New Zealand visa photo — a 3:4 JPEG for INZ online applications and 35 × 45 mm prints

Immigration New Zealand’s rule for an online visa or NZeTA photo is a JPG or JPEG in portrait, with a 3:4 aspect ratio, between 512 KB and 3.14 MB, taken within the last six months. Your face covers 70% to 80% of the image and sits in the middle, you look straight at the camera with a neutral expression and your mouth closed, and the background is plain and neutral, with nothing and nobody else in it. The photo must not be changed with AI or editing tools. A photo sent with a paper application is 35 mm wide and 45 mm high.

INZ’s two documents

INZ states its requirements in a web page for applicants and a PDF for professional photographers. They agree on the essentials and differ slightly on numbers:

The tool takes the overlap: 1500 × 2000 pixels, between 512 KB and 3 MB, and a head of 31.5 to 36 mm on a 45 mm print, which is 70% to 80%.

Visa photo or passport photo?

New Zealand has two photo authorities. Immigration New Zealand handles visas and the NZeTA; the Department of Internal Affairs handles passports for New Zealand citizens. Their numbers are not interchangeable, so a file made for one may be refused by the other. If you are a citizen renewing a passport, use the New Zealand passport photo page instead.

Setting up the shot the way INZ describes

INZ’s guide for photographers is just as useful at home. Set the camera or phone to colour and to save JPEG files, and choose a white balance that matches the light (daylight, tungsten or flash) so your skin does not turn orange or blue. Stand in front of a plain, pale wall, not pure white, far enough from it that your shadow does not fall on it. Put the camera level with your eyes, ideally on a tripod; if you need to fill more of the frame, INZ’s guide prefers optical zoom to digital zoom. Light from in front and slightly above, or bounced off a white ceiling, removes most shadows. Wear plain clothes, push your hair back from your face and ears, and keep anything else out of the frame.

Making the photo here

1. Have someone photograph you in even light against a plain, pale wall. Use the original file, not a screenshot or a photo of a print.
2. Choose the file. Photo type is set to New Zealand visa (INZ) — 35 × 45 mm / 1500 × 2000 px.
3. Keep Show face-position guides ticked. The yellow line for the top of your hair is about 4.1 mm down; the blue chin band runs from about 35.6 to 40.1 mm.
4. Move and scale with Zoom, Horizontal position and Vertical position, by dragging, or with the keyboard, until your face is centred on the vertical line.
5. Keep Background on Keep the original. Cutting you out and placing you on a plain background is one of the edits INZ names.
6. Press Make passport photos, after choosing a Print sheet format if you also want prints.

The upload file ends in “-new-zealand-visa-digital-1500x2000.jpg”. It comes from the full-resolution crop, loses a sliver at each side to reach 3:4, and is saved at the highest JPEG quality that keeps it between 512 KB and 3 MB. Because the sides are trimmed rather than the top or bottom, the face keeps the same share of the height as on the print. You also get a 413 × 531 pixel print image at 300 DPI and a 4 × 6 inch sheet with eight 35 × 45 mm photos.

Uploading it

INZ’s upload checks the photo and shows an error message when something is wrong. Read the message, fix that one thing, and try again with a new photo rather than editing the old one. If your phone saved the picture as HEIC, convert it first, because INZ accepts only JPG or JPEG.

Limits of this page

• No face detection. The guides are fixed lines and you do the positioning.
• No quality check. Blur, shadows, glare, closed eyes and a turned head are not detected.
• Small sources are enlarged. If your crop holds fewer than 1500 × 2000 pixels, the file is scaled up and looks softer; zoom less or use a larger original. If a very plain photo still comes out under 512 KB, the result line says so.
• No promise of acceptance. INZ decides whether the photo meets its standards.

Why INZ rejects photos

INZ’s examples point to the same faults again and again: AI-enhanced or edited images, a photo of a photo, blur, dark images or uneven light, shadows on the face or background, a tilted or turned head, an open mouth or smile, closed eyes, tinted or heavy-framed glasses and glare, hair over the face or ears, head coverings over the mouth or sides of the face, patterned clothing or backgrounds, and other people or objects in the picture.

The photo sizes table compares New Zealand with other countries. HEIC to JPG converts iPhone photos, the Australia visa photo page covers the neighbouring ImmiAccount rules, and the Passport Photo Maker lists every preset.