What size photo to use if not specified: 5 reasons the size is missing

Short answer

This is for a person who opened the authority's page and found no numbers: no millimeters, no pixels. They suspect they searched poorly and are afraid of taking a picture of the "wrong" size. The second reader is someone who has already found different numbers on different websites and wants to understand which one to believe and why the official source is silent. For those wondering what size photo to use if not specified, this official "silence" comes in five different types: from classifying the technical specifications of a residence permit in the EU to publishing file thresholds instead of a size in millimeters.

In the UK, when applying for a passport online, you must not crop the image yourself: the service will do it. File thresholds are published there — at least 600 × 750 pixels and between 50 KB and 10 MB. Three independent authorities indicate the proportion of the face or head in the frame: Georgia — the head 50–70% of the frame height, Poland — the face 70–80% of the photograph, India (OCI) — face coverage 80%. In a verified database of 241 profiles, 229 records contain a physical size; the most common is 35 × 45 mm (148 profiles).

Five reasons the photo size is not published

Official sources show five different situations related to the lack of a published size: specifications are secret, the regulation refers to a technical document, only a lower limit is published, file thresholds are indicated instead of millimeters, or only the head proportion is published.

1. The number is classified by a regulation (EU documents)

For the uniform format for residence permits for third-country nationals, Article 3 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1030/2002 of June 13, 2002, establishes that additional technical specifications are secret and not published. Access to them is granted only to bodies designated by the Member States responsible for printing and to authorized persons. Such specifications include additional security features, technical processes, and rules for filling out the uniform residence permit. The published annex speaks of the photograph as a place on the card: in the designated space, the photograph is secured into the card structure or by hot lamination, and an image produced to high security standards is placed on a sticker. The open text of the regulation does not specify the photo size, head height, and background.

For passports, the rules are formulated differently. The preamble to Council Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 of December 13, 2004, states that it establishes only non-secret specifications; additional specifications may remain secret. These include quality requirements and common standards for the facial image and fingerprints. Unlike the regulation on residence permits, Article 3 of the passport regulation provides for the possibility to decide to classify specifications. The regulation states that ICAO specifications, in particular Doc 9303, should be taken into account; the text of Doc 9303 was not examined in this check.

2. Reference to a technical document (Germany)

The German Passport Ordinance (Passverordnung, § 16) establishes that the photograph must be current and comply with the Technical Guideline TR-03121 of the Federal Office for Information Security in its current version. The BSI TR-03121 directive was not opened in this check, and its numerical requirements are not provided here. The size 45 × 35 mm in a vertical format and without borders is specified only for a consular exception: when electronic capture by the authority's devices is impossible.

3. Cropping on the authority's side (UK)

In the digital branch of HM Passport Office for online passport applications, the size in millimeters is not specified. Instead, file thresholds are published: at least 600 × 750 pixels and between 50 KB and 10 MB. The authority asks to upload an image including the head, shoulders, and upper body and not to crop it yourself: the service will perform the cropping.

4. Only a lower limit is published (India OCI)

The Ministry of Home Affairs of India on the Online OCI Services portal indicates a lower size limit and the face proportion in the frame. The photograph must be square, not less than 51 × 51 mm, with a face coverage of 80%. Minimum dimensions of 200 × 200 pixels, maximum dimensions of 900 × 900 pixels, and a maximum size of 200 KB are specified for the file. The upper limit is not specified in millimeters.

5. Complete technical silence (Georgia)

The FAQ of the e-Visa portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia does not specify millimeters, pixels, file size, or format. It states that the head must occupy from 50 to 70% of the total image height. The FAQ also states that photos from mobile devices, low-quality photos from booths, magazine photographs, and full-length shots are not accepted.

Comparing requirements across authorities

The table shows parameters from official sources for several procedures. They relate to the specified documents and submission channels.

What photo size is used by default?

In a verified database of 241 profiles, 229 records contain a physical size. The distribution of recorded sizes looks like this:

• 17 different sizes are recorded in the database.
• The most common size is 35 × 45 mm, specified in 148 profiles out of 241.
• The next most common size is 51 × 51 mm (16 profiles).
• Then come the sizes 30 × 40 mm (14 profiles) and 40 × 60 mm (11 profiles).

In the same database, 52 profiles specify a white background, 23 name a specific non-white shade, such as light gray or off-white. The remaining profiles require a plain light background without specifying an exact color. Only 32 of the 241 profiles record a maximum photo age: 30 say 6 months and 2 say 3 months. In the other records, the maximum age is not specified; this does not prove that there is no restriction.

Errors in interpreting requirements

Different cases of a missing size require different verification: the number may be classified, published as a lower limit, replaced by file thresholds, or not provided in the accessible text.

1. Cropping a British passport photo yourself. In the UK, for an online passport application, the authority asks not to crop the image: the service will perform the cropping. The authority asks to include the head, shoulders, and upper body in the frame.

2. Transferring EU secrecy to national requirements. The secrecy of the uniform residence permit specifications concerns the production of the document. It does not mean that requirements for the submitted photograph cannot be published by national legislation. A Polish ordinance (Dziennik Ustaw 2026, item 553) specifies 35 × 45 mm, 684 × 883 pixels, and a maximum file size of 2.5 MB for a residence permit application.

3. Confusing a lower limit with the full set of requirements. The Indian OCI portal specifies a size of at least 51 × 51 mm, a pixel range from 200 × 200 to 900 × 900, and a maximum file size of 200 KB. These limits are provided together; a separate consequence of their combination is not specified in the source.

4. Considering the absence of numbers as permission for any photo. The Georgian FAQ does not specify millimeters, pixels, file size, or format, but states that photos from mobile devices, low-quality photos from booths, magazine photographs, and full-length shots are not accepted.

5. Citing ICAO as a published photo size. EU Regulation 2252/2004 says that ICAO specifications should be taken into account. It does not establish the size of the print for a photo studio in the provided text. The text of Doc 9303 was not examined in this check.

What to do if the photo size is not specified: step-by-step guide

If the official page does not contain a size in millimeters or pixels, first determine exactly which requirements are published for the needed procedure:

1. Check the file requirements. For online passport applications in the UK, pixel and file size limits are published: at least 600 × 750 pixels, from 50 KB to 10 MB. The image is uploaded with the head, shoulders, and upper body and is not cropped yourself.
2. Find a published proportion. For example, the Georgian FAQ indicates that the head occupies 50–70% of the frame height; the Polish ordinance — that the face occupies 70–80% of the photograph; the Indian OCI — 80% face coverage.
3. Check national ordinances. The general EU rule on secret additional specifications does not exclude the publication of national requirements for the submitted photograph. The Polish ordinance provides such requirements.
4. Check restrictions on the photo source. Make sure that the absence of numbers is not accompanied by a ban on photos from mobile devices or low-quality photos from booths; such restrictions are specified in the Georgia FAQ.

If the authority's rules seem confusing or you want to avoid manual cropping, you can process a document photo complying with all current specifications and background requirements.

Before applying, check the current requirements on the official authority source provided above.