Chinese Passport and Visa Photo Requirements

A Chinese passport or visa photo is one of the smallest formats we print: 33 mm wide by 48 mm high. That is less than half the area of a Canadian passport photo.

Inside that small frame, the measurements are tight. Your head, from the bottom of the chin to the crown, must be 28 to 33 mm high and 15 to 22 mm wide. The space above your head is only 3 to 5 mm, and at least 7 mm must remain between your chin and the bottom edge.

A few millimetres decide everything here. A head that is 26 mm high looks perfectly fine to the eye, and it is still out of range. This is why the photo is measured on the print, not judged by how it looks.

Size. A Chinese passport or visa photo is 33 x 48 mm. A Canadian passport photo is 50 x 70 mm. Trimming the Canadian one down does not work: the head would be too big for the smaller frame.

How much of the frame you fill. On the Chinese photo, the head takes up to 33 mm of a 48 mm frame, with barely 3 to 5 mm of white above it. On a Canadian photo there is far more room around you.

Your ears. The Chinese rules ask for both ears to be visible, and they refuse hair that covers the eyebrows, the eyes or the ears. Canadian photos have no such rule, so this is the one that catches people out.

The digital file. A Chinese visa application is filled in online and asks for a photo file within a narrow range of pixels and a maximum of 120 KB. A phone picture is many times too heavy.

Tell us the photo is for China before we shoot, so we frame it for that format.

A Chinese passport renewal from Canada needs the photo twice: once as a file, once on paper.

The application starts online, in the official consular app, where you upload a recent digital photo: colour, facing the camera, bare-headed, on a white background. Then you hand in two printed photos of 33 x 48 mm on a white background, taken within the last six months.

The head measurements are the same as above: 28 to 33 mm high and 15 to 22 mm wide. Wear a darker top, so your shoulders stand out clearly from the white behind you. The prints must come from a photo lab or be printed on proper photo paper, and the picture must not be edited or retouched.

Ask for the prints and the digital file at the same visit. Both then come from the same shot, and the face on your screen matches the face on paper.

A Chinese visa digital photo is tiny by today's standards. It must measure at least 354 x 472 pixels and at most 420 x 560 pixels, saved as a JPEG weighing between 40 and 120 KB. A picture straight from a phone is often thirty times heavier than that.

Shrinking a phone photo is not enough, because the framing is checked too. On a 354 x 472 pixel photo, the face is about 205 pixels wide, the crown sits 10 to 70 pixels from the top edge, and the eyes sit more than 256 pixels above the bottom edge. The head is centred, and the eyes are more than 60 pixels apart.

A studio file prepared to these numbers takes a few minutes and saves you a fight with the upload screen. Either way, you also bring a printed 33 x 48 mm photo to attach to the form you print and sign.

Not every trip to China needs a visa photo any more. At the time of writing, holders of an ordinary Canadian passport can enter China without a visa for a stay of up to 30 days, for tourism, business, visiting family or friends, or transit.

That exemption is temporary and comes with an end date, so check the current rule before you book.

You still need a visa, and therefore a photo, if you are going to China to work, to study or to report as a journalist, if you plan to stay longer than 30 days, or if you travel on a passport that is not covered. And if you are a Chinese citizen living in Canada, your passport renewal needs photos whatever the visa rules say.

For a Chinese passport or visa photo, start with your hair. Tuck it behind both ears and lift any fringe off your eyebrows. Hair that hides the eyebrows, the eyes or the ears is listed among the official reasons for refusal.

Take off earrings, necklaces and hair ornaments. Jewellery is on the refused list too.

Wear a dark or mid-toned top with a simple neckline. The background is white, and a top that blends into it is not accepted.

Glasses may stay on only if the lenses are clear, there is no glare and the frames are thin enough to leave your eyes fully visible. If in doubt, take them off: it removes the risk.

A head covering worn for religious reasons stays on, as long as every facial feature shows. A hat, cap or fashion scarf comes off. Then look straight at the lens, head level, mouth closed, with a neutral expression.

A Chinese passport or visa photo is usually turned away for one of a handful of reasons:

• A Canadian-format 50 x 70 mm photo, or one trimmed down from it

• A head that is too small, too large or not centred in the 33 x 48 mm frame

• Hair covering the eyebrows, the eyes or the ears

• Earrings, a necklace or another ornament

• Tinted lenses, heavy frames or glare on the glasses

• A background that is not white, or that shows a shadow

• A top the same colour as the background

• A smile with the mouth open, closed eyes or a tilted head

• A digital file outside the pixel range, or heavier than 120 KB

• A blurred, over-exposed, damaged or retouched picture

A photo that does not meet the rules can have the application refused, and the whole file waits while you get a new one. The photo is the cheapest part of the application to get right.

Chinese passport photos and Chinese visa photos are part of our international passport photo service at 683 Rue Jean-Talon O in Montreal. We shoot on a white background, print at 33 x 48 mm, measure the head before you leave, and prepare the digital file at the size your form asks for. No appointment is needed, and photos are usually ready in about 15 minutes.

You can get two identical prints, a digital file or both; a passport renewal or a visa application usually calls for both. Current prices are on our international passport photo service page. If your photo is turned down, we reshoot it free.

The studio is open seven days a week: 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.