Pakistan e-Visa Photo: 350 KB, and a Face That Fills 70–80% of the Frame
Pakistan publishes exactly one number about the uploaded file — 350 KB — and nothing at all about pixels or formats. The difficult requirement is elsewhere: your face has to take up 70–80% of the photograph. That is a share of the whole frame, and it is the largest face share asked for by any document rule on this site; the US visa rule, by contrast, measures head height against frame height at 50–69%. The two numbers are not interchangeable, and mixing them up is how a photo that "looks about right" gets refused. The order of operations matters more here than on any other page in this set. Crop first, compress second. If your original has the face at 40% of the frame, cropping to 70–80% removes background and leaves fewer pixels for the face — but it also shrinks the file, which means the compressor has to work less hard to reach 350 KB, so the face you keep stays sharp. Do it the other way round and you compress a wide shot down to a small file, then blow up the face to fill the frame, and the face is the part that suffers. Two further quirks are worth knowing before you start: the page calls for a "professionally printed" 45 × 35 mm photo in a workflow that only accepts a digital upload, and it names the background twice with two different answers.
Pakistan online visa photo requirements (official)
| Maximum file size | 350 KB — "Photographs can be up to a maximum of 350KB". This is the only number on the whole page that applies to the file you upload |
|---|---|
| Face size | Your face must take up 70–80% of the photograph. That is a share of the whole frame, not a head-height ratio — the highest face share of any document rule on this site |
| Printed size | 45 mm high by 35 mm wide, so portrait at a 35:45 ratio. Stated as a requirement, and tied to the words "professionally printed" |
| Pixel dimensions | Not specified. pixel, dpi and resolution appear zero times on the page, so there is no pixel floor and no pixel ceiling |
| File format | Not specified either. JPG, JPEG, PNG and WebP are not mentioned anywhere — the 350 KB ceiling is the only file-level rule published |
| Minimum file size | None stated — no floor is given |
| Background | Contradictory in the source. The quality list says "a plain white background"; the lighting section says "a plain light-colored background" |
| Age of photo | No more than 6 months old |
| Glasses | Not allowed. The page addresses people who wear glasses and still asks for the photo to show the eyes "clearly with no glasses on" |
| Head coverings | Permitted, but the face must be clear from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead, with both edges of the face visible |
| Lighting | Uniform, with no shadows or flash reflections on the face and no red eye. Colour-neutral, natural skin tones, appropriate brightness and contrast |
| Framing | You alone — "no chair backs or other people visible" — looking at the camera, neutral expression, mouth closed, both edges of the face visible |
| Colour | Colour only. "Photographs taken with a digital camera must be high quality colour", and black and white is not offered as an option |
| Self-check | The portal ships its own "Photograph Verification" tool, so a file can be tested against the spec before the application is submitted |
Source: Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan — Pakistan Online Visa System (NADRA), Photograph Guide
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Target size: 350 KB
Your image never leaves your device — all compression happens locally in your browser.
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How to use
- Crop to the face rule first. The face should occupy 70–80% of the frame, with the head and the top of the shoulders filling the rest. Keep the 35:45 portrait shape while you do it.
- Compress to 350 KB. That is the official ceiling and the only file-level number the portal publishes.
- Leave the format alone unless your own editor changes it. Pakistan does not name JPG, PNG or WebP, so there is no format rule to break here — the 350 KB limit is the only test the page describes.
- Take the glasses off, even if you wear them every day. The page answers the glasses question directly and the answer is no.
- Pick white for the background. The page asks for "plain white" in one section and "plain light-colored" in another; white satisfies both readings.
- Shoot alone against a bare wall. The guidelines specifically exclude chair backs and other people from the frame.
- Run the file through the portal's own Photograph Verification tool before you submit, so a rejection costs you a minute rather than an application.
Frequently asked questions
Is 350 KB a hard limit?
The page states it flatly: "Photographs can be up to a maximum of 350KB." There is no qualifier, no "recommended", and no separate figure for a different visa stream — this is the only size rule the portal publishes. Note what is missing alongside it: no minimum, so unlike the UK (50 KB floor), New Zealand (250 KB) or Canada (200 KB), over-compressing is not a rule violation here. The thing to protect is legibility, not a byte count at the bottom end.
Does "70–80%" mean the face fills 70–80% of the height or of the area?
The wording is "your face takes up 70–80% of the photograph", which reads as a share of the frame, not a height ratio. This matters because the US visa rule is written the other way: there the head must be 50–69% of the image height. A photo built to the US number will look too loose for Pakistan, because a head that occupies 60% of the height leaves far more than 20–30% of the frame as background. Treat the Pakistani figure as "the face is most of the picture", and crop until the background is a margin rather than a setting.
Are there pixel dimension requirements?
None are published. The words pixel, dpi and resolution do not appear on the page at all — the same situation as Tanzania and India, and the opposite of New Zealand (900–4500 px wide, 1200–6000 px high) and Canada (1800 × 1200 minimum). The practical effect is that shrinking an image to reach 350 KB cannot breach a stated pixel rule. But there is a catch specific to this page: because the face has to fill 70–80% of the frame, aggressive downscaling eats into the one region that has to stay sharp, and no pixel floor will warn you before it does.
What file format does the portal accept?
The page does not say. Unlike Tanzania (JPG or JPEG only) and the US visa rule (JPEG only), Pakistan publishes no format list at all — only the 350 KB ceiling. That removes one common failure mode and leaves another: if your editor or a converter silently switches the file to WebP to hit the size, nothing on this page tells you whether that is acceptable. Keep the file in JPEG unless you have tested the upload, because JPEG is the format every visa portal in this set handles.
Why does it ask for a "professionally printed" photo if I am uploading a file?
Because the guidelines were written for the paper era and carried over. The line reads "Your photos must be professionally printed and 45 mm (Millimeter) high by 35mm wide" — a print specification sitting inside a purely digital upload flow. What it means in practice is that the source image should look like a studio portrait: sharp, evenly lit, correctly proportioned at 35:45, with no phone-camera softness. It does not mean you have to scan a print, and scanning one is a poor idea anyway, since a scan of a print is the softest possible starting point for a 350 KB budget.
White background or light-coloured background?
The page says both, in different sections. The quality list requires "a plain white background"; the style and lighting list requires "a plain light-colored background". This is an internal inconsistency in the official text, not a distinction we are drawing. White satisfies both sentences, so shoot on white and the conflict stops mattering. What is unambiguous is that the background must be plain, evenly lit, and free of shadows or flash reflection.
Can I wear glasses?
No. The page puts the question under "If you wear glasses" and then answers it with "The photograph must show your eyes clearly with no glasses on." That is stricter than Singapore (clear lenses allowed, no red eye) and the same as the US and Vietnam — remove them, including prescription glasses, and make sure there is no red eye in the result.
What does "no chair backs" mean?
It is a specific instruction against a specific mistake: people sit down for a selfie and the back of the chair enters the frame behind the shoulder. The full line is "show you alone (no chair backs or other people visible), looking at the camera with a neutral expression and your mouth closed". Stand against a bare wall instead of sitting, and check the corners of the frame before you crop — a chair back that survives the crop will still be visible in the final image.
Is my photo uploaded to a server?
No. The compression runs inside your browser and the file never leaves your device, which matters for a document photo. You can confirm it in the browser network panel — the only requests are for the page itself.