Passport Photo Size and Rules: A Practical Guide (PK, AU, UK, US)

The sizes, decoded: mm, inches and pixels

Photo sizes get quoted in three languages and the confusion starts there. Millimetres describe the printed photo. Inches are the same measurement in imperial (2×2 inch = 51×51mm). Pixels describe the digital file, and pixels only convert to physical size through resolution: at the standard print quality of 300 DPI, one inch = 300 pixels. So a 2×2 inch photo at print quality is 600×600 px, and 35×45mm is about 413×531 px. When a portal asks for “200×230 px”, it is specifying the digital file directly — no conversion needed, and no other size will do.

Pakistan: CNIC, passport and the job-form photo

For a CNIC, NADRA takes your photograph at the registration centre as part of biometric enrolment — there is usually nothing to prepare. Passport applications have traditionally asked for printed photos of 2×2 inch with a plain white background; confirm the current instruction on your application form, because requirements are updated from time to time. The photo Pakistanis meet most often, though, is the online job-form photo: government recruitment portals commonly demand a small digital file — FPSC, for example, asks for a photo under 30KB, and many portals specify 200×230 px within a 20–50KB range. Those are file rules, not print rules, and they are covered in depth in our guide to compressing a photo to an exact size.

Australia: 35×45mm, and a tall face

Australian passport photos are 45mm high × 35mm wide, with the face — chin to crown — measuring 32mm to 36mm of that height. That face proportion is the part home photos most often get wrong: the head is either too small in the frame or cropped too tight. The background must be plain white or pale, with no shadows, and the photo must be recent. Visa and university ID photos in Australia frequently reuse the same 35×45mm format.

United Kingdom: 35×45mm and digital rules

UK passport photos are also 35mm wide × 45mm high. For digital applications, the photo must be at least 600 pixels wide and 750 pixels tall, in focus, in colour, against a plain light background, with nothing covering the face and no shadows falling on the face or behind the head. The UK is strict about retouching: a digitally altered photo can be rejected, so fix framing and lighting, not features.

United States: the 2×2 inch square

US passport and visa photos are 2×2 inches (51×51mm), with the head — chin to top — between 1 inch and 1⅜ inches (25–35mm). The background is plain white or off-white, the photo must be recent (taken within the last six months), and glasses are not allowed in US passport photos. Digital submissions for visas typically want a square file of at least 600×600 px — which is why the 600×600 preset exists in our passport photo maker.

The rules that cause most rejections, everywhere

• Background: plain and light, with no patterns, objects, other people or shadows. A shadow of your own head on the wall behind you is a classic rejection.
• Face position: face the camera squarely, head centred, both edges of the face visible, eyes open and looking at the lens, neutral expression.
• Lighting: even light on the face — no harsh shadow on one side, no flash glare on glasses or skin.
• Recency and likeness: the photo must look like you now. Old photos, heavy filters and beauty-mode smoothing all cause trouble.
• Nothing in the way: no hats or head coverings except for religious or medical reasons (and even then the face must be fully visible), no uniforms in many jurisdictions, no headphones, ever.

Taking the photo at home, and printing it cheaply

Stand about a metre from a plain light wall, in daylight facing a window (not with the window behind you), and have someone else take the photo at eye level — arm’s-length selfies distort the face and shrink the head in frame. Then crop to the exact official size rather than eyeballing it. For printing, do not print one tiny photo on a full page: a 4×6 inch print sheet fits eight 2×2 copies (or a grid of 35×45mm copies) on a single standard photo print, which any studio will print for the price of one photograph. Our passport tool generates that sheet for you — crop once, download the sheet, print, cut. One sitting, a full set of compliant photos, and spares for the next form that asks.