China visa photo — 33 × 48 mm prints and a COVA upload file within 40–120 KB

A Chinese visa photo is 33 mm wide and 48 mm high, in color, taken within the last six months, on a white or near-white background with no border. The head measures 28–33 mm from chin to crown and 15–22 mm across, with 3–5 mm of space above the crown and at least 7 mm below the chin. For the online application the same chart asks for a JPEG 354–420 pixels wide by 472–560 pixels high, 40–120 KB. The rules come from a chart by the Department of Consular Affairs of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which the Chinese Embassy in the US publishes on its visa page.

The official numbers

The pixel figures use a 354 × 472 photo as the worked case. Two of them disagree inside the chart itself: the text gives the space above the crown as 10–70 px while the drawing marks 10–85, and the text gives face width as 205 px plus or minus 14 while the drawing marks 191–251. The tool relies on neither. It positions the head by the paper rules, whose photo size and head measurements the Los Angeles consulate also publishes.

Other conditions apply to both forms. Face the camera with the whole head visible, ears showing, eyes open and mouth closed. Tilt your head no more than 20 degrees to either side or 25 degrees up or down. Head coverings are allowed only for religious reasons, and only if no facial feature is hidden.

Making the photo here

1. Pick a sharp, evenly lit original. Stand a little way in front of a white wall so your shadow falls behind you, and have someone else hold the camera at eye level.
2. Choose the file. Photo type is already set to China visa — 33 × 48 mm.
3. Line up the guides. Leave Show face-position guides ticked. The yellow line, 4 mm from the top, marks where your crown goes, and the blue band, 32 to 37 mm down, is where your chin belongs. The green dotted line between them is only an estimate of the eye line.
4. Adjust with Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position, by dragging the picture, or with the arrow keys.
5. Background: leave it on Keep the original unless the wall really is gray or patterned. The other two choices replace it with white using an on-device AI model, and any halo it leaves around hair is something you would need to inspect yourself.
6. Print sheet: choose 4 × 6 in JPEG, 4 × 6 in PDF or Both, then press Make passport photos.

You get three files: a 390 × 567 pixel print file at 300 DPI, a 363 × 528 pixel JPEG for the online form (its name ends in “-china-visa-digital-363x528.jpg”), and a 4 × 6 inch sheet holding nine photos in three rows of three. The photos on that sheet sit only 0.65 mm apart, so the tool reminds you to print borderless at actual size and cut along the gray lines. Measure one print with a ruler before using it: it should be 33 mm across.

The online form and the 40–120 KB limit

Since September 30, 2025 the Chinese Embassy in the US has taken visa applications through the China Online Visa Application system (COVA). Its guidelines say the photo step offers drag-and-crop editing and an automatic check of whether the photo meets the rules. If the check keeps failing, you may carry on with the rest of the form and bring a standard printed photo when you submit your passport.

The tool searches for the highest JPEG quality that lands between 40 and 120 KB and reports the final size. The lower limit is counted as 40 × 1,024 bytes and the upper as 120 × 1,000 bytes, so the file passes whichever way a system counts a kilobyte. A very plain photo can fall short of 40 KB even at top quality, and a noisy one can exceed 120 KB at low quality; the result line tells you which. A plain wall, soft light and a sharp original fix both. If your phone saved HEIC, convert it with HEIC to JPG first.

What the tool does not check

• It has no face detection. The guides are fixed lines on the crop. You place your head yourself.
• It does not judge the photo itself: exposure, color, skin tone, shadows, glare, red-eye, blur and head tilt are all outside what it measures, yet the chart lists each as a reason for refusal.
• It cannot know your post’s practice. Visa centers abroad run their own checklists. Acceptance always rests with the embassy, consulate or visa center.

Why photos are turned down

The lower half of the official chart shows rejected examples in six groups. In plain terms:

• Quality: low contrast or blur, under- or over-exposure, unnatural skin tone, a shadow across the face or on the wall, a damaged or smeared print, fish-eye distortion, red-eye.
• Position: too close, too far away (eyes under 60 px apart), off-center, or part of the face cut off.
• Expression: mouth wide open, eyes closed, crying or another unnatural expression.
• Pose: head tilted, turned away from the camera, a portrait-style angle, chin dropped or raised.
• Eyeglasses: heavy frames, frames across the eyes, reflections in the lenses, tinted lenses.
• Background and covering: jewelry or ornaments, a hand, toy or second person, a colored background, clothes matching the background, a stamp mark, hair over the eyebrows, eyes or ears, or a covered face.

For other countries’ sizes, the Passport Photo Maker lists every preset. If a form gives you a different KB window, Resize Image in KB can hit it, and the US visa photo page covers the 600 × 600 pixel American format.