Passport & ID Photo Sizes — Requirements and How to Meet Them at Home
Updated July 20, 2026
Every country and portal wants photos in its own exact format — 35×45 mm here, 2×2 inches there, under 100 KB for the upload form. This guide covers the common requirements and how to produce a compliant photo at home with free browser tools.
1. The common formats
35×45 mm is the standard across the EU, UK and most of the world for passports and ID cards. The US uses 2×2 inches (51×51 mm). Visa portals often ask for specific pixel dimensions instead, commonly 600×600 or 413×531 px. Beyond size, the rules are similar everywhere: neutral expression, direct gaze, even lighting, plain light background, no shadows.
2. Take a usable photo
Stand about 1.5 m from a plain, light wall in daylight, camera at eye level, and have someone else take the shot (arm's-length selfies distort facial proportions). Take several — sharpness and even lighting matter more than anything else, since you can fix framing later but not focus.
3. Crop to the exact format
Open the Passport Photo Generator, pick your target format and align your face with the guide — it handles the head-size and positioning rules that make photos get rejected. Download the result as a single photo or as a print sheet with multiple copies on standard photo paper.
4. Meet the upload limits
Online applications add file rules on top: typically JPEG only and often a hard size cap. Use Resize Image to 100KB or the 50KB variant to hit those limits automatically. And before uploading, strip the photo's metadata with the EXIF Metadata Remover — your photo doesn't need to tell the portal where you live.
A word of caution
Biometric requirements are checked by software and strict officials. For passports of countries with strict biometric checks, a rejected photo costs a new appointment — when in doubt, check your government's official photo guidelines before submitting.