India OCI and visa photo size guide

OCI and visa photo specification

• 51 x 51mm square format (2 x 2 inches) — different from the 35 x 45mm rectangular format used for Indian passports
• Plain white background, no shadows or patterns
• Face should occupy roughly 70-80% of the frame, looking directly at the camera
• Neutral expression, eyes open, mouth closed
• No glasses, hats or head coverings (except for religious reasons, with full face visible)

File size limits

The OCI and Indian visa application portals enforce strict file size limits that catch many applicants out: photos for OCI and visa applications must typically be under 200KB, compared to the 250KB limit for Indian passport application photos.

Photos straight from a modern phone camera are often 2-5MB — far above either limit — so they need to be resized and compressed correctly, not just cropped. Uploading a photo that's the right dimensions but too large in file size is one of the most common causes of portal errors.

Indian passport vs OCI/visa photo — key differences

If you're applying for both an Indian passport renewal and an OCI card (a common combination for the Indian diaspora), you'll need two differently-shaped photos — our tool generates both the rectangular passport crop and the square OCI/visa crop from a single uploaded photo.

• Passport: 35 x 45mm rectangular, plain white background, under 250KB
• OCI / visa: 51 x 51mm square, plain white background, under 200KB
• Both require a recent photo (within 3-6 months), neutral expression, and no glasses

Avoiding upload errors on the OCI portal

The OCI online application (ociservices.gov.in) and Indian visa portals validate file size and dimensions on upload, rejecting files that are too large, too small, or the wrong aspect ratio with a generic error message that doesn't always specify which check failed.

Upload your photo to Smart Passport Photo and select India OCI/Visa as the document type — we generate a square crop with a plain white background, compressed to under 200KB, ready to upload directly to the portal.