Canada passport photo: 50 mm wide × 70 mm high
The specification below is taken from Canada.ca — Passport photo requirements. The tool crops your photo to it.
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The specification
- Photo size
- 50 mm wide × 70 mm high (2 × 2¾ inches)
- Head height
- 31–36 mm (1¼ to 1⁷⁄₁₆ inches) from chin to crown
- Background
- plain white or light-coloured
- Digital file
- Canada's standard process is printed photos, not an upload.
- Accepted formats
- printed, on photographic paper
- Age of photo
- taken no more than 6 months before you apply
- Copies
- Two identical prints are required with the application
Source: Canada.ca — Passport photo requirements. Verified 30 July 2026. Requirements do change — if the figure on the official page differs from the one here, the official page is right and we would like to know.
What trips people up here
Canada's 50 × 70 mm is the odd one out worldwide — it is taller and narrower in proportion than the 35 × 45 mm frame most of the world uses, so a photo cropped for a UK or Indian application will not fit. You also need two identical copies, and you are told to avoid wearing white.
Two prints, and the back of one gets written on
Canada still runs a paper-first process. You submit two identical prints, and one of them carries information on the reverse — the photographer's or studio's name and address and the date the photograph was taken. This is not something you can add convincingly at home, and it is a substantive reason to use a commercial photographer rather than printing your own: a photo without proper reverse details can be refused regardless of how well it meets the visual spec.
The proportion nothing else shares
At 50 × 70 mm, Canada's frame is a 5:7 ratio. The international standard 35 × 45 mm is roughly 7:9, and the US square is 1:1. These are three genuinely different shapes, and a crop made for one cannot be reused for another without recomposing. If you hold or are applying for more than one nationality's passport, budget for separate photographs rather than assuming one sitting covers both.
Do not wear white
The guidance says so explicitly, and the reason is the same contrast problem the UK addresses through its background wording. Against a white or light background, a white shirt merges into it and the outline of your shoulders disappears. Mid-tone clothing — a blue or grey shirt — gives clean separation and never causes a problem.
Colour or black and white
Unusually, Canada accepts either. Almost every other authority requires colour. There is no advantage to black and white, but if you have an otherwise perfect monochrome photograph it will not be refused for that reason alone.
General advice on lighting, distance and expression — which is the same everywhere — is on the passport photo overview.