Photo for application - same as in ID ?

[obormot]

A colleague recently sent her application for EU PR, and then realized the photo she sent was the same she made for her ID about a year ago (and she sent to HO that same ID card).
I believe HO requires “recent” photo, and they clearly would observe that her one is not recent.
But would they reject her application because of that? Or would they contact her instead for a newer photo?
I found some text saying that in case of bad photo they are supposed to contact applicant and give them a single opportunity to “rectify” it; here:
Third party immigration weblink removed by moderator

Should she just send preventively a newer photo separately to them (citing her case number)?
Had anybody hear about such a case?

[kamoe]

I don't know for sure. We have a similar case in which my partner sent the same picture he used for a Russian visa issued last year (obviously in his passport). This might or might not be visible for the case worker, and might or might not cause them to ask for a new photograph. In the meantime, we plan to simply wait and see. It doesn't seem reasonable to believe the HO is going to create more work for themselves because of pictures that are only a year old. Then again, you never know.

Bit of a funny fact: my partner's picture, the one he just sent, is not that much different from the picture he sent two years ago for his QP certificate. He even has the same shirt and haircut, and if you see both pictures at a glance you could think they are the same, when they are not, and are a year apart. So there you go. The more reason for the HO not to make a fuss.

If at all we have a problem we'll post it here!

[NikiGio]

Yes, I've heard about a number of cases like this on another immigration forum on Facebook. It's quite possible that the HO will reject the application, although I've also read of cases where somebody sent the same photos as the photo on their ID, and they accepted the application - maybe the case worker didn't notice. In your colleague's shoes, I think I would write a letter quoting her case number, attach new photos and send it recorded delivery.

[obormot]

Well, I advised her to send new photos, and she did a few days ago.
It would be intersting though to find a real case which was refused because of that. I found several cases where people say “I sent an old picture, but still got approved”, but no case where someone said “they refused ME because of old photo”. Just generic statements of a type “oh, those cases are routinely refused”, which is not much more then a hearsay.

[obormot]

PR application for my partner and kids was approved yesterday - and looking at their resident cards I realised that the photos we sent are the same as on their French ID cards we sent as proofs of identity (and those ID cards were issued about a year ago!)

My colleague is still waiting for her result...

[NikiGio]

Great news - congrats! One down, one to go.

Bizarre about the photo IDs - seems to be a random thing then, whether the HO case workers invalidate or not based on re-use of a past photo. Good thing they accepted your partners' photo.

[kamoe]

Completely unscientific comment based purely on my uneducated guess: They probably reject the pictures they reject because they are bad pictures from the start: damaged, wrong size, wrong background color, etc., not because they've been used before (e.g. if the picture was new and good two years ago, then if tried to use again today but has staple holes in it, glue, dirt, etc).

[kamoe]

My partner just got his PR certificate, my RC should arrive within 10 days.

No issues whatsoever re. picture.

[NikiGio]

Congrats Kamoe, great news and glad all went smoothly