The upload form keeps rejecting my photo
This is a different problem from a photo that breaks the rules, and it usually has nothing to do with how the photo looks. Upload forms check file properties: size in kilobytes, pixel dimensions, format. A good photo fails these constantly, because a good photo tends to be a large file.
Your file is probably too big, not too small
The single most common cause. A modern phone produces a JPEG of several megabytes, and several of these forms cap out far below that. The DS-160 stops at 240 KB. China's visa upload wants 40 to 120 KB. India's e-Visa allows 10 to 300 KB. A photo straight off a phone is ten to fifty times over those limits, and the form will not tell you by how much.
The exact windows
These are the file limits published by each authority. Note that some also set a floor: compress too hard to get under the ceiling and you fall below it, which is a failure people hit on the second attempt after the first was too large.
- US visa, DS-160: JPEG, maximum 240 KB, 600 x 600 px
- US passport upload: JPG, JPEG or HEIF, 54 KB to 10 MB, 600 x 600 to 1200 x 1200 px
- UK: JPEG, 50 KB to 10 MB, at least 600 x 750 px
- Canada: JPEG or JPEG2000, roughly 240 kB to 4 MB, at least 420 x 540 px
- Australia: JPEG, 70 KB to 3.5 MB, 1200 x 1600 px preferred
- China: JPEG, 40 to 120 KB, exactly 354 x 472 px
- India e-Visa: JPEG only, 10 KB to 300 KB, 350 x 350 to 1000 x 1000 px
Two rules that are stricter than they look
China asks for an exact pixel count rather than a minimum. 354 by 472 and nothing else, so a larger, better photo is refused for being larger. And India accepts JPEG only, which trips up anyone uploading straight from an iPhone, because the default format there is HEIF and the file extension does not always make that obvious.
Why resaving usually makes it worse
The instinct is to open the photo and save it smaller, which drops quality across the whole image and often lands you under a minimum instead. The reliable approach is to encode once at the target size, stepping quality down only as far as needed, so the file lands inside the window on the first try rather than bouncing between the two limits.
What to do now
- 1Find the limit for your specific formNot the country, the form. The US passport upload and the DS-160 belong to the same government and have different ceilings, 10 MB against 240 KB.
- 2Check the format, not just the extensioniPhones shoot HEIF by default. India's e-Visa accepts JPEG only, and several other forms are the same. Converting is not optional there.
- 3Produce the file at the right size in one passPick the document on our site and the output is encoded to that specification, inside the file size window and at the required pixel dimensions.
Questions
Why does the form reject my photo without saying why?
Most upload forms report a generic failure. In practice it is nearly always file size or pixel dimensions, both of which you can check before uploading.
What is the file size limit for the DS-160?
240 KB, as a JPEG at 600 by 600 pixels. It is much tighter than the US passport upload, which allows up to 10 MB, so a file that worked for one will often fail the other.
Why does China reject a higher resolution photo?
Because it asks for exactly 354 by 472 pixels rather than a minimum. Anything else is refused, including a sharper, larger file.
My photo is now too small. What happened?
You compressed past the floor. Several forms set a minimum as well as a maximum: 50 KB for the UK, 70 KB for Australia, 54 KB for the US passport upload. Encode once at the target rather than saving repeatedly.
Can I just rename a HEIF file to .jpg?
No. The extension does not change the contents, and the form reads the contents. It has to be converted.