bio-page scan, the e-Arrival Card filed within 7 days of your flight. The Cambodia eVisa documents required for Australians explainer covers the full checklist, and the Do Australians Need a Visa for Cambodia piece is the right starting point if you are still mapping out the trip. Smartraveller's Cambodia advisory is worth a five-minute read for the current safety and health context, and the DFAT passport guidance is the cleanest source if you are renewing your passport at the same time.
My Cambodia eVisa photo was rejected — what do I do?
Retake against a plain white wall in daylight, no glasses, no smile, neutral expression — 5 minutes on a phone is usually enough. Through us, resubmission is free and we email you in plain English naming the exact spec that flagged. Reply to that email with the new JPEG file (under 2 MB) via the secure upload link, and we resubmit on your behalf. The new 3-business-day Immigration clock starts when the corrected file lands.
Why does Cambodia reject photos with glasses?
Cambodian Immigration's auto-validator checks every uploaded photo for eyewear before any case officer sees it, and any glasses — prescription, reading, sunglasses, even thin clear frames or pushed-up readers — get the file flagged. The reason is fraud prevention: glasses obscure facial landmarks the validator uses to match against the passport bio-page photo. Around 30% of Aussie photo rejections are glasses-related. The fix is simple — take them off, place them out of frame, retake.
Will my Aussie passport photo work for the Cambodia eVisa?
Yes, if it was taken within the last 6 months. The Australian passport spec (35×45 mm, plain white background, neutral expression, no glasses since 2020) sits very close to the Cambodian one (4×6 cm). Lay a spare AU chemist passport print flat on a clean white surface, photograph it from directly above in even daylight, crop tight to the photo edges, export as JPEG under 2 MB, and upload. If your AU passport is older than 6 months, the print is too — you will need a fresh one.
How do I convert HEIC to JPEG?
On iPhone, open the photo in the Photos app, tap share, pick Mail or Files, and select 'Most Compatible' in the share menu — that forces a JPEG export. Alternatively, in the Files app, tap-and-hold the photo and pick 'Save As' with JPEG selected. On Mac, open in Preview and use File > Export > JPEG. On Android, the Photos app exports JPEG by default, so this is rarely an issue. Online converters work too if your phone fights you, but native export is faster and keeps the file private.
Can I smile in my Cambodia eVisa photo?
No. Neutral expression only — closed mouth or just barely parted, no visible teeth, no upturned mouth corners. The Cambodian validator flags any photo where it detects a smile, and around 15% of Aussie photo rejections come from this single rule. The instinctive friendly half-smile most Australians default to for any camera is exactly what gets caught. Practice a relaxed neutral face in the mirror for thirty seconds before you shoot — it feels stiff but photographs naturally.
What's the white-background rule, exactly?
Plain pure white — not cream, not magnolia, not eggshell, not pale grey. Standard Australian rental walls are painted in off-white shades that read as white to the eye but fail the validator's background-colour check. The quick test: hold a sheet of plain A4 printer paper against the wall. If the paper looks distinctly whiter than the wall, the wall will fail. The rescue is a clean white bedsheet pinned flat against any door, pulled tight to remove creases, photographed in daylight.
Do I have to pay again to retake the photo?
Through us, no — free photo resubmission is built into the all-in $80 USD (~$122 AUD) tourist or $90 USD (~$137 AUD) business price. You do not see a second charge on your card. Through the direct government portal, a rejection is generally treated as requiring a fresh submission, which typically means a fresh fee — so the assisted route is materially cheaper once rejections enter the picture, which they do for roughly 30% of self-filed Aussie photos.
How long does the new photo take to be checked?
Once the corrected JPEG reaches Cambodian Immigration via our resubmission, the standard 3-business-day processing clock restarts. Most photo resubmissions clear inside 24-48 hours, since the rest of the file is already complete and pre-checked. End-to-end timeline from the original rejection email to the approved PDF landing in your inbox is typically 2-4 business days. If you applied with the recommended one-week buffer before your flight, you will still have time to spare.
Hannah leads the Rejection & Resubmission desk at VisaToCambodia. She has logged every Cambodian Immigration rejection pattern Australians have hit since 2021 and writes the playbook the team uses to get flagged applications back on track.
