Canada Visa Photo Requirements
35×45mm, at least 420×540px for a digital upload, and a 60-240KB file size range — the exact IRCC specs, and the range that trips people up.
A Canada visa or permanent residence photo needs to be 35×45mm (or at least 420×540px for a digital upload), color, taken within the last 6 months, with your head measuring 31-36mm from chin to crown — and for an online IRCC application, the file itself needs to land between roughly 60KB and 240KB, so a photo that's too small in file size can fail the upload just as easily as one that's too large.
The exact specs
- Physical size: 35×45mm
- Digital minimum: 420×540px
- Head height: 31-36mm (chin to top of head, not counting hair)
- File size range: roughly 60-240KB — both a floor and a ceiling
- Format: JPG/JPEG
- Background: plain white or light-colored
- Recency: within 6 months
Why the size range catches people out
Most portals only cap a maximum. IRCC's digital photo check also has a practical minimum — a photo compressed too aggressively (well under 60KB) tends to lose enough detail that it fails the same automated quality check as an oversized one. Compress deliberately to land inside the range, not just "as small as possible":
- Compress an image to a target size — set your own KB target instead of guessing
Getting the head measurement right
Cropping to 35×45mm alone doesn't guarantee the head-height ratio is correct — a photo can be the right overall dimensions with the head framed too small or too large within it. An ID photo tool with a head-alignment guide handles both the crop and the proportion together, which is more reliable than eyeballing a generic crop.
Before you submit
Run the finished file through a file checker to confirm it's actually inside both the minimum and maximum size, rather than finding out from a rejected upload.
Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded anywhere during cropping or compression.