Short answer
Almost every country outside the United States wants 35 x 45 mm with the head between roughly 32 and 36 mm from chin to crown. The United States and India's visa want a square, 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm), with a smaller head. The background is the part that varies most: white for the US and India, cream or light grey for the UK, and light blue or light grey for France, where plain white is not accepted. Every figure below comes from the issuing authority's own page, linked in the table and checked in September 2026.
Passport photo rules are not complicated, they are just scattered: every country publishes its own page, in its own units, and the numbers that matter are buried in a paragraph about not smiling. This page puts twelve documents in one table so you can see, in one look, what is actually different between them.
Every figure here comes from the issuing authority’s own page, which is linked in the last column. All twelve were read on 17 September 2026. Where an authority does not publish a head height, the table says so rather than filling the gap with a number from somewhere else.
The table
| Document | Photo size | Head, chin to crown | Background | Glasses | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US passport | 51 x 51 mm (2 x 2 in) | 25 to 35 mm | plain white or off-white | not allowed, unless a doctor’s note explains why | travel.state.gov |
| US visa, DS-160, DV lottery | 51 x 51 mm (2 x 2 in) | 25 to 35 mm | plain white or off-white | not allowed | travel.state.gov |
| UK passport | 35 x 45 mm | 29 to 34 mm | plain cream or light grey | only if you have to wear them, never tinted | gov.uk |
| Canadian passport | 50 x 70 mm | 31 to 36 mm | plain white or light-coloured | allowed if eyes are clear and there is no glare | canada.ca |
| Australian passport | 35 x 45 mm | 32 to 36 mm | plain white or light grey | only for a medical reason | passports.gov.au |
| Irish passport | 35 x 45 mm | not published; 32 to 36 mm is the common range | plain light grey, white or cream | allowed if the frame covers no part of the eyes | ireland.ie |
| French passport | 35 x 45 mm | 32 to 36 mm, hair excluded | light, such as light blue or light grey; not white | thin frames only, no tint or reflection | service-public.gouv.fr |
| Schengen visa | 35 x 45 mm | 32 to 36 mm | plain and light | eyes must not be covered | france-visas.gouv.fr |
| Indian passport | 35 x 45 mm | 36 to 38.3 mm, face 80 to 85 percent of the photo | white | take them off | passportindia.gov.in |
| Indian visa and e-Visa | 51 x 51 mm | 25 to 35 mm | plain light or white, no shadows, no border | not allowed | indianvisaonline.gov.in |
| OCI card | 51 x 51 mm | 25 to 35 mm | plain light colour, not white | no tint, frames must not cover the eyes | ociservices.gov.in |
| Chinese visa | 33 x 48 mm | 28 to 33 mm | white or close to white, no border | allowed without tint, glare or heavy frames | us.china-embassy.gov.cn |
Three documents also have digital rules, for an application you upload rather than post:
| Document | Pixels | File size |
|---|---|---|
| US visa, DS-160, DV lottery | 600 x 600 | 54 KB to 240 KB |
| Irish passport | 715 x 951 | not published |
| Indian passport | 630 x 810 | not published |
| Indian visa and e-Visa | 600 x 600 | up to 300 KB |
| OCI card | 600 x 600 | up to 200 KB |
| Chinese visa | 420 x 560 | up to 120 KB |
For the other documents, a form that asks for pixels is asking for the print size at some resolution, and passport photo size in pixels works every size in the table out at 300 and 600 dpi.
What the table is really telling you
Read down the columns rather than across the rows and three things stand out.
There are two shapes in the world, not one. Most countries use 35 x 45 mm, which is a portrait rectangle. The United States uses a square, and so do the Indian visa and the OCI card; the 2x2 photo guide covers that square, its head band and the four documents that take it. They are not versions of each other: a square crop taken from a photo framed for 35 x 45 mm puts the head in the wrong place, and cropping a square down to a rectangle usually cuts the top of the head off. Crop each one from the original photograph. The Chinese visa is a third shape, 33 x 48 mm, and has its own guide with the head, the gap above it and the 420 x 560 pixel file worked through. The Schengen visa row is the same 35 x 45 mm rectangle as the UK and Australia, and Schengen visa photo requirements shows what its 32 to 36 mm head means in the frame and why the consulate’s own checklist outranks the row.
The head height is the rule that fails people. The paper size is easy to get right and hard to get wrong. The distance from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head is neither: it depends on how far away the camera was, and it is checked. The ranges are narrower than they look. The UK’s 29 to 34 mm inside a 45 mm photo leaves very little room, and India’s requirement that the face fill 80 to 85 percent of the frame is stricter still. Indian passport photo size sets the passport rectangle against the square visa photo and gives the 630 x 810 pixel digital size.
White is not the default. This is the one that catches people who have done it before for another country. France does not accept a white background, and measures the head to the top of the skull rather than the hair, which has its own page in French passport photo requirements. Neither does the OCI card, whose rules have their own page in OCI photo requirements. The UK asks for cream or light grey, which is not the same as white and not the same as grey. Three of these twelve documents reject the background most people assume is universal. UK passport photo requirements goes through that one in full, because it is the document most people get wrong for exactly this reason. The Irish passport is the generous one, allowing white, light grey or cream: Irish passport photo requirements has its pixel size and its rules. Australia allows white or light grey with a 32 to 36 mm head, and Australian passport photo requirements puts that head band next to the UK’s. Passport photo backgrounds goes through what each authority means by “plain” and how to get one against a real wall.
What is not in the table, and why
Germany. Since 1 May 2025 a German passport photo is taken by the authority itself or sent to it digitally by a registered photographer. A photo you print at home is no use for the application, so there is nothing useful to put in a row.
Japan and Brazil. The size depends on the consulate handling the application, and no single official figure covers them, so a row would be a guess dressed as a fact.
Canada, with a warning. The row is there because the framing is useful to check, but Canada accepts photos from a commercial photographer only, and counts cropping as an alteration. Canadian passport photo requirements explains what that means in practice before you spend an afternoon on one.
Rules that are the same nearly everywhere
The table holds what differs. What almost never differs is worth knowing too, because it is where most rejections actually come from.
- The photo must be recent, usually within the last six months, and must look like you do now.
- Neutral expression, mouth closed, both eyes open, looking straight at the camera with the head not tilted.
- Even light, no shadows, either on your face or on the wall behind you. This is the most common fault in a home photo and the easiest to fix: face a window, and stand well away from the wall.
- Nothing covering the face. Head coverings are allowed for religious reasons in most countries, provided the face from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead is clear.
- No filters, no beautifying, no replaced background. Phone cameras now smooth skin by default in portrait modes, which is an edit whether or not you asked for it. Turn it off.
Taking one at home
You need a plain wall, daylight, and somebody to hold the camera. Do not take it yourself at arm’s length: the distance distorts the face and the arm shows.
Stand about a metre in front of the wall so your shadow falls behind you and out of frame, face a window, and have the camera at eye level a couple of metres away. Fill the frame with head and shoulders and leave space above the head, because you can always crop in and you cannot crop out.
How to take a passport photo at home has the whole procedure, including the phone settings that quietly fail it: portrait mode and skin smoothing are edits, and an edited photo is rejected everywhere in this table.
Then crop to the size in the table. US passport photo requirements walks through the whole thing for the 2 x 2 inch case, which is the fiddliest, and baby passport photos covers the one case where none of the usual advice works.
Measure the print, not the screen
Print the sheet at a kiosk or lab at 100 percent, with no border and no “fit to page”, then measure one cut photo with a ruler. A sheet printed with scaling left on comes out two or three millimetres small, which is invisible on screen and enough to be rejected at the counter.
You should see:
The free way
Crop your own photo to any of these sizes
Drop a photo and choose the document. The tool places it at the exact size in the table, shows the head height against the allowed band as you move the crop, and gives you a 4 x 6 inch print sheet. It runs in your browser, so the photo is never uploaded, and it never retouches the picture, because every authority in this table rejects an edited one.
What a tool can and cannot do for you
This is worth being plain about, because plenty of sites are not.
A cropping tool can put your photo at the right size, place the head where the rules ask, and hand you a sheet to print. That is a real job and it is most of the work.
What no tool can do is tell you the photo will be accepted. Whether your expression is neutral enough, whether the light on your face is even, whether your glasses glare, whether the background counts as plain: those are judged by a person or a checking system at the other end, against the authority’s own standard. Any site that promises acceptance is selling you something it cannot deliver.
getPNG crops and places the photo, and says which document’s rules it is using and where those rules come from. The decision stays with the issuing authority, and the link in the last column of the table is the only thing that can settle an argument about a number.
Questions
Is a passport photo the same size everywhere?
No, and the two common sizes are not interchangeable. Most of the world uses 35 x 45 mm, a portrait rectangle. The United States uses 2 x 2 inches, a square, and so do the Indian visa and the OCI card. A 35 x 45 mm photo cropped to a square loses the framing the rules ask for, so crop from the original photo rather than from a print made for another country.
Why does the head height matter more than the photo size?
Because the size is easy and the head is what gets rejected. A machine checks the distance from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head against a range, and a photo taken too close or too far fails even when the paper is cut correctly. The ranges differ: the UK asks for 29 to 34 mm inside a 45 mm photo, India asks for the face to fill 80 to 85 percent of the frame.
Can the background be white everywhere?
No, and this is the trap. France asks for a light background and does not accept white. The OCI card asks for a light colour that is not white. The UK asks for cream or light grey. The United States, India and China ask for white or near white. Using white by default fails three of the twelve documents below.
Does the top of my hair count as the top of my head?
Usually yes, but not in France, where the measurement excludes hair and runs to the top of the skull. It is the kind of detail that makes a photo that looks right fail, and it is why the French row is measured differently from its neighbours even though both say 32 to 36 mm.
Can I print several photos on one sheet?
Yes, and it is the cheapest way to do it. Lay the cropped photo out on a 4 x 6 inch sheet, print that at a kiosk or lab at 100 percent with no border and no fitting, and cut one out. Measure the cut photo with a ruler before you hand it in; a sheet printed with scaling turned on comes out a few millimetres small.
Will a photo cropped online be accepted?
That depends on the authority, not on the tool. Canada accepts photos from a commercial photographer only and treats cropping as an alteration. The United States asks for an unedited photo, which means no filters and no replaced background, and a plain crop of a real photo is not an edit. getPNG crops and places a photo to the size in the table; it does not judge whether your photo meets the biometric rules, and no website can promise that it will be accepted.