Short answer
An OCI card photo is a 51 x 51 mm square, with a head of 25.4 to 35 mm from chin to crown, on a plain light colour that is not white. The upload is 600 x 600 pixels and up to 200 KB. Tinted or dark glasses are not allowed and the frames must not cover the eyes (OCI services photo specification, checked September 2026). The specification this page was built from gives no size or format for the signature scan, so none is stated here.
An OCI card photo is a 51 x 51 mm square on a plain light colour that is not white, with a head of 25.4 to 35 mm and an upload of 600 x 600 pixels and up to 200 KB. The background is the part that catches people, because almost every other document they have photographed for says white, and this one says the opposite.
This page puts the photo rules for the OCI card in one table. The figures were read from the OCI services photo specification named below on 17 September 2026, and they are the same ones getPNG’s passport photo maker uses. getPNG crops and places the photograph at these sizes. It does not judge the biometrics, and nothing here is a promise that your photo will be accepted. The signature the application also asks for is not covered by that specification, and the page says what that leaves open further down.
The table
| Decision | The rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Printed size | 51 x 51 mm, a square | OCI photo specification |
| Head, chin to crown | 25.4 to 35 mm | same page |
| Background | Plain light colour, not white | same page |
| Glasses | No tinted or dark glasses, frames must not cover the eyes | same page |
| Digital photo | 600 x 600 pixels | same page |
| File size | Up to 200 KB | same page |
Every row comes from one document, checked on 17 September 2026. It does not publish a head size as a share of the frame, a space above the head or a minimum file size, so none is stated here. The specification is a PDF that the issuing site can replace at any time, and the application you are filling in is the source that settles your case.
What the numbers add up to
Three sums turn the table into something you can aim at.
The head fills about 50 to 69 percent of the height. The square is 51 mm and the head is 25.4 to 35 mm, so the head is 25.4 / 51 = 50 percent at the smallest and 35 / 51 = 69 percent at the largest. That is a wide band. It is much looser than the Indian passport, which asks for the face to fill 80 to 85 percent of a 35 x 45 mm photo, and an OCI crop made to that passport rule would have a head far too large.
The pixel file is the print at about 300 dpi. 600 pixels across 51 mm is 600 / (51 / 25.4) = about 299 pixels per inch. The upload is therefore the size of a normal 300 dpi print of the square, and the head in it is between 25.4 / 51 x 600 = 299 and 35 / 51 x 600 = 412 pixels tall.
200 KB is a tight budget for 360,000 pixels. A 600 x 600 photo is 360,000 pixels, and 200 KB is about 200,000 bytes, so the file can spend roughly half a byte on each pixel. A smooth, well lit face on a plain wall compresses well inside that. A noisy photograph taken in dim light may not, and it is the noise rather than the pixel count that makes the file large.
Light, but not white
The specification asks for a plain light colour and says white is not accepted. Both halves of that matter.
Light means a pale cream, a very light grey or a pale blue, evenly lit. A mid grey or a saturated colour is not light, and a wall that is bright on one side and dim on the other is not plain.
Not white is the surprise. A sheet or a white wall photographed in daylight often reads as white or a very pale grey, and either can fall on the wrong side of the rule. Compare the two documents people most often confuse:
| Document | Background |
|---|---|
| Indian passport | White |
| OCI card | Plain light colour, not white |
The Indian passport photo size page covers the first. The mistake runs in both directions: an OCI photo on white may be queried, and a passport photo on cream may be queried too. If you are doing both in one afternoon, take two photographs against two different walls rather than one photograph and a second crop.
Do not paint the background afterwards. A replaced background is an edit, and an ID photo is checked for exactly that. A cutout tool is right for a sticker or a product picture and wrong here; passport photo backgrounds explains why, and white background photo sets out which documents ask for white and which, like this one, do not.
Check the wall before you crop
- Take the photo against the wall in daylight and open it on screen.
- Look at the empty areas on both sides of your head, then at the area just behind your shoulders.
You should see: a pale, even colour across both sides with no visible shading, and a colour you would call cream or light grey rather than white.
If you do not: if one side is darker, face the window more squarely or move away from the wall so your shadow falls on the floor. If the wall looks bright white on screen, try a different wall, because you cannot lighten or tint a wall in the picture without it being an edit.
Cropping the square
The head band is wide, so the crop is forgiving, but the file is small, and that makes it important to start with enough picture. Work backwards from the head. Suppose the head measures 800 pixels from chin to crown on your original:
- the head must fill 50 to 69 percent of the square, so the square is between 800 / 0.69 = about 1,160 and 800 / 0.50 = 1,600 pixels on each side;
- that square is then scaled down to 600 x 600 for the upload, which is a reduction, so the photo stays sharp.
If the head is only a few hundred pixels tall, the square it needs is smaller than 600 pixels and the upload would have to be enlarged, which only makes the picture soft. The fix is a new photograph taken from nearer, not a tighter crop.
You do not need to do the sum, because the passport photo maker draws the allowed band and you move the photo until the crown and chin sit inside it. The sum tells you how much picture you must have taken.
Glasses
The specification rules out tinted or dark glasses and says the frame must not cover the eyes. It does not say that clear glasses are forbidden, which makes it more relaxed than the US visa, where glasses are not allowed at all. The checks are all things you can see on the picture: a colour in the lens, a bright patch of glare, or a frame edge crossing the eye.
The practical advice is still to take them off for the ten seconds the photo takes, because glare depends on a window or lamp that you cannot easily move. If you wear them every day and the photograph without would not look like you, take several shots at different angles to the window and keep the one with the clearest lenses.
The signature is a separate file
The OCI application asks for more than a photograph. It asks for a scan of your signature as well. The photo specification this page was built from covers the photograph only, and nothing in it gives a size, a format or a file limit for the signature. So none is stated here, and a number from memory would be a number that may be out of date.
What can be said is general, and it does not depend on the rule. Sign in dark ink on plain white paper, in good light, with nothing else on the sheet. Photograph or scan it straight on, so the lines are not slanted, and crop to the signature with a small margin. Keep the original and save the version for the form separately, because the form’s own limit, shown at its upload step, decides how small that file has to be.
getPNG does not make the signature file. Its tools work on a photograph, and the passport photo maker is for the face. If a signature on white paper needs its background taken away for some other use, that is a different job, and remove white background does it.
The online file
The digital photo is 600 x 600 pixels and up to 200 KB. If the file is over the limit, compressing an image to an exact size explains why the quality steps down while the pixel size stays fixed, which is what the form insists on.
Three points save a failed upload:
- Start from the original. A photo that has been through a messaging app has already lost detail.
- Check the pixels. The file should be exactly 600 x 600. A larger one is not a better one for this form.
- Check the file size after saving, not before. A file you resized in one app and saved in another can come out at a different size.
The Indian visa and the US visa also take 600 x 600 pixels, but with their own file limits, so a file saved for one of them is not necessarily right for the OCI form. The comparison is in the 2x2 photo guide.
Taking one at home
The photograph is the same job as for any other country, with a different wall:
- Find a plain, pale wall that is cream or light grey rather than white, with nothing on it, and stand about a metre in front of it.
- Face a window in daylight, on an overcast day if you can, with no flash and no ceiling light.
- Turn off portrait mode, beauty filters and skin smoothing, and use the rear camera.
- Have somebody take it from about two metres away at eye height, with head and shoulders in the frame and clear space all round.
- Crop to 51 x 51 mm with the head between 25.4 and 35 mm.
- For the form, save at 600 x 600 pixels under 200 KB. For a print, print at 100 percent with no border and no fit to page, then measure the cut photo with a ruler.
How to take a passport photo at home has the detail on each of those steps.
The free way
Crop your photo to 51 x 51 mm with the head in the range
Choose OCI card and the tool places your photo at 51 x 51 mm, shows the head against the 25.4 to 35 mm range as you move the crop, tells you if the wall behind you reads as white and saves the 600 x 600 pixel file. It runs in your browser, so the photograph is never uploaded, and it never retouches it.
What the tool does, and what it does not
getPNG crops and places the photograph at the official size and shows you where the head sits against the range the specification gives. It also warns when the wall behind you reads as white, which is the fault this document is most likely to produce. That is the part a person is worst at doing by eye.
It does not judge the photograph. Whether your expression reads as neutral, whether the light across your face is even and whether the wall counts as light enough are decided by the authority that receives the application, and the specification linked in the table is the only source that settles it. No website can promise your photo will be accepted, and one that does is telling you something it has no way of knowing.
For the same checks on the other documents getPNG knows, the passport photo requirements table lists twelve of them with the official source for each. Before you upload any ID photo to a site, read whether it is safe to upload photos online.
Questions
What size is an OCI photo?
51 x 51 mm, a square. The upload is 600 x 600 pixels, which is the same shape. It is not the 35 x 45 mm portrait rectangle of the Indian passport, and it is a hair larger than the 2 x 2 inch (50.8 mm) square of the US passport and the Indian visa, which makes no practical difference to a crop.
Can an OCI photo have a white background?
No. The specification asks for a plain light colour and says white is not accepted. That is the opposite of the Indian passport and the US documents, so a photo that was right for one of those can be wrong here. A very pale cream or light grey wall, evenly lit with no shadow, is the safe thing to aim for.
How big should the head be in an OCI photo?
25.4 to 35 mm from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head. In a 51 mm square that is about 50 to 69 percent of the height. In the 600 pixel upload it is a head of roughly 299 to 412 pixels from chin to crown.
What file does the OCI upload take?
A photo of 600 x 600 pixels and up to 200 KB, according to the specification read on 17 September 2026. A photograph that has plenty of detail can need its JPEG quality turned down to fit under 200 KB, and the pixel size has to stay at 600 x 600 while it does.
What size is the signature for an OCI application?
This page cannot tell you. The photo specification that getPNG's figures come from covers the photograph only, and nothing in it gives a size, format or file limit for a signature scan. Use the figures the application form itself shows at the upload step.
Does getPNG make an OCI photo that will be accepted?
It crops and places your photograph at 51 x 51 mm, shows the head against the 25.4 to 35 mm band and saves the 600 x 600 pixel file. It does not judge the photograph, and it never changes the background. Whether the light, the expression and the wall are acceptable is decided by the authority that receives it.