Resize for Passport Photo — Official Sizes

Photo Size Requirements by Country

Every country sets its own figures, and they disagree in both directions. 4 of the rows below enforce a minimum file size as well as a maximum, which is worth reading carefully — Canada's online passport renewal rejects anything under 200 KB, Australia's online citizenship application under 70 KB, the UK anything under 50 KB, and Indian exam portals set a floor as low as 10 KB. For those applications, compressing a photo as small as it will go is exactly the wrong move.

One country also sets its own figures more than once. Canada publishes a separate specification per application, and they do not match: online passport renewal wants 200 KB to 5 MB, a citizenship application asks for roughly 240 KB at 420×540 pixels or larger, and a permanent resident photo sets no minimum file size at all. Check the page for the form you are actually filling in.

Official means we read the figure on the government's own page and recorded the date. Unverified means it comes from upload portals or third-party summaries and we have not been able to confirm it against a primary source — treat those 2 as indicative only (Germany and India).

How to Resize for Passport

1. Upload your photo — Use a well-lit, front-facing photo with a plain background.
2. Set dimensions — Enter the pixel dimensions from the table above, or pick your country and form from the requirement list in the tool and they are filled in for you.
3. Set your size limits — Tick "Compress to target file size" and enter the maximum. If your country also states a minimum, tick "Also keep it above a minimum size" so the result lands inside the band instead of below it.
4. Choose JPEG format — Most passport applications require JPEG.
5. Download and submit — Your resized photo is ready for online applications.

Common Passport Photo Rejection Reasons

Government agencies reject passport photo submissions more often than most people expect. Understanding the common reasons helps you avoid delays in your application process:

1. Wrong pixel dimensions or aspect ratio. Each country specifies its own. The US requires 600×600 and insists the photo be square; India's Passport Seva wants 630×810; the UK sets 600×750 as a minimum; Canada asks for at least 715×1000. Being off by a few pixels can trigger automatic rejection. Resize to the exact specified dimensions, not "close enough."
2. File too large — or too small. A 5 MB photo straight from a phone is rejected instantly by a US visa application (240 KB cap) or an Indonesian e-Visa (200 KB). But over-compressing is its own failure: Canada's online passport renewal rejects anything under 200 KB, HM Passport Office anything under 50 KB, and Australian online citizenship anything under 70 KB. Our compress to exact KB tool can hold a floor as well as a ceiling — though for those three countries, all of which require an unaltered photo, use it to confirm a file is inside the band rather than to compress one into it.
3. Face not properly centered or sized. The proportion is specified as often as the pixel size, and the figures differ: France asks for the face to be 70–80% of the picture measured chin to forehead, the US for 50–69%, and Indonesia for the head including hair to fill 50–60% of the image height with the eyes 50–60% of the way up. If your head is too small (taken from far away) or too large (extreme close-up), no amount of resizing fixes it — this is a composition problem to solve before you crop.
4. Wrong background color. There is no universally safe choice here, so check your own country rather than assuming white. The US requires plain white or off-white — but France explicitly forbids it, asking for a plain light-colored background such as light blue or light gray. The UK asks for a plain light-colored background you contrast clearly against, Australia for a neutral or light gray one, and Indonesia's SSCASN system specifies red. Shadows on the background, colored walls and busy environments cause rejections whichever country you are applying to.
5. Shadows on face or background. Overhead lighting creates shadows under the nose and chin. Side lighting creates uneven shadows across the face. Both are grounds for rejection. Use front-facing natural light or two light sources to eliminate harsh shadows.
6. Glasses, hats, or head coverings. Most countries now require glasses to be removed entirely (the US changed this rule in 2016). Hats and head coverings are not allowed unless for documented religious reasons. Even light-tinted glasses with no visible glare can trigger rejection.

What Each Country Asks For

The general workflow is the same everywhere — get the composition right, then set dimensions and file size — so what follows is the part that actually differs. Each heading links straight to the tool with that country's requirement already applied.

Where these figures come from. Official (7) — read on the issuing authority’s own page or PDF, on the date shown; where we captured the exact URL the label links to it. Our conversion (2) — our own conversion of a figure the authority published in other units — France states millimeters rather than pixels, and the US caps the compression ratio rather than publishing a minimum file size. The arithmetic is ours, so treat it as a sanity check rather than a published limit. Reported (2) — widely reported by third parties but not confirmed on the issuing portal — Germany publishes no national file-size ceiling of its own, and the Indian figure comes from third-party guides rather than Passport Seva. Confirm those two against the form in front of you.

Beyond the numbers, a few country-specific rules catch people out. The United States requires a square photo (State Department spec), so a standard portrait crop is rejected no matter how well sized the file is. The UK asks for a plain light-colored background with your face in clear contrast to it, while France goes the other way and forbids white outright. Indonesia's SSCASN system specifies a red background for civil service registration — though notably not for its passport, which is a good illustration of why the document matters more than the country. Schengen file size ceilings are the least standardized figures on this page: they are set per member state and per outsourcer rather than centrally, so the French and German numbers in the table are portal reports rather than published national rules. France's own photo pages state the size in millimeters and never mention kilobytes at all.

Some countries also state the framing as a proportion rather than a measurement, which no resizing tool can fix after the fact. Indonesia asks that the head including hair down to the chin fills 50–60% of the image height, with the eyes sitting 50–60% of the way up from the bottom. Australia and Canada specify a chin-to-crown range instead. If your photo fails one of these, it needs retaking rather than resizing.

Print vs Digital Requirements

Passport photo requirements come in two forms, and confusing them is a common source of mistakes:

• Physical print size (measured in mm or inches): This is the actual paper dimension when you print the photo. 35×45mm is the most widely used print size — across the Schengen area, the UK, India and much of Asia. The US is the main exception at 2×2 inches (51×51mm), and Indonesia uses 4×6cm. These measurements apply when you submit a physical paper photo at an embassy or passport office.
• Digital upload size (measured in pixels and KB): This is what matters for online applications. The pixel count determines clarity at print resolution (300 DPI is standard). For example, 35×45mm at 300 DPI equals approximately 413×531 pixels. India specifies 630×810 pixels because they expect a slightly higher 457 DPI for clearer prints. The file size limit (in KB) is a separate constraint from dimensions.
• Why this matters: If you resize a photo to 35×45 pixels (confusing mm with px), you'll get a microscopic, unusable image. If you resize to 2×2 pixels thinking those are inches, same problem. Always use the pixel values from our table above for digital submissions, and use mm/inch values only when sizing for physical printing.