A security company or licensing firm can send an officer to a post with a usable photograph when it keeps three files apart: the licence photo the regulator allows, the company ID, and the client site badge. Name the file before anyone uploads, send the person to the camera that file allows, and store an end date with the copy the company keeps. The regulator still issues the licence. The site still decides who comes through.
This guide is for licensing, operations, and the person who produces a photograph when an inspector or a client asks. Payroll staff in Workday or SAP SuccessFactors follow the HR badge guide. An officer from a staffing firm follows the staffing photo guide. A hospital that badges your officer follows the hospital badge guide. This page is the security company and the licensing firm. Starting from $0.20 per photo.
What does mixing the three photographs cost?
The cost is a licence that does not move, a branch that cannot show a photograph when an inspector asks, or an officer at a client gate with the wrong card. One JPEG cannot serve all three. The table uses published rules from the UK, New York, California, and Texas. Other states publish their own. Read the current page before you copy a step. These bodies are not IDPhoto.ai customers. Texas describes the dollar figures as guideline maximums.
| File | Who holds the camera | What goes wrong if you substitute |
|---|---|---|
| UK SIA front line licence | Post Office or employer, when the next-steps message says so. An applicant-supplied photo stays unedited. | The application does not move. Fee £204 from 1 April 2026. Three years, or one year for a vehicle immobiliser licence. Worn as a photocard, with stated exceptions. Key holding is a letter. |
| New York registration | DMV. The Department of State will not take an uploaded photo. No New York photo ID means an image-only capture and the 9-digit number on the application. | Two-year registration. An uploaded portrait is unused. |
| California photo ID | PSI walk-in after the registration exists. No appointment. $5, Visa or Mastercard. Names must match. | The card is mailed to the address of record. BSIS says within two weeks. |
| Texas pocket card | DPS affixes the photo. The January 2025 card is laser-engraved in black and white. Rule 35.24: no photo on file means also show a government photo ID. | Guideline maximum $100 for failing to present the card on request in that case. Section 35.52 calls the figures maximums. |
| Texas company file | The company. Section 1702.127(c) requires two recent color photographs at the principal place or a branch. Rule 35.111 lists one color photograph kept two years after the last day of employment. | Guideline maximum $25 if it is missing. Confirm the current text. An inbox fails inspection. |
| Client site badge | The client’s template, when the client has asked the company to prepare it. | A mismatched window, or an end date that lives only in the scheduler. |
How do companies collect guard photos today?
Most desks still run on a webcam, a shared inbox, and one coordinator who remembers which state wanted what. A new hire emails a photo from a car. Someone crops it once and drops the same JPEG on the licence checklist, the company card, and the client badge form. A class portrait becomes the ID. Licence expiry, the last day of employment, and the assignment end sit in three systems, so a reprint uses whichever file is newest.
What does a split workflow look like?
Name the file before the first link goes out.
1. Write down who is allowed to hold the camera. Use the row in the table above. An employer applies for an SIA licence on someone’s behalf only as an SIA approved contractor. An applicant outside the UK is asked for a photo signed by a UK passport holder. The company camera is for the company file and for a client template the client has asked you to prepare.
2. Sort people by the record that already owns them. Licensing should build a checklist on the officer record. It should leave the roster where it already lives.
| Who | Where the record lives | What to do with the photo |
|---|---|---|
| Licence applicant | The regulator’s application | Follow that capture rule. Store the reference and the expiry. |
| Employed officer | The company record, and HR when Workday or SAP SuccessFactors already lists them | Company template, with the employment end date. Roster sync is available per request. |
| Officer from a staffing firm | The assignment | The card you issue, with the assignment end date. |
| Officer at a client site | The scheduling record | The client’s template and the date the post ends. |
| Class student, or an officer who also needs a visa | The class roster, or that document’s own file | Keep the class portrait on the class record until hire. A visa or passport file follows the immigration guide and stays off the company card. |
3. Collect the company and client files on one link, or on a camera at the branch. The badge photo service can email a unique link. The person uploads from a phone with no extra account, and the link expires after use. That portal is available per request. Contact support@idphoto.ai. Keep a branch camera for a rejected capture. The licence path stays a checklist item with an address, separate from this link.
4. Match the face, and reject a bad capture in the same visit. One person, in colour, in focus, even light, both shoulders. A religious head covering worn daily can stay when the face is visible. Background removal applies the template’s background. Photo enhancement can lift a dark branch portrait when that card’s policy allows it. Leave an SIA photo the applicant supplies, and a US or UK passport photograph, unedited. Follow the U.S. Department of State, and meet GOV.UK photo rules. A UK passport photo code retrieves a photograph that meets those rules. HM Passport Office still decides. Flag a missing face, light, blur, framing, glasses, or a turned head while the person is there. A face-mask check is available per request. The common mistakes guide is what you send back.
5. Write each file to the officer record with the date it should stop. A clean check means those capture problems were not reported. The regulator and the client still decide. On a replacement, face comparison returns a match decision and a similarity score. Liveness detection is available per request. See biometric verification. The supervisor still matches the person to the card. Retry a failed write. Keeping photos in your own storage covers taking the copy back, or a temporary link of 2 hours to 14 days.
6. Run a batch only inside one specification. Batch preparation fits new hires on the company template and returns a retake list. The licence photo, the company ID, and the client badge stay in separate batches.
Company card stock is often ID-1, nominally 85.60 mm by 53.98 mm under ISO/IEC 7810, and the photo window is smaller than the card. Texas Occupations Code section 1702.130 prohibits an identification meant to suggest a government connection, including the word “police.” Confirm the current wording before print.
Where do guard photos usually fail?
These breaks show up after the officer was due on post, or when someone asks to see the file.
| What fails | What to change |
|---|---|
| One selfie is cropped for the licence, the company ID, and the site badge | Split the files before the link goes out. Each file names its camera and its end date. |
| The officer is sent to a California PSI site too early, or under a different name | Confirm the registration, the name, and the address of record before the walk-in. |
| The branch cannot show a color photograph on inspection | Store the company file where the principal place or the branch can open it. A personal inbox is not that place. |
| The company card is designed to look official in a government sense | Use the company name. In Texas, keep “police” and a government-style title off the card. Confirm the current statute. |
| The client badge still looks current after the assignment ends | Store the end date with that photo. The site still controls the door. |
| A class portrait is printed as the company ID | Prepare a new file on the company template after the person is hired. |
What should a company require from a vendor?
Licensing and operations can share one shortlist. The vendor prepares the files the company is allowed to prepare.
| What you need | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| A specification per card you print | Size, crop, background, and glasses. A missing template can be added. The regulator’s card is outside this list. |
| A block on forbidden edits | An applicant-supplied SIA photo, and a US or UK passport photograph, stay unedited. |
| Rejection before a manual crop | Face, light, blur, framing, glasses, and a turned head, while the person is still there. A face-mask check when you ask for it. |
| A path for officers on a site | One link per person, in the company’s name, no extra account, expired after use. A branch camera stays for a rejected capture. |
| The officer record | The file returns with the date that card should stop. Workday or SAP SuccessFactors sync is available per request for people those systems already list. |
| A check a supervisor can explain | Face comparison and liveness detection are available per request. The supervisor still matches the person. The licence decision stays with the regulator. |
Who may see an officer’s photograph?
The officer, licensing staff, and the branch that must show the company photographs on inspection may see the company file. The client’s badge office sees the site file for the length of the assignment. A publicity photograph uses a separate consent. Other Texas employee-record fields, such as a Social Security number, stay in the system that already holds them.
Keep the lasting copy on the officer record, on your retention schedule, including the Texas duty to keep photographs available at the principal place or a branch. In the UK and the EU the portrait falls under the GDPR. In California it is personal information under the CCPA. The data privacy policy describes encrypted transmission, temporary storage from 2 hours to 14 days, or taking the image so nothing is retained on the service, and compliance with the GDPR and the CCPA. US and EU processing are available. Other regions are available per request. Tell officers what each file is for, who sees it, and how long you keep it. A publicity photograph uses a separate consent.
How do you roll this out at one branch?
Write the three-file rule before the first link. For one branch, name the company template, the licence paths you actually file, and one client’s window. Write which date stops each file: licence expiry, last day of employment, and the day the assignment ends.
Run one week of new hires on the company template only. Name one owner who can decide, the same day, whether a person stays on the new path. Anyone who still cannot produce a clear capture reaches a person at the branch. Print one card on that branch’s printer, or confirm print and mailing with support before you promise paper. Print and mailing is available per request.
Add the client template after a write has held. Prove a clean upload, a retake, and a write that fails once and is retried. Then print one site badge on the client’s printer before you send links for that site. Open Workday or SAP SuccessFactors for employed officers only after support has confirmed that connection. Leave the regulator’s capture on the checklist. The Shopify store template, with one-click setup, is available per request for a public passport-photo counter, which stays off the officer record.
What do licensing and operations leads ask?
Can a security company upload its own photo for a New York guard registration?
The Department of State says the DMV produces the card from the image on file. Without a current New York photo driver license or non-driver ID, the person completes an image-only capture and writes the 9-digit number on the application. Upload a company or client file on a different path.
Who takes the photograph for a UK SIA licence?
When the next-steps message names a Post Office or the employer, that place takes the photo. An employer applies on someone’s behalf only as an SIA approved contractor. A photo the applicant supplies must be in colour, a true likeness, head and upper shoulders, on a white or cream background, and not changed with computer software.
Is the company ID the same file as a Texas pocket card?
DPS affixes the pocket-card photograph. The January 2025 design is a black-and-white laser engraving. The company’s color photographs are a separate inspection file.
Should a company run background removal on an SIA photo the applicant supplies?
Leave it unchanged. GOV.UK forbids a computer alteration. Background removal and enhancement apply when the company or client template allows them. A separate UK passport photograph must meet GOV.UK photo rules and stay unedited.
What if the client site is a hospital?
Use the client’s template and store the assignment end date. The hospital follows its own badge path. The company photograph stays on the company record.
Can an officer on a site submit a company ID photo without visiting the branch?
Yes. Send one link, with no extra account, and expire it after use. It is available per request. Contact support@idphoto.ai. The regulator’s capture point still applies to the licence photo.
How does idphoto.ai fit this workflow?
idphoto.ai prepares a portrait to the company or client template you name, checks the capture, and returns a file for the officer record or the card printer. The regulator issues the licence. The site decides the door. Support can add the card you print. The catalog covers 300+ specifications across 200+ countries when an officer also needs a visa or passport file. Starting from $0.20 per photo. A UK passport photograph, when one is required, must meet GOV.UK photo rules. An SIA photograph the applicant supplies stays unedited.
The self-service link, Workday or SAP SuccessFactors sync, print and mailing, liveness detection, a face-mask check, another processing region, and the Shopify store template are each available per request. The company issues its own card. The regulator issues the licence. Email support@idphoto.ai with the card designs, which licence paths you file, how the file returns, and any client template that differs from the company ID.