Passport Photo Sizes by Country

Most countries use a 35 by 45 mm passport photo, while the United States, India and a few others use a square 51 by 51 mm format. Digital upload rules differ far more than print sizes do, with file caps ranging from 240 KB on some visa systems to 10 MB on others.

Passport and visa portals are stricter than exam portals, because the image passes automated face checks as well as a size check. Dimensions, aspect ratio, head position and file size are all enforced, and the error message is rarely specific about which check failed.

Passport photo sizes by country

Print size is stable and rarely changes, while digital limits change often, so confirm the file cap on the official application page before uploading. The values below reflect the requirements published by the major issuing authorities.

Two countries in that list are worth calling out. The United States uses a square photo, so a 35 by 45 mm European photo cropped to fit will place the head incorrectly. China combines small pixel dimensions with a tight file range, which is one of the few cases where a file can be refused for being too small as well as too large.

Converting millimetres to pixels

Multiply the millimetre size by the required dots per inch (DPI) and divide by 25.4. A 35 by 45 mm photo at 600 DPI works out to 827 by 1063 pixels.

Most authorities that state a print size also state a minimum DPI, usually 300 or 600. Use 600 DPI when the choice is yours, because a larger file can always be reduced while a small one cannot be enlarged without softening. The calculation for the 3 most common sizes gives 827 by 1063 pixels for 35 by 45 mm, 1181 by 1654 for 50 by 70 mm, and 1205 by 1205 for 51 by 51 mm, all at 600 DPI.

Head size matters more than photo size

Every biometric standard specifies how much of the frame the head must fill, and that rule causes more rejections than file size does. The head is usually required to occupy 70 to 80 percent of the image height.

• United States: head height between 25 mm and 35 mm within the 51 mm square, with eyes 28 mm to 35 mm from the bottom.
• United Kingdom and Schengen: head height between 29 mm and 34 mm within the 45 mm frame.
• Canada: head height between 31 mm and 36 mm within the 70 mm frame.
• Common to all: the face must be centred horizontally, looking straight at the camera, with a neutral expression and both eyes open.

Cropping controls head height, and cropping happens before resizing. Crop so the head fills the required proportion first, then resize the cropped result to the pixel dimensions the portal wants.

How to prepare a passport photo for upload

To produce a file that passes the technical checks, follow these 7 steps.

1. Take the photograph against a plain white or light grey wall in even, front facing light with no shadow behind the head.
2. Confirm the expression is neutral, the eyes are open, and nothing covers the face.
3. Crop to the required aspect ratio, 35 by 45 for most countries and square for the United States.
4. Adjust the crop until the head fills the proportion of the frame the authority specifies.
5. Resize to the pixel dimensions listed, or to the millimetre size multiplied by the required DPI.
6. Compress to a target inside the stated file range, aiming near the middle rather than at either edge.
7. Open the result at full size and confirm the eyes are sharp, since automated face checks read the eye region first.

What a resizer cannot check

This tool resizes and compresses to whatever numbers you supply, and it does not judge whether the photograph meets biometric rules. No online resizer can, because those rules concern the content of the picture rather than the file.

Head position, background colour, expression, glasses, head coverings and lighting all have to be right at the moment the photograph is taken. Get those correct with the camera, then use a resizer to meet the technical requirements. An application refused for a shadow behind the head cannot be fixed by changing pixel dimensions.

Visa photos and passport photos are not interchangeable

A visa photo follows the rules of the country issuing the visa, not the country issuing your passport. An Indian applicant for a United States visa needs a 51 by 51 mm square photo, even though the Indian passport photo is a different specification.

Check the requirement on the consulate page for the specific visa category, since work, study and tourist visas occasionally differ within the same country. Reusing the photograph from your passport is the most common cause of a returned visa application, because the crop that satisfied one authority places the head wrongly for another.

Printing passport photos at home

Place several copies on a 6 by 4 inch sheet at 300 DPI, which gives a canvas of 1800 by 1200 pixels. A 35 by 45 mm photo occupies 413 by 531 pixels at that resolution, so 8 copies fit comfortably on one sheet.

Print on photo paper at the highest quality setting, with any automatic scaling or fit to page option switched off, because scaling changes the physical size and the photo will measure wrong against a ruler. Cut with a straight edge rather than scissors. Many authorities that accept digital uploads still require printed copies at the appointment, so producing both from the same cropped master keeps them identical.

Rejection reasons ranked by frequency

• Shadow on the face or background. Caused by a single overhead lamp or by standing too close to the wall.
• Head too large or too small in the frame. A crop problem rather than a camera problem.
• Non neutral expression. Smiling with visible teeth fails most biometric checks.
• Glasses reflection or tinted lenses. Several authorities now refuse glasses altogether.
• Wrong aspect ratio. A square photo submitted where 35 by 45 mm is required, or the reverse.
• File outside the accepted range. Both too large and too small cause failure on portals with a minimum.

Preparing photos for a family application

Photograph everyone in the same session against the same wall, then crop and resize each person separately. Head height differs between an adult and a child, so a single crop applied to all photos will fail on at least one of them.

Once each photo is cropped correctly, the resize and compress steps can run as one batch with identical settings. Up to 500 images can be processed together, and the work happens inside your browser rather than on a server. That detail matters for passport photographs, which are biometric data attached to a named individual and should not be sitting in a third party upload log.

Keep the cropped masters after the application is submitted. Passport renewals, visa applications, residence permits and travel authorisations all draw on the same photograph, and most authorities accept an image taken within the last 6 months. Storing a correctly cropped master for each family member turns the next application into a resize rather than a photo session, and it keeps the head position consistent across documents that officials may compare side by side.