India e-Visa photo and document upload size
Every India e-Visa needs a square photo and a PDF of your passport page, and some types need one more PDF. Here are the official file limits and how to meet them from a phone.
Rules change — check the official page before you apply. The only official e-Visa site is indianvisaonline.gov.in. Deftfile is not a visa agent and does not submit applications.
The exact rules
All of these come from the e-Visa instructions on Indian Visa Online, the Government of India portal.
Photo
- File type
- JPEG.
- File size
- At least 10 KB, at most 1 MB.
- Shape
- Height and width must be equal. No pixel size is given.
- Background
- Plain light colour or white, no shadows, no border. Another line on the same page says white background, so white is safest.
- Face
- Full face, front view, eyes open, no glasses. Head centred, showing everything from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin.
Passport bio page
- File type
- PDF.
- File size
- At least 10 KB, at most 300 KB.
- Content
- The page with your photo and details such as name, date of birth, nationality and expiry date.
Other documents
- Covers
- Documents other than the passport page, such as a business card or hospital letter.
- File type
- PDF.
- File size
- At least 10 KB, at most 300 KB.
- Language
- English. The portal says documents in other languages make the application liable to rejection.
Unlike most size rules these have a 10 KB minimum, so a blank-looking scan or a photo compressed too hard can fail by being too small.
Which extra document you need
The portal lists the documents for each e-Visa type. A few common ones:
- e-Tourist: the passport page. For a short course or short voluntary work, add a letter from the institute or organisation on its letterhead.
- e-Business: the passport page and your business card, plus an invitation letter from the Indian company if you have one.
- e-Medical: the passport page and a letter from the hospital in India on its letterhead.
- e-Transit: the passport page, confirmed tickets and a visa or entry permit for the country you go on to.
Other types, such as e-Student, list more documents. The page states the PDF, 10 KB to 300 KB rule under “Other document for Business/Medical Purpose”; applying it to every type is our assumption.
Common reasons uploads are refused
The portal warns that an application is liable to be rejected if the photo or documents are not clear or not as specified. Likely causes:
- Passport PDF over 300 KB. A scan at high resolution, or a phone photo saved as a PDF without shrinking it, is often far larger.
- Wrong format in the wrong box. The photo must be a JPEG and the passport page must be a PDF.
- Photo not square. Phone photos are rectangular until you crop them.
- Unreadable passport page. Glare from a flash, a cut-off corner or blur makes details hard to read.
- Documents not in English. A letter or business card in another language can lead to rejection.
From phone to e-Visa files, step by step
- Photo. Stand against a plain white wall, facing a window, without glasses. Open the visa photo and signature resizer, pick “India e-Visa — photo”, and frame your head from hair to chin. It aims for a square 600 × 600 JPEG between 10 KB and 300 KB and tells you if it cannot reach that range. That range sits inside the e-Visa rule and also inside the stricter regular visa photo guide (350 to 1000 pixels, up to 300 KB).
- Passport page. Photograph the bio page flat, from straight above, in daylight without flash, with all four corners in view. Turn the photo into a PDF under 300 KB with images to PDF under a KB limit.
- Letters and cards. If a letter PDF is too big, compress the PDF to 300 KB. If it is a photo, make a PDF the same way as the passport page.
- Or do it in one place. The document kit makes the photo and each PDF for your e-Visa type and checks both the minimum and the maximum.
Questions
Does the photo need a white background?
The official page is not consistent. Its photo rule says plain light colour or white, but another line on the same page asks for a “recent front facing photograph with white background”. Use white to be safe. This differs from the OCI card, where the photo must not be white.
Is there a pixel size for the photo?
The e-Visa instructions give none, only that it must be square. Our resizer uses 600 × 600 so the photo also fits the regular visa photo guide.
I have no scanner. Can I use a phone photo of my passport?
The portal asks for a scanned bio page as a PDF. A sharp phone photo turned into a PDF meets the file rule; officials judge whether it is clear, so make sure every line can be read.
Are my passport and photo sent to Deftfile?
No. Our tools run inside your browser, so your files stay on your device. The portal itself warns against sharing personal details with unofficial websites.
Limits of this guide
This page covers file formats and sizes from the e-Visa instructions read on October 30, 2026. It does not cover who is eligible, fees or entry ports, and it cannot tell you whether a visa will be granted. The official portal has the final word.