Canada photo guide

Canada passport photo glasses medical exemption: what IRCC's own wording actually says

Canada has banned glasses from passport photos since 2017, and the medical exemption that exists alongside that ban is real but narrower than it's sometimes described. IRCC's own published guidance is direct on this point: if you can't meet the photo requirements for medical reasons, you explain the reasons in writing when you apply. That's the actual official wording, which is somewhat broader than the "you must obtain a signed doctor's note" framing that circulates in a lot of secondary guides. Both descriptions point toward the same underlying expectation — a written explanation establishing the medical basis — but knowing the official phrasing helps set realistic expectations about what's actually required versus what's commonly recommended as the safest practice.

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KeywordCanada passport photo glasses medical exemption

UpdatedJun 28, 2026

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The practical answer

For a standard Canadian passport photo, glasses of any kind — prescription, reading, tinted, or sunglasses — are not permitted, and this rule has applied since 2017. If you genuinely cannot remove your glasses for medical reasons, IRCC's guidance directs you to explain the reasons in writing when you apply. In practice, the most reliable way to do this is with a written statement that includes enough specific medical detail to establish why removal isn't possible — and while IRCC's own wording doesn't explicitly mandate that this come from a doctor on letterhead, a signed explanation from a medical professional is widely treated as the strongest and most reliably accepted version of that written explanation, which is why most guidance, official and unofficial alike, points people toward getting one. If you do proceed with glasses on this basis, the technical standard for how they appear in the photo is specific: your eyes must be clearly visible, and there must be no glare on the lenses. Beyond the basic written explanation, this means frames thin enough not to obscure any part of the eye, and lenses that are genuinely transparent with no tint and no visible reflection. This is a meaningfully different rule from Canadian visa photos, which follow a separate specification. For Canadian visa applications — visitor visas, study permits, work permits — non-tinted prescription glasses are permitted as a standard option, not just as a medical exemption, as long as your eyes remain clearly visible and there's no glare. This is the single most common point of confusion for anyone preparing photos for more than one type of Canadian application around the same time: a visa photo taken with glasses on, following the visa specification correctly, would not be valid for a passport application, which prohibits glasses outright except under the narrower medical pathway. IRCC's published guidance also addresses several other situations under the same general "explain the reasons in writing" framework, separate from glasses specifically. If you use a wheelchair, part of the headrest may appear in the photo — IRCC's own example suggests placing a white blanket behind your head to maintain a clean background while still showing your facial features and the edges of your face clearly. If you wear medical headwear or a nasal cannula for medical reasons, this is accommodated as well, and IRCC notes they may ask for a letter from your doctor in some cases, rather than stating this is universally and immediately required for every such accommodation.

Where people get surprised

The most common surprise is realizing that the official IRCC wording is somewhat more flexible than the "you need a signed doctor's note" version repeated across many independent guides. The official phrasing is "explain the reasons in writing when you apply" — which is genuinely broader language than a mandatory medical certificate requirement. That said, this isn't a loophole worth relying on casually: a written explanation that doesn't carry real medical weight is unlikely to be persuasive if your application is reviewed closely, which is exactly why the practical consensus across professional photo services and immigration guidance is to get an actual signed letter from a doctor whenever possible, even though IRCC's own minimum wording is technically less specific than that. The second thing that catches people, and this is probably the more consequential mistake in practice, is assuming the passport glasses rule and the visa glasses rule are the same. They aren't. Visa photos permit non-tinted prescription glasses as a standard, available-to-everyone option — no medical exemption needed, just clear lenses and no glare. Passport photos prohibit glasses entirely except through the narrow medical pathway. Someone going through a multi-step Canadian immigration process — a study permit followed later by a passport application, for instance — who reuses a visa-compliant photo with glasses for their passport application is using a photo that fails the stricter passport standard, even though it was entirely correct for its original purpose. The third surprise, relevant to a smaller group of applicants, is how specifically IRCC frames accommodations for wheelchairs and certain medical equipment. The wheelchair example — placing a white blanket behind your head rather than trying to engineer a way to keep the wheelchair's headrest fully out of frame — is a specific, named suggestion in IRCC's own materials, not something applicants need to improvise. Similarly, the guidance around medical headwear and nasal cannulas treats a doctor's letter as something IRCC "may ask for" in some circumstances, rather than framing it as a blanket universal requirement for every accommodation request — though, as with glasses, having that letter ready in advance is generally the safer approach if your situation falls into a category examiners might want to verify. The fourth point worth knowing concerns children specifically. The same general medical-exception framework applies to children's passport photos as to adults', and IRCC's guidance specifically notes that younger infants may have their eyes closed when older children and adults would be expected to have eyes open — this is a separate, age-based accommodation rather than something tied to the glasses or medical-headwear exemption process, but it's worth knowing it exists if you're preparing a passport photo for a very young child and unsure how strictly the standard expression and eye-visibility rules apply at that age.

How PassSnap fits

For the large majority of Canadian passport applicants without a medical exemption, PassSnap's optional AI verify step flags glasses in the frame to help confirm they've been removed before the photo is exported — separate from the studio documentation step that Canadian passport photos require regardless of the glasses question. For applicants with a genuine medical basis for keeping glasses on, PassSnap's guided capture still helps check the technical conditions IRCC's standard requires — confirming the eyes are clearly visible and watching for glare on the lenses — which matters because a written medical explanation establishes the basis for the exemption, but the photo itself still needs to meet the visibility and glare standard independently.

If you need the medical exemption for glasses

Write your explanation, or arrange for your doctor to write it, in specific enough terms to establish why your glasses genuinely cannot be removed for the photo — not simply that you wear them daily or that your vision is significantly impaired without them. While IRCC's own wording technically just asks for a written explanation, a statement that carries real medical specificity and ideally comes on a doctor's letterhead is the version most consistently treated as sufficient in practice.

Confirm whether the application you're preparing is a passport application or a visa application before deciding how to handle glasses at all. If it's a visa application, non-tinted prescription glasses are simply permitted as standard — no exemption process needed. If it's a passport application, the much narrower medical exemption pathway is the only route to keeping glasses on, and the written explanation needs to address that specific, stricter standard.

If your situation involves a wheelchair, consider IRCC's own suggested approach of placing a white blanket behind your head rather than trying to engineer a way to keep the wheelchair's headrest fully out of frame. This keeps the background reasonably clean while accommodating the practical reality of the seating setup.

If you use medical headwear or a nasal cannula, have a letter from your doctor available even if your specific situation might not strictly require one upfront, since IRCC notes they may ask for this kind of documentation in some cases, and having it ready avoids a delay if it's requested partway through processing.

Once you have your documentation in order, treat the actual photo session the same way you would for any glasses-related medical exemption: light the face from directly in front to minimize glare risk, take several shots, and check the lens area closely at full resolution on a larger screen before deciding the image is ready to submit alongside your written explanation.

FAQ

Do IRCC require a signed doctor's note for the Canadian passport glasses medical exemption, or just a written explanation?

IRCC's own published wording asks you to explain the reasons in writing when you apply, which is technically broader than a mandatory doctor's-letter requirement. In practice, though, a written explanation carrying real medical detail — and ideally on a doctor's letterhead — is the version most consistently treated as adequate, since a vague or unsubstantiated explanation is unlikely to hold up if your application is reviewed closely. Most independent guidance recommends getting an actual doctor's letter for this reason, even though the official minimum standard is somewhat less specific.

Can I use a photo with glasses that I took for a Canadian visa application as my passport photo?

No, not reliably. Canadian visa photos permit non-tinted prescription glasses as a standard option available to everyone, with no medical exemption required — just clear lenses, visible eyes, and no glare. Canadian passport photos prohibit glasses entirely except through the much narrower medical exemption pathway. A photo correctly prepared under the visa specification, with glasses on, does not meet the stricter passport standard unless you separately qualify for and document the medical exemption.

I use a wheelchair and my headrest is visible in the background. Will my passport photo be rejected?

Not necessarily, if you handle the background the way IRCC's own guidance suggests: placing a white blanket behind your head to keep the background reasonably uniform while still clearly showing your facial features and the edges of your face. This is a specific accommodation IRCC names directly rather than something you need to work around independently, and it doesn't require a separate medical exemption process the way the glasses rule does.