Canada visa and PR photo (IRCC upload)

Produce a digital photo for an IRCC portal upload: at least 420 x 540 pixels, JPEG, on a plain white background.

Prepare your file

420 × 540 px60–240 KB

JPEG, PNG, WebP or BMP. You can also drag a file here.

The file stays in this tab. It is not uploaded.

Sources disagree on this specification

IRCC does not use one file size limit across all applications. Visa and work permit uploads are commonly stated as roughly 60 KB to 240 KB, while the online citizenship grant allows up to 4 MB. This tool defaults to the 60-240 KB band, which is the stricter of the two and is accepted by the portals that state it. Open the document checklist for your own application and use the custom size tool if it asks for something different. Separately, a Canadian passport is a different route entirely: two printed 50 x 70 mm photos with the studio details on the back, which this tool does not produce.

Last reviewed .

What this form requires

Official rules and our own recommendations are labelled separately, so you can tell which is which.

  • Official requirementThe digital image must be at least 420 pixels wide by 540 pixels high.
  • Official requirementJPEG or JPEG 2000 format, in colour, in the sRGB colour space.
  • Official requirementPlain, untextured white background with a clear separation between you and it.
  • Official requirementHead height between 31 mm and 36 mm from chin to crown.
  • Official requirementIRCC treats editing of colour, brightness, contrast, sharpness, background, clothing or facial appearance as an alteration, and rejects it. Pasting yourself onto a new white background counts as an alteration.
  • Official requirementNeutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open, taken within the last six months.
  • Calculated from the official figureHead height of 31-36 mm on a 45 mm frame is 69-80% of the frame height. The crop guide uses that band.
  • DocuFix recommendationThis tool crops, scales and re-encodes. It does not replace or retouch your background, because IRCC treats that as an alteration.

What causes rejections

  • Using a background-removal tool to place yourself on a white background. IRCC classes this as an alteration and rejects it. Photograph against a genuinely white wall instead.
  • Applying the passport specification to an immigration upload. The printed 50 x 70 mm photo with a studio stamp is for a Canadian passport and does not substitute for a portal upload.
  • Falling below the 60 KB floor on a visa or work permit upload.
  • Assuming one file size limit covers every IRCC application. The citizenship grant and the visa upload have different ceilings.

What this tool can and cannot check

Checked automatically

  • Exact pixel dimensions
  • File size 60–240 KB
  • JPEG output in the sRGB colour space
  • That the file is a real image, not a renamed HEIC or PDF
  • Background evenness, brightness and colour cast

Judged by a person or the portal

  • Whether your expression is neutral
  • Whether hair or a head covering obscures your face
  • Whether the photo is recent enough
  • Head height, which the crop guide targets but does not measure
  • Whether the photograph is genuinely of you

Passing every automated check here does not mean your application will be accepted. It means the file will not fail for a technical reason.

How your image is handled

Your file is read into this page, decoded, drawn onto a canvas at the target size and re-encoded. Every step runs on your device. No network request carries the image, so nothing is stored on our side and nothing can be recovered from us later.

Re-encoding through a canvas also converts the file to the sRGB colour space and strips the original EXIF metadata, including any location tag your camera wrote into it.

What this does and does not protect against

Questions

Can I remove the background to make it white?
No. IRCC explicitly treats a replaced background as a digital alteration and rejects the photo. This tool deliberately does not offer background removal for that reason. Take the photo against a real white wall in even light.
What size photo does Canada actually want?
It depends which application you are filing, which is why this page says so rather than giving one number. Immigration portal uploads are validated on pixels: at least 420 x 540. The 50 x 70 mm figure you will find in most search results is the printed passport photo, which is a different route.
Why does this page flag its own numbers as disputed?
Because the file size ceiling genuinely varies between IRCC applications and the published figures do not reconcile. Stating one as definitive would mislead you at the point where checking is hardest. Your application’s document checklist is the authority.

Sources

  1. [1]Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada — Photo specifications for permanent residence and immigration applications

Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will check it against the source.