Check your PR card photo file
For the digital file your studio gave you. It stays on your device.
Your photo stays on this device. Your browser reads it; nothing is uploaded or sent anywhere, and this page never uses your camera.
The digital file your studio gave you.
This tool measures the file only: its type, size, pixels, shape, colour and any date written in it, plus a head-size guide you compare yourself. It never crops, retouches or takes a photo, and never makes a back-of-photo image. It can’t judge lighting, shadows, expression, glare or the background: compare your photo with the examples.
What this checks
| Rule | IRCC value | How it is checked |
|---|---|---|
| File type | JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) | Read from the file’s first bytes, not its name |
| File size | 4 MB or less | The file’s size in bytes |
| Pixels | 715 × 1000 to 2000 × 2800 | Width and height as your browser opens it. The portal’s upload screen quotes 420 × 540; the larger minimum satisfies both. |
| Shape | 5:7, like the 50 × 70 mm print and both pixel sizes | Width divided by height, within 1% |
| Colour | Colour or black and white | The colour mode in the file; a CMYK print file is flagged |
| Taken | Within 12 months of applying | The date the camera wrote, if any. A date in a file proves nothing either way. |
The head-size guide uses IRCC’s printed-photo head size, 31 to 36 mm from chin to crown on a 70 mm photo, drawn over your whole photo. IRCC gives no head size for digital files. Source: canada.ca, Photos for permanent residents
If your file fails
- Wrong type, too few or too many pixels, wrong shape
- Ask the studio for a new digital file. This tool does not crop or resize: IRCC counts cropping as altering a photo.
- Over 4 MB, pixels fine
- Save a smaller copy here. Same picture, same pixel size; only the file size changes.
- CMYK colour
- Ask the studio for an ordinary (sRGB) JPEG.
- Head does not fit the guide
- Ask the studio to retake the photo.
The back of the photo
The portal also asks for the back: a second image carrying four details, stamped or handwritten by the studio.
- Name and date of birth of the person in the photo
- Date the photo was taken
- Name of the photo studio
- Complete address of the photo studio
This tool never makes or edits a back-of-photo image. Only the studio can put these details on it, or give you a receipt that carries them.
Then check what a file cannot show
Twelve illustrated pairs, one rule each: expression, glasses, lighting, background, framing and more.