India passport photo: 4.5 × 3.5 cm
The specification below is taken from Ministry of External Affairs / Passport Seva photo rules (35 × 45 mm is the MEA standard). The tool crops your photo to it.
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Every byte of that work happened on your own machine. Verify it: open DevTools → Network, and use the tool. No request carries your image, because none is made.
The specification
- Photo size
- 4.5 × 3.5 cm (45 × 35 mm)
- Head height
- the head should fill roughly 80–85% of the frame
- Background
- plain white or light-coloured
- Digital file
- 630 × 810 px is the size the Passport Seva online form is built around. Maximum 250 KB.
- Accepted formats
- JPEG
- Age of photo
- recent
Source: Ministry of External Affairs / Passport Seva photo rules (35 × 45 mm is the MEA standard). 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
The 35 × 45 mm frame is the MEA standard and is stable. The exact pixel and file-size limits on the online portal have changed more than once — check the figure shown on the upload screen itself before you submit, and treat 630 × 810 px under 250 KB as the safe default rather than gospel.
The head fills more of the frame than you expect
India specifies the head as a proportion — roughly 80–85% of the image — rather than as a measurement in millimetres. That is a much tighter crop than most people instinctively produce, and it is the single most common reason an otherwise good photograph gets sent back. A comfortable portrait, the kind you would choose for anything else, typically has the head occupying half the frame. Here you want the crown near the top edge and the shoulders barely present.
Photo and signature are two different uploads
The Passport Seva application, like most Indian government portals, asks separately for a photograph and a scanned signature, each with its own size limit. They are not interchangeable and the limits are usually different. Sign in black ink on plain white paper, photograph or scan it straight-on, crop tightly to the signature, and compress it separately — signatures are mostly white space and will reach almost any limit without visible loss.
Why the portal limits keep moving
The 35 × 45 mm physical standard comes from the Ministry of External Affairs and has been stable for years. The pixel dimensions and file-size ceiling on the online system are implementation details of the portal, and they have been revised more than once without announcement. This is why the figure printed on the upload screen in front of you beats any figure on any website, including this one.
Applying from outside India
If you are applying through an embassy, consulate or VFS Global centre rather than within India, check that office's own instructions. The frame size is generally the same but the submission process, the number of prints and the accepted file limits vary by post, and the local instruction sheet is what the counter staff will check against.
General advice on lighting, distance and expression — which is the same everywhere — is on the passport photo overview.