Almost every "photo too large" or "invalid file" message on a passport or visa portal is about bytes, not your face. A phone photo is several megabytes; the US visa form wants 240 kB. The fix is not to crush the photo with the strongest compression you can find. It is to get the pixel dimensions right first, then let a normal JPEG setting do the rest.

<Callout type="note" title="Quick answer">
**US visa (DS-160):** JPEG, 240 kB or less, square, 600 x 600 to 1200 x 1200 px. **DV lottery entry:** JPEG, 240 kB or less, 600 x 600 px. **US online passport renewal:** 54 KB to 10 MB. **UK online passport:** 50 KB to 10 MB. **Canada online renewal:** 200 KB to 5 MB. **Ireland online passport:** 9 MB or less. **Indian e-Visa:** 10 KB to 1 MB. **Indian regular visa (online form):** 10 KB to 300 KB. **OCI:** 200 KB max, 200 x 200 to 900 x 900 px.

To get under a limit: **resize first, compress second.** Crop the original to the portal's shape, export a JPEG at the smallest accepted pixel size, and only then lower the quality if you are still over.
</Callout>

We read every limit below on the issuing authority's own page on September 16, 2026. Portals change without notice, and the authority that receives your application decides what it accepts.

<SpecTable
  document="Photo file-size limits by portal"
  verifiedOn="September 16, 2026"
  rows={[
    { label: "US visa (DS-160)", value: "≤ 240 kB, JPEG, square 600-1200 px" },
    { label: "US DV lottery entry", value: "≤ 240 kB, JPEG, 600 x 600 px" },
    { label: "US passport online renewal", value: "54 KB to 10 MB; JPG, PNG, HEIC, HEIF" },
    { label: "UK passport online", value: "50 KB to 10 MB; min 600 x 750 px" },
    { label: "Canada passport online renewal", value: "200 KB to 5 MB; JPEG, 1200 x 1800 px min" },
    { label: "Ireland passport online", value: "≤ 9 MB; JPEG, min 715 x 951 px" },
    { label: "India e-Visa", value: "10 KB to 1 MB; JPEG, square" },
    { label: "India regular visa (online form)", value: "10 KB to 300 KB; JPEG, square" },
    { label: "OCI (MHA portal)", value: "≤ 200 KB; JPEG, 200 x 200 to 900 x 900 px" },
  ]}
/>

## Why the limits look so different

The limits fall into two groups, and knowing which one you are in tells you which way you are likely to fail.

**Tight ceilings (240 kB, 300 KB, 200 KB).** The US visa and DV forms, the Indian visa forms and the OCI portal were designed around a small, standardised image. A photo straight off a phone is many times over these limits, so the failure is almost always "too large".

**Wide windows with a floor (50 KB to 10 MB and similar).** The UK, US passport renewal and Canadian renewal portals take a normal camera file and set a minimum. Here the failure is usually "too small": a photo that was sent through a messaging app, screenshotted or already squeezed by a compressor. The US renewal page says it directly: "To avoid making your image quality worse, do not send the image via text message."

The pixel side of each spec is covered in our [passport photo size in pixels](/blog/passport-photo-size-in-pixels) guide, and the printed sizes in [passport photo sizes by country](/blog/passport-photo-sizes-by-country).

## Resize first, compress second

A JPEG's size depends mostly on two things: how many pixels it has and how hard it is compressed. You can reach 240 kB by throwing away pixels you don't need or by throwing away detail in the pixels you keep. The first is invisible. The second is what makes a face look smeared.

A 600 x 600 image has 360,000 pixels. A 12-megapixel phone photo has about 33 times as many. Cutting the image down to the size the portal actually wants removes most of the bytes before compression even starts, so the JPEG can be saved at a high quality setting and still fit.

That is why the order matters:

1. **Crop to the right shape** from the original camera file (square for US visas, India and OCI).
2. **Resize to the smallest accepted pixel size**, or a little above it.
3. **Export as JPEG at high quality.** Check the byte count.
4. **Only if it is still over**, lower the quality one step at a time and look at the eyes and hairline at full size after each step.

## The hidden floor inside the DS-160 limit

The State Department's [digital image requirements](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/photos/digital-image-requirements.html) set a byte ceiling and a compression ceiling at the same time: the image "must be less than or equal to 240 kB" and "the compression ratio should be less than or equal to 20:1". The image is 24 bits per pixel, so three bytes for every pixel before compression.

Here is what that means, as arithmetic, if you measure the ratio against the uncompressed 24-bit image:

| Pixel size | Uncompressed | Smallest file at 20:1 | Ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 600 x 600 | 1,080,000 bytes | 54,000 bytes | 240 kB |
| 900 x 900 | 2,430,000 bytes | 121,500 bytes | 240 kB |
| 1200 x 1200 | 4,320,000 bytes | 216,000 bytes | 240 kB |

At 600 x 600 you have a wide window between roughly 54 and 240 kilobytes. At 1200 x 1200 the window shrinks to a sliver, and hitting it means compressing a large image hard. That is the practical case for exporting DS-160 and DV photos at 600 x 600: the smallest legal size is the one that gives you the most room at a good quality. The DV instructions don't leave a choice anyway; they ask for exactly 600 x 600 pixels.

If the upload itself keeps failing, our [DS-160 photo upload error](/blog/ds-160-photo-upload-error) guide maps each message to its cause.

## "kB", "KB" and the exact byte count

The State Department writes "240 kB (kilobytes)". GOV.UK writes "50KB". The Indian and OCI portals write "KB". None of them says whether a kilobyte means 1,000 or 1,024 bytes, and different operating systems display file sizes differently.

You don't need to settle it. Aim at the stricter reading:

- For a **ceiling** of 240 kB, keep the file at or below **240,000 bytes**.
- For a **floor** of 50 KB, stay comfortably above **51,200 bytes** (50 x 1,024).

Open the file's properties or info panel and read the exact byte count rather than the rounded "KB" figure. A file shown as "240 KB" can be a few thousand bytes over under one definition.

## Portal by portal: what trips people up

### US visa and DV lottery: 240 kB

Square JPEG, sRGB color. The DS-160 accepts 600 x 600 up to 1200 x 1200 pixels. The DV entry, per the instructions published by the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon, must be "600×600 pixels in dimension" and "equal to or less than 240 kB". If you scan an existing print instead, both say it must be 2 x 2 inches scanned at 300 pixels per inch, which is how you arrive at 600 x 600; the [passport photo DPI](/blog/passport-photo-dpi) guide explains the conversion.

### US online passport renewal: 54 KB to 10 MB

The renewal page accepts "a JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or HEIF file" between 54 KB and 10 MB, and publishes no pixel size. A normal phone photo already fits. Don't compress it at all. The only way to fail this one is to shrink the file below 54 KB or shoot in a raw format that exceeds 10 MB.

### UK online passport: 50 KB to 10 MB

GOV.UK asks for at least 600 pixels wide and 750 tall, "at least 50KB and no more than 10MB". It also says: "Do not crop your photo - it will be done for you." So if you took the photo on your own device, upload the original rather than a resized or compressed copy.

### Canada online passport renewal: 200 KB to 5 MB

JPEG, 3:2 portrait, 1,200 x 1,800 to 3,000 x 4,500 pixels, between 200 KB and 5 MB. The file "must be saved directly from the original file captured by the camera" of a commercial photographer, so resizing it yourself is not the fix. If it's out of range, ask the studio to re-export. The [Canadian passport photo guide](/blog/canada-passport-photo-requirements) explains the studio rule.

### Ireland online passport: 9 MB or less

JPEG, at least 715 x 951 pixels, no larger than 9 MB. The Department of Foreign Affairs adds a rule that settles the compression question: the photo must "not have compression, loss or compression artefacts". With a 9 MB ceiling there's no reason to compress at all.

### India e-Visa: 10 KB to 1 MB

Square JPEG, minimum 10 KB, maximum 1 MB, "without spectacles". The passport bio page is a separate PDF upload, 10 KB to 300 KB. People put the scan in the photo slot and vice versa. Full details in our [India e-Visa photo](/blog/india-e-visa-photo) guide.

### India regular visa: 10 KB to 300 KB

This one catches people who read the e-Visa rules first. The instructions for the regular (non-e-Visa) online visa form, submitted through an Indian mission, set the same square JPEG and the same 10 KB floor, but a **300 KB ceiling**, not 1 MB. A 1 MB e-Visa file will fail here.

### OCI: 200 KB and 900 x 900 pixels

The Ministry of Home Affairs OCI FAQ asks for a square JPEG of 200 x 200 to 900 x 900 pixels, "max size 200 KB", on a light background that is "not white". The signature image has the same 200 KB cap. A square at 600 to 900 pixels on a side at normal JPEG quality usually fits. If the portal still refuses it, our [OCI photo rejected](/blog/oci-photo-rejected) guide goes through the other causes.

## How to hit the limit without visible compression

<Steps items={[
  { title: "Start from the original camera file", text: "Not a screenshot, not a copy saved from WhatsApp or email, not a scan of a print. Every one of those has already been recompressed, and the detail it lost is gone." },
  { title: "Crop to the portal's shape", text: "Square for US visas, the DV entry, Indian visas and OCI. Leave the UK photo uncropped if you took it on your own device. Frame head size to the document's rule, not to what looks nice." },
  { title: "Resize to the smallest accepted pixel size", text: "600 x 600 for the DS-160 and DV entry. A square between 600 and 900 pixels for OCI and Indian visas. For wide-window portals, skip this step and keep the original." },
  { title: "Export as a real JPEG at high quality", text: "Use the editor's Export or Save As and choose JPEG. Renaming a .png or .heic file to .jpg changes the name, not the format, and the portal reads the format." },
  { title: "Read the exact byte count", text: "Compare it with the stricter reading of the limit: 240,000 bytes for 240 kB, 300,000 for 300 KB, 200,000 for 200 KB." },
  { title: "Lower quality one step only if needed", text: "Check the eyes, hairline and the edge of the face at 100% zoom after each step. Blocky squares or a halo around the head mean you've gone too far; go back up a step and crop a little tighter instead." }
]} />

<ToolCTA title="A photo file that fits the portal's KB limit" text="Upload a phone photo. We crop it to the document's shape and head size, resize it, and export a JPEG inside the byte limit, searching for the highest quality that fits rather than compressing blindly. Free to check, $4.99 at download, no subscription." />

## What not to do

<RuleList items={[
  { text: "Resize to the portal's pixel size first, then compress", ok: true },
  { text: "Read the exact byte count, not the rounded KB figure", ok: true },
  { text: "Keep the original for wide-window portals like the UK and US renewal", ok: true },
  { text: "Run a 12 MP photo through a compressor set to maximum", ok: false },
  { text: "Screenshot the photo to make it smaller", ok: false },
  { text: "Send it to yourself on a messaging app to shrink it", ok: false },
  { text: "Rename a PNG or HEIC file to .jpg", ok: false },
  { text: "Convert to grayscale or strip color to save bytes", ok: false },
  { text: "Use an AI 'enhance' or upscaler on a file that came out too small", ok: false }
]} />

The last one deserves a sentence. If a file is under the floor, the answer is the original photo, not an upscaler. Upscaling invents detail, and the passport and visa rules on edited photos are strict; see [AI-edited passport photos](/blog/ai-edited-passport-photos).

## Where our tool fits

For the documents our [photo tool](/photo) supports (US visa and DV entry, US passport, UK passport and the Indian e-Visa among them), the download is encoded against that document's byte limit. The encoder tries the highest JPEG quality first and searches down only as far as it has to, and reads "240 kB" as 240,000 bytes. We also check head size, eye line, tilt, background evenness, sharpness and exposure before you pay.

What it doesn't do: we don't retouch faces, we can't detect glasses, and OCI and the Indian regular visa form aren't documents we produce a file for, so for those, check the byte count and pixel size of any file yourself against the limits above.

## Frequently asked questions

### What file size should a passport photo be?

It depends on the portal. The US visa and DV lottery forms take 240 kB or less, US online passport renewal 54 KB to 10 MB, a UK online passport 50 KB to 10 MB, Canadian online renewal 200 KB to 5 MB, the Indian e-Visa 10 KB to 1 MB and an OCI application 200 KB at most.

### How do I reduce a photo to under 240 kB?

Resize before you compress. Crop the original camera file to a square and export it as a JPEG at 600 x 600 pixels, which usually lands well under 240 kB at a high quality setting. Only lower the JPEG quality if it is still over, and stop before blocky artefacts appear around the face.

### Is 240 kB the same as 240 KB?

The State Department writes 240 kB and calls it kilobytes, without saying whether a kilobyte is 1,000 or 1,024 bytes. The safe reading is the smaller one: keep the file at or below 240,000 bytes, and it passes under either definition. Check the exact byte count in your file's properties.

### Can a passport photo file be too small?

Yes. US online renewal refuses files under 54 KB, a UK online passport under 50 KB, Canadian online renewal under 200 KB and the Indian e-Visa under 10 KB. Files that small have usually been through a chat app or a screenshot, and they are often too blurry to use anyway.

### Will compressing my photo get it rejected?

Heavy compression can. The State Department caps the DS-160 compression ratio at 20:1, and Ireland says the photo must not have compression artefacts. Moderate JPEG compression at a sensible pixel size is normal and invisible; squeezing a large image into a small byte budget is what produces the blocky, smeared faces that fail.

### Do online compressor websites work for passport photos?

They can shrink the file, but many resize, strip color profiles or convert formats without telling you, and some also change the pixel dimensions the portal checks. Whatever you use, open the result at full size and confirm the format, the pixel dimensions and the byte count before uploading.

<Sources items={[
  { label: "U.S. Department of State - Digital Image Requirements for visa photos (read on the adoption.state.gov mirror)", href: "https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/photos/digital-image-requirements.html" },
  { label: "U.S. Embassy in Cameroon - Instructions for the DV-2026 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (digital image)", href: "https://cm.usembassy.gov/instructions-for-the-2026-diversity-immigrant-visa-program-dv-2026/" },
  { label: "U.S. Department of State - Upload a digital photo for online renewal (last updated May 4, 2026; read on the adoption.state.gov mirror)", href: "https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/renew-replace/online/upload-digital-photo.html" },
  { label: "GOV.UK - Get a passport photo: digital photos", href: "https://www.gov.uk/photos-for-passports/rules-for-digital-photos" },
  { label: "IRCC - Photos for Canadian passports (modified February 11, 2026)", href: "https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/photos.html" },
  { label: "Department of Foreign Affairs (Ireland) - Passport photo guidelines", href: "https://www.ireland.ie/en/dfa/passports/photo-guidelines/" },
  { label: "Government of India - e-Visa upload requirements", href: "https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html" },
  { label: "Government of India - Online visa application instructions (regular visa photo requirements)", href: "https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/instruction.html" },
  { label: "Ministry of Home Affairs - Online OCI Services FAQ (question 9)", href: "https://ociservices.gov.in/onlineOCI/faq" }
]} />