Photo requirements by country

17 countries and regions so far. Every record links to the authority that publishes it. If your country is missing, the ICAO standard (35 × 45 mm, head 70–80 %) is what most authorities base their rules on.

Each record on this site describes one document for one country: the size the authority asks for, the background, how much of the frame the head should fill, what an online upload may weigh, and how recent the photograph must be. Every record names the authority that publishes the rule, links to the page or document it came from, and shows the date we last read it.

We only record what an official source states. Where an authority publishes pixels but not a printed size, the record keeps pixels; where it publishes millimetres, we derive pixels at 300 DPI and say so. Nothing here is guessed, and no page tells you a photo will be accepted — that decision belongs to the office receiving your application.

Why the sizes differ so much

There is no single world standard for a passport photo. Most countries follow the portrait guidance in ICAO 9303, the specification for machine-readable travel documents, but each one sets its own print size and its own rules for online submissions. In practice that produces four broad families:

• 35 × 45 mm — the most common printed size, used across the United Kingdom, the Schengen area, India, Pakistan, Australia and many others.
• 2 × 2 inches (51 × 51 mm) — the square format used by the United States, and by a few countries that follow its visa paperwork.
• National sizes that match nobody else — Canada at 50 × 70 mm and China at 33 × 48 mm are the clearest examples. A photo cut for another country will not fit.
• Digital-only specifications, given in pixels with a file-size window rather than a physical size, used by most modern online applications.

If your country is not listed yet

Start from the ICAO 9303 record, which describes the international baseline most national rules are built on, then check the exact size and file limits on the authority’s own page before you submit. The Document Photo Maker accepts any size in millimetres, inches or pixels, so you can work to a requirement we have not recorded. If you send us a link to the official page, we will add it.

DocPixEdit provides technical guidance and automated checks based on the requirements and sources listed on this page. Requirements can change, and final acceptance is determined by the relevant authority. Always verify current requirements before submission.