On this page
Specifications
Every measurable requirement, in the same order on every country page. Bracketed numbers point to the official source below.
| Printed photo | ||
|---|---|---|
| Photo size | 33 mm (width) × 48 mm (height) | [1] |
| Head height (chin to crown) | between 28 mm and 33 mm | [1] |
| Eye position | > 256 pixels (eye line to bottom edge, digital photo) | [1] |
| Background | white or close to white | [1] |
| Print resolution | Not specified by the authority | |
| Paper | Not specified by the authority | |
| Copies required | Not specified by the authority | |
| Digital upload | ||
| Pixel size | 354 pixels (width) × 472 pixels (height) and 420 pixels (width) × 560 pixels (height) | [1] |
| File format | JPEG | [1] |
| File size | 40 KB – 120 KB | [1] |
| Colour | RGB 24-bit true colour | [1] |
| Validity | ||
| Taken within | taken within 6 months | [1] |
| Also specified | ||
| Head width | between 15 mm and 22 mm | [1] |
| Top margin (crown to top edge) | between 3 mm and 5 mm | [1] |
| Top margin — digital photo | 10–70 pixels from the top edge of the image to the crown of the head | [1] |
| Face width — digital photo | 205 pixels ± 14 pixels | [1] |
| Bottom margin — paper photo | ≥ 7 mm, measured from the bottom of the chin to the bottom edge of the photo | [1] |
| Head position tolerance — digital photo | ≤ 20° for left or right tilt (yaw and roll) and ≤ 25° for up or down tilt (pitch) | [1] |
| Inter-eye distance — digital photo | > 60 pixels | [1] |
| Pose | Frontal view, entire head and face clearly visible | [1] |
| Head height — passport photo standard | 30–34 mm | [3] |
| Head width — passport photo standard | 16–24 mm | [3] |
| Background — passport photo standard | Uniform white, light grey or light blue | [3] |
| Resolution — passport photo standard | 300 dpi minimum (scanned prints) | [3] |
| File size — passport photo standard | 20–80 KB | [3] |
| Paper — passport photo standard | Photo-paper print; no stains, creases, scratches or borders | [3] |
| Rejected examples — expression, head position and pose | Too close; Too far away; Not centered; Facial features incomplete; Mouth wide open; Eyes closed; Unnatural expression/crying; Head tilted; Head not centered/looking away from camera; Portrait style; Head lowering down or holding up | [2] |
| Rejected examples — image quality | Low contrast/blurred; Under-exposed/low-saturated; Over-exposed/high contrast (hot spots); Unnatural skin tone; Shadow across face; Shadow in background; Damaged or smeared; Distorted/fish-eye; Red-eye | [2] |
| Rejected examples — glasses | Frames too heavy; Frames covering eyes or reflection on lenses; Tinted lenses | [2] |
| Rejected examples — ornaments and extras in frame | Wearing jewellery or ornaments; Hand/toy/another person | [2] |
| Rejected examples — obscuring | Stamp/smears; Hair covering eyebrows, eyes or ears; Face covered | [2] |
| Two formats — summary table | A Digital Photo column (pixel figures, referenced to the eye line and the crown) and a Paper Photo for Visa Application Form column (millimetre figures, referenced to the chin and the crown) are listed side by side | [1] |
Rules
What is allowed and what is refused. Same ten rows on every page; “Conditional” means allowed only as described.
| Expression | Required | The facial expression must be neutral [1] |
| Eyes | Required | eyes open [1] |
| Glasses | Conditional | Eyeglasses are allowed in the photo only if the lenses are not tinted and there is no glare, shadows, or frames obscuring the eyes. [1] |
| Head covering | Conditional | Hats or other head coverings are only allowed if worn for religious reasons and if they do not obscure any facial features. [1] |
| Hair | Not allowed | Hair covering eyebrows, eyes or ears [2] |
| Ears | Required | ears visible [1] |
| Clothing | Not allowed | Garment identical to background [2] |
| Retouching / filters | Not specified | — |
| Shadows and objects | Not allowed | no background light or shadow over face [1] |
| Infants and children | Not specified | — |
Notes and common mistakes
Two formats published together
The application system’s photo page is laid out as two parallel tables rather than one: a paper photo, for the printed application form, and a digital photo, for the online upload [1]. Each has its own composition figures, so a photo that satisfies the paper table is not, by itself, evidence that it also satisfies the digital one — the two are checked against different units and different reference edges of the image [1].
Pose and expression
The photo must present a frontal view with the entire head and face clearly visible, a neutral expression, eyes open, mouth closed, and the ears visible [1]. No light or shadow from the background may fall across the face [1]. The accepted-versus-rejected examples reinforce this with the opposite cases: eyes closed, an unnatural expression or crying, the mouth held wide open, and a shadow across the face or in the background [2].
Glasses, head coverings and hair
Eyeglasses are permitted only if the lenses are not tinted and nothing obscures the eyes — no glare, no shadow, and no part of the frame across the eye [1]; the example set separately marks frames that are too heavy as a rejection case [2]. A hat or other head covering is accepted only for religious reasons, and only if it leaves every facial feature visible [1]. Hair that covers the eyebrows, eyes, or ears is rejected outright, as is clothing that is the same colour as the background [2].
Other rejection examples
Beyond pose and glasses, the accepted-versus-rejected set flags a run of image-quality and framing problems: low contrast or blur, under- or over-exposure, an unnatural skin tone, a damaged or smeared photo, visible distortion, and red-eye [2]. On positioning, it rejects a head that is too close to or too far from the camera, not centred, tilted, or turned away, along with jewellery, other ornaments, or an extra hand, toy, or person appearing in the frame [2].
How this differs from the Chinese passport photo
The Chinese passport photo follows a separate guideline issued by the National Immigration Administration, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ visa specification [3]. That guideline sets its own background-colour and head-size figures for the passport photo [3]; the visa specification sets its own, independently, for the visa photo [1]; the figures on this page are the ones a China visa application is checked against, not the passport figures.
Countries with the same photo size
Questions
Are the paper photo and the digital photo checked the same way?
No. The paper photo's measurements are checked in millimetres against the physical print, while the digital photo's measurements — margins, eye line, face width and spacing between the eyes — are checked in pixels against the uploaded image file [1]; they are two parallel specifications published together, not one specification with two units.
Can I wear glasses or a head covering in the photo?
Eyeglasses are allowed only if the lenses are not tinted and nothing — glare, a shadow, or the frame itself — obscures the eyes [1]; the accepted-versus-rejected examples separately flag frames that are too heavy [2]. A head covering is accepted only when worn for religious reasons and only if it does not hide any facial feature [1]; hair covering the eyebrows, eyes, or ears is also rejected [2].
What are the most common reasons a China visa photo is rejected?
The accepted-versus-rejected examples published with the application system list closed eyes, an unnatural expression, a wide-open mouth, shadows across the face or in the background, clothing that matches the background colour, jewellery or other ornaments, and an extra hand, toy, or person in the frame [2]. They also reject blurred or low-contrast images, over- or under-exposure, red-eye, visible distortion, stamps or smears on the photo, and a head that is tilted, off-centre, or positioned too close to or too far from the camera [2].
Does the Chinese passport use the same photo as the visa application?
Not necessarily; the National Immigration Administration publishes its own guideline for the Chinese passport photo, separate from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' visa specification [3]. The passport guideline sets its own background-colour and head-size figures [3], and the visa specification sets its own [1], so a photo produced to one standard is not automatically valid for the other.
Sources
Every value above is taken from the following official documents. If a source disagrees with this page, the source is right — tell us. Report an error.
- [1] Photo requirements (paper and digital photo) — China Visa Application (COVA online system), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China (Consular Department)
https://consular.mfa.gov.cn/VISA/img/zpyq1_en_US.87d8e90d.png - [2] Photo examples, accepted vs. rejected — China Visa Application (COVA online system), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China (Consular Department)
https://consular.mfa.gov.cn/VISA/img/zpyq2_en_US.08d85733.png - [3] 出入境证件相片照相指引 (Guidelines for Travel Documents Photographs, 2011) — National Immigration Administration (NIA), the Chinese passport photo standard
https://www.nia.gov.cn/n741445/n741619/n894511/c896346/content.html