Irish Passport Card

Who thought it was a good idea to force the use of a popup calendar to enter date of birth? Requires interminable tapping back a month at a time to get to birth year. Similarly with scrolling country selection.

Although available for download on the Google Play app store, it is impossible to get the app to recognise your face on an Android device and is therefore not possible to use if you are using an Android device. Very frustrating. I had waited 6 months to see if the Passport Office would iron out this bug, but alas, no. :@

Impossible to take the photo. Is there any other way to apply for the card? App has a lot of faults at the moment

Useless app which uniquely sums up the Irish State and its utter incompetence. The fact that this excuse for an app was released as it currently operates is merely one more example of how this whimsical nonsense-country fails to do ANYTHING properly. The photo is impossible to upload. Complete joke app, for a complete joke of a country.

After about 30 attempts to take my photo - adhering to the guidelines, using 3 different Android devices and a variety of different lighting and backgrounds - I gave up.

Like previous reviews I gave over an hour with my galaxy s5 trying to take the proper photo, I gave up and used an I phone and completed the process in 10 minutes.

Took countless amount of photos in the best conditions (indoors & out) I could possibly find, without going to a professional photographer. Camera skills aren't the worst and using a galaxy s5, so camera is definitely up to the job. Still can't get my mug approved by the app though.

Great idea. But it's unclear why it's so difficult to get the photo right. Got my card and its great, but photo very dark.

Wait for an upgrade. The camera function (or lack of) is beyond ridiculous. Just don't bother until the existing photo on the passport book can be used.

It did the thing. Took me four tries to take my picture but I thought that was vvery reasonable. Some of the layout could be clearer but otherwise grand

Great idea but Photo section takes too long to work and could be much easier. Allowing camera reversal would help so someone else can take the photo. Please fix.

Cant get past photo section waist of time'in a well lit area still wont accept photos with13mp camera worst app ever

For those who don't have a professional photoshoot lighting setup, this is fiddly. Would not initially accept any combination of lighting I tried. Edit: tried again and for some reason it accepted a glossy whiteish background immediately, average artificial light indoors with a kitchen cupboard door as the background (try a fridge door?). Took multiple shots to check and it had no problem accepting them. Good luck!

I have tried all types of backgrounds, lighting, different phones, wasted over two hours and still no ID, I can't believe the our Government wasted our taxpayers money on this, whoever authorised this app should be sacked.

After repeated attempts in daylight, outside, inside, different backgrounds, different lighting scenarios, STILL could not get it to accept my picture! Very poor software

Thought the app was fantastic but tried so many times. App won't let me go to payment. Page was blank and only previous step button seen on the last page. No info, whatsoever.

Get to the final stage and then won't load payment page. Forced to use app but why not simple mobile readable web page

It just doesn't work on nexus4 running 5.1.1 or nexus5 running 6.0.1 - what is the point of this app? After ticking 'applying for first passport card', the 'next step' radio button does not respond - the cancel button does!!!

Used same photo I applied for actual passport with and it failed. Multiple attempts to take photo via app failed....just click a button and use photo from passport...surely that's all we need

Must have tried taking photos 50 times in a variety of different light conditions and with different backgrounds, all failed even though the final images look better than my actual passport photo. Annoying as hell.

I got my passport card through this app. Amazing.... everything went well, so easy to use... taking photo is bit tricky.....but got it right after few try. I understood is that when we take photos with our front camera of the phone its little tricky to get in correct angle/ position. Bcoz when we try to look into the camera some how our eyes wont look straight..reason is we will be looking to the camera as well as the phone screen...It works well with android as mine is an android phone.

Wasted over two hours trying to get passed the photo section in the process using an android 6.0 phone. Borrowed an iPhone and was finished in five minutes. I wouldn't have been as annoyed had it been stated that the app only works with IOS hence not wasting people's time. One star rating until this is sorted, five star if you are fortunate enough to be using an iPhone for this task.

Everything seemed to be working so well until of course when you try taking a proto. You will do this once and then another 1000 time's. Very frustrating to use. From reading the other reviews it the same issue, why can't your existing photo be used tell me. So disappointed I won't be able to use this card for travelling home at Christmas!

My Sony Xperia Z2 couldnt match the criteria for the picture. Tried the exact same picture conditions (location/lighting etc) on my work iPhone and it worked first time. It's seems development wasn't completed to incorporate all makes of phones.

Spent over 30 mins trying to take a pic with all of the pre requisite and conditions, took it outdoors with white background and indoors work lights fully on and kept getting error about light. Rediculous! ! Typical of the irish government half baking a good idea

Tried several times to take the photo. White background. Very well lit area. Eyes in green box. Chin on line. But still "Invalid Photo". Every time. No indication what was wrong. Was it light, eyes, chin, background. Just invalid photo. This app could be very useful but needs serious work.

Unfortunately, as expected from anything from the Irish state. All promise and no substance. Cheap and nasty app. Impossible to take photo (got a pro. phothographer to try) pure muck, an April's fool joke for sure.

Camera function is very glitchy. Have to press capture 2-3 times in order for it to take. Then of course it rejects every picture. Ive stood in numerous rooms and tried false and natural lighting but still rejected for lighting. Stood outside in the middle of the day whilst my sister held a large white towel behind me and still rejected for being too dark? Unfortunately I do not live on the sun I can't do much better than day time lighting and 100 watt bulbs.

If all government services were as good as this we'd be laughing. Not sure why some people find it difficult to get an accepted photo as mine went through first time. The app itself is well designed and clear.

Simply doesn't work. Under all lighting conditions I get the error message about lighting. Tried several times and dozens of photos before giving up

I struggled for ages with this app, it wouldn't work at all, my photograph wouldn't validate. Eventually, I got it to work when I shaved. I didn't even have a huge beard, maybe a month of growth. Definitely needs removal of the whole validation thing, I should be able to send off any photo I want, and if it happens to be rejected, that's my problem.

Should be able to use current passport photo. Spent to long following instructions to the letter and couldn't validate the photo with or without glasses. Not shaving off my beard either in case the software can't tell that I know where my chin is. Funny thing is every photo I took looked like me I was even looking at the camera. Do something about the photograph criteria in this ap. Android device.

Must of takin my pic 1000 times and still sayin need a well lite area i even wint out side and took it against a white van and still said plain back ground and well lite area only problem is takin ur pic other then dat its no problem straight forward

Photo app 'strongly recommends you remove your glasses' how the hell do you expect someone who doesn't use contact lenses to take a selfie without their glasses on??? Over an hour of trying, photo app rejected every photo except the one that no more looked like me, it was a truly awful photo, worst ever, I gave up on it, not good for self esteem

Agree with previous comments. I have a recently issued Passport Book, but can't use/access the photo from that, which would surely make sense?! Of course, like everyone else, my smartphone photography didn't make the grade as the photos were not a perfect white and/or my glasses were not liked by the software. Bottom line: it's an excellent idea to have created this utility, but please make it WORK before unleashing it on the public. 1 star until photo clearance is completely overhauled. Update 24/11: glasses off, adjusted light beaming onto the white background, had assistance from someone, multiple tries...then finally it accepted the photo. I would STILL firmly be in favour of a "use my official passport photo" button to avoid all the hassle. Upgrading to 2 stars.

Got my passport card in the post today. Agree with other posters in that the camera portion is a bit fiddly. Of course I'm not going to use it again for another 5 years...

Tried to get photo accepted, sunlight spotlights all types of lighting not acceptable app useless unless they change this. Still useless with the so called bug fixes,

Apart from steadfastly refusing to accept the photo, the camera controls are glitchy. The Android app was obviously an afterthought - even the app icon is just the iTunesArtwork reused. I wonder how it got all the five star reviews from people with surnames popular in the Bangalore area!

After a dozen attempts, always gives message — "Ensure that your picture is taken in a well-lit area with a plain white background". This is in a bright room with newly painted white walls, halogen bulbs & multiple house lamps to remove any shadows (& running Nexus 5 on Marshmallow). This version is literally unusable until they fix the photo issues or provide an upload option

Photograph impossible. Why not use existing photo. After all you have to have an existing passport