India e-Visa Photo and Passport Scan Rules: JPEG, PDF, Sizes

TL;DR

The India e-Visa portal wants two uploads from everyone: a square JPEG photo between 10 KB and 1 MB, full face, eyes open, no glasses, plain light background, no shadows, no borders; and the passport bio page as a PDF between 10 KB and 300 KB. Business and medical categories add one more PDF of the same size, in English. Uploads that miss the specification are sent back, and a rejection keeps the fee.

The photo specification

The portal's "Document Required" tab sets out the digital photograph rules, and we quote them rather than paraphrase, because the portal's checks follow them to the letter:

• Format: JPEG.
• Size: minimum 10 KB, maximum 1 MB.
• The height and width of the photo must be equal.
• Full face, front view, eyes open and without spectacles.
• Head centred within the frame, showing the full head from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin.
• A plain light coloured or white background.
• No shadows on the face or on the background.
• No borders.

Two of these catch people out. Square is unusual: a UK passport photo is 35 by 45 mm and a phone photo is 3 by 4 or 9 by 16, so the file must be cropped square, with the full head still inside. And the upper limit of 1 MB rules out a photo straight off a modern phone, which is typically 3 to 6 MB. The compressor brings an image under the limit without visible loss.

The passport scan specification

The second mandatory upload is the scanned bio page of the passport showing the photograph and details. The rule is short: format PDF, size minimum 10 KB and maximum 300 KB. The whole page must be in the frame, including the two lines of machine-readable text along the bottom, flat, in focus and without glare across the photo or the numbers. The portal reads the name, date of birth, nationality, passport number and expiry from it and compares them with what you typed, and a mismatch on the ETA is your responsibility.

A phone scan or photo of the page is usually 2 to 8 MB, so it needs compressing by a factor of ten or more. That is normal and the compressor handles it; what it cannot do is make a blurred or cropped scan readable, so scan it again if in doubt.

Your passport must have at least six months' validity when you apply and two blank pages. Travel on the passport you applied with; if it is renewed afterwards, carry the old one too, or use the portal's transfer service.

The other document, for business and medical categories

The e-Business visa needs a copy of your business card, or an invitation letter from the company in India with its address and phone number; the e-Medical visa needs a letter from the hospital in India on its letterhead with the tentative admission date and the patient's name, nationality and passport number. Both go in as a PDF between 10 KB and 300 KB. The portal says all documents, including business cards and invitation letters, must be in English, failing which the application is liable to rejection. A card and a letter can be joined into one PDF with the bundler, then sized with the compressor. Our e-Business guide and e-Medical guide cover what each letter must say.

Why uploads get sent back

The portal says that after submission the application is scrutinised and, if any document or image is not appropriate, you may be advised by email to re-upload it through the re-upload tab, normally within 24 hours. The faults, measured against the specification above:

• Spectacles in the photo, even clear ones.
• A photo that is not square, or cropped so tightly that the top of the hair or the chin is cut off.
• A shadow on the wall behind the head, or on one side of the face, from a lamp or a window to the side.
• A patterned, dark or coloured background, or a door frame behind the head.
• A white border, a rounded corner or a frame added by a photo app.
• A photo over 1 MB, or a thumbnail under 10 KB.
• A passport page uploaded as a JPEG, or as a PDF over 300 KB.
• A passport scan with glare across the photo, a finger over the edge, the bottom lines cut off, or the page photographed at an angle.
• A business card, invitation or hospital letter not in English.
• A photo or scan that is too old: the portal asks for a recent photograph, and the passport scan must be of the passport you will travel on.

Re-uploading costs nothing, but every round trip eats into the 4-day minimum before travel. The portal also says the application is liable to be rejected if uploads are not clear or not to specification, and a rejection keeps the fee.

How to take the photo at home

Stand facing a plain white or pale wall in daylight from a window in front of you, not to the side, with no lamp casting a shadow behind you. Take off glasses. Have someone hold the phone at eye level a metre or so away and take the photo in the phone's normal mode, not portrait mode, which blurs the edges of the hair. Then crop it square with the head centred and a little space above the hair and below the chin, save it as a JPEG, and check the file size; if it is over 1 MB, run it through the compressor. A high-street photo booth print cannot be uploaded, but a booth or a photographer can usually email the digital file if you ask for a square crop.

How to make the passport PDF

Lay the passport open and flat on a dark surface in good light, with the bio page fully visible and nothing covering the corners. Use a scanner app or the camera's document mode so the page is squared and the glare is minimised; take it again if the photo or the numbers are shiny. Save as a PDF, a single page. Check the size: if it is over 300 KB, which it almost always is, run it through the compressor and check it is still readable at the machine-readable lines. The checklist tool can help keep the files for a family straight.

Children and families

Every traveller needs their own passport, their own application and their own two uploads; nobody can travel on an e-Visa while endorsed on a parent's passport. A child's photo follows the same rules, including the square crop and the plain background, and the portal's FAQ reminds parents that a child's passport must be valid for at least six months from the date of arrival. Name each file by person before you start, because five sets of photos and PDFs are easy to mix up.

Apply yourself, or £35 prepared and submitted

The uploads are the part of an e-Visa application most often got wrong, and the part that costs most when it goes wrong. You can apply yourself on indianvisaonline.gov.in, the only official portal, for the official fee alone. If you would rather have the files checked before they go in, our desk prepares the application in your own portal account, checks each photo and PDF against the specification above, sends you the completed form to check and submits it: £35 per applicant, each additional applicant £35, up to five on one order. You pay the official fee on the portal yourself by your own card; we never take or enter card details. Submitted on the official portal within 24 hours of your complete details and documents, or your service fee back. Full refund if you cancel before work starts. The Government of India decides. WayaNerd Ltd, company 16269713. Start with the India e-Visa guide for British citizens or go straight to the plan step.