Passport photo size requirements: how to read the rule

Three different sizes hide inside passport photo size requirements

When a form says the photo must be 2 x 2 or 35 x 45, it is giving you only the first of three measurements. The first is the size of the whole picture on paper. The second is how much of that picture your head fills, measured from the chin upwards. The third, for online applications, is the size of the digital file: its pixels and its kilobytes.

A photo can pass the first and fail the other two. A correctly cropped 35 x 45 mm picture with a small face will still be refused, and so will a perfect print that has been saved as an oversized file. Treat the three numbers as a checklist and tick each one separately.

Passport photo dimensions in mm and inches

One inch is 25.4 mm, so the familiar 2 x 2 inch square is 50.8 mm, which the rule cards round to 51 x 51 mm. The US passport and visa use that square. The UK, Australia, Japan, Korea and the Schengen countries use 35 x 45 mm, which is about 1.4 x 1.8 in. China asks for 33 x 48 mm, a slimmer frame.

These are the sizes in the maker’s rule cards, so choose your country and document under ‘Country’ and ‘Document and size’ rather than only a size. Two documents can share 35 x 45 mm and still ask for different head heights and different background colors.

• US passport and visa: 51 x 51 mm (2 x 2 in)
• UK, Australia, Japan, Korea, Schengen: 35 x 45 mm
• China visa and passport: 33 x 48 mm
• India e-visa upload: square, 350 to 1000 px
• 3 x 4 cm (30 x 40 mm) for many résumé and form photos

Head height: the number that sinks most photos

Head height is the distance from the chin to the top of the head, and the rule says what counts as the top. Korea, the UK, Australia and the Schengen countries measure to the top of the skull, so hair is ignored. The US, Japan and China measure to the top of the hair, so a tall hairstyle uses up part of your allowance.

The allowed ranges are narrow: 25 to 35 mm in the 51 mm US square, 29 to 34 mm for the UK, 32 to 36 mm for Australia, Korea and Schengen, and 28 to 33 mm for China. On a 45 mm tall photo, 32 to 36 mm means the head takes up roughly seven tenths to four fifths of the height. A face that looks comfortably framed to you may be too small.

Passport photo size in pixels, and how to work it out

Pixels are physical size multiplied by resolution. An inch at 600 pixels per inch is 600 px, so a 2 x 2 inch photo is 1200 x 1200 px, which is the file the US form expects. A 35 x 45 mm photo at 300 pixels per inch comes to about 413 x 531 px, the size of the Korean passport file.

Some offices set pixels directly instead. The UK online application asks for 900 x 1157 px, China’s visa file is 420 x 560 px, and the Indian e-visa upload is a square between 350 and 1000 px. Resizing a small picture upward adds no detail, so start from a sharp photo and let the maker save at the document’s own pixel size.

File limits: kilobytes and formats

Online forms often add a limit on file size. The US visa application accepts up to 240 KB, the UK online file runs from 50 KB to 10 MB, the Chinese visa file from 40 to 120 KB, and the Indian e-visa photo from 10 to 300 KB. A file that is too large is usually refused at upload, and one that is too small can be rejected as too blurry.

‘Save file’ writes a JPG at the pixel size of the chosen document and adjusts the quality to stay within the limit. If you still get an upload error, check that you chose a document made for online use and not a print-only size.

How to check your photo against the size requirements

Under ‘Show size and rules’ read the card for your document, then press through the ‘Checks’. The head-size check compares your face with the allowed range. If you want to do it by hand, print the picture at actual size and measure from the chin to the top of the head or hair with a ruler. Compare the result with the range on the card.

Also check the outside of the picture. There should be no border, no white frame added around the photo and no curling or glossy damage on a print. Where a document asks for space above the head or an eye height, the rule card lists it.

When the sizes on this page are not the final word

Rules change, and two offices of the same country can phrase them differently. The figures above come from the maker’s rule cards, which link to the official pages. If a form or an officer gives you a different number, follow theirs.

Also remember what size cannot fix. A photo with the right dimensions can still fail for a patterned background, glasses glare, a smile where a neutral face is required, or heavy retouching. Size is necessary, not sufficient.