There is no single "passport photo size." Each country sets its own dimensions and its own rule for how much of the frame your head must fill. Get either wrong and the photo gets rejected — even if it looks fine to you. Here's what the major countries actually require.
The sizes, country by country
- United States — 2×2 inches (51×51mm), square. Head (chin to crown) 1 to 1⅜ inches (25–35mm). Plain white or off-white background. US passport photo maker.
- India — 35×45mm, with a notably large face filling roughly 80–85% of the frame. Plain white background; online portals often cap the file at 10–100 KB. India passport photo maker.
- United Kingdom — 35×45mm. Head 29–34mm. Crucially, the background must be light grey or cream — not white. UK passport photo maker.
- Canada — 50×70mm, larger than most. Head 31–36mm. White background. Canada passport photo maker.
- Australia — 35×45mm. Head 32–36mm. Plain white or light grey. Australia passport photo maker.
- Schengen (EU visa) — 35×45mm. Head 32–36mm. Light grey is safest; several consulates dislike pure white. Schengen visa photo maker.
Why head size matters as much as photo size
Two photos can be the same 35×45mm and still differ wildly: India wants your face to dominate the frame, while the UK leaves more headroom. A generic square crop almost never matches the required chin-to-crown band, which is why "I cropped it myself" photos fail so often. The head ratio is a biometric requirement, not a suggestion.
Print size vs. digital size
Many countries also specify a minimum pixel size and DPI for online uploads — separate from the print dimensions. A photo can be the right physical size but too low-resolution, or the right resolution but the wrong file size for the portal. Each country page above lists the exact print size, pixel size, DPI and file-size range together.
How to get the exact size without measuring
Rather than measuring millimetres by hand, upload your photo to the passport photo maker, pick your country, and it crops your head to the precise required band and applies the correct background automatically. Applying for a visa instead? Use the visa photo maker, which can differ from the passport spec for the same country.
Don't forget the upload file size
Once the dimensions are right, the last hurdle is the portal's file cap. Compress the finished image to the limit with resize to 20 KB, 50 KB or a custom KB target — all in your browser, with nothing uploaded.