OCI Photo and Signature: Make Them Fit the Portal Rules
The OCI portal takes a square JPEG photo between 200 × 200 and 900 × 900 pixels, and a signature three times as wide as it is tall (200 × 67 to 900 × 300 pixels), each no larger than 200 KB. Pick the photo or the signature below, drop your file, and download a version that meets every rule.
Upload rules
square · 200×200 to 900×900 px
Fitting to: JPEG · max 200 KB · square · 200×200 to 900×900 px
Plain light-coloured background, not white, no border. Face centred, covering about 80% of the photo.
Source: OCI Services FAQ (Ministry of Home Affairs) and Embassy of India, Washington OCI FAQ (checked 2026-09-24)
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OCI photo and signature rules
| Upload | Rules | Also required |
|---|---|---|
| Photograph | JPEG · max 200 KB · square · 200×200 to 900×900 px | Plain light-coloured background, not white, no border. Face centred, covering about 80% of the photo. |
| Signature | JPEG · max 200 KB · 3:1 · 200×67 to 900×300 px | Legible signature on a plain white background. |
Source: OCI Services FAQ (Ministry of Home Affairs) and Embassy of India, Washington OCI FAQ. Last checked 24 September 2026. Portals change their rules with new notifications, so check yours before you submit.
How to resize an OCI photo and signature
The OCI portal checks the file before it accepts it: the format, the file size, the pixel size and the shape. A phone photo fails most of those at once. It's 4:3 rather than square, several thousand pixels wide, and a few megabytes. The tool fixes each one: it crops a square around your face, centred, scales it to within 200–900 pixels, and searches the JPEG quality for the best-looking version under 200 KB.
Signatures need the opposite treatment. Cropping a signature to 3:1 would cut through it, so the tool fits it inside a white 3:1 box instead, the way you'd paste it onto a strip of white paper. Sign with a dark pen on plain white paper and photograph it. The tool turns the grey of a phone photo back into white paper, crops to your signature, and handles the size and shape.
Your photo and signature are processed in this browser tab. They aren't uploaded anywhere until you upload them to the OCI portal yourself.
- 1Choose the photo or the signature. Pick "OCI card: Photograph" or "OCI card: Signature" in the Form list. The rules are filled in for you.
- 2Drop your file. Use a recent photo on a plain light background that is not white, or a photo or scan of your signature on white paper.
- 3Download and upload. Click Make it fit. Each rule gets a ✓ or ✗; when all are ✓, download the JPEG and upload it to the OCI portal.
OCI documents and PDFs
The same application asks for supporting documents as PDFs. To turn phone photos of a passport or address proof into one PDF under a size limit, use images to PDF; to shrink a PDF you already have, use compress PDF; and to split a long PDF into parts that each fit, use split PDF by size. Check the size your portal page states for each document.
Limits for email, chat apps and other forms are collected in upload size limits.
Frequently asked questions
What size should the OCI photo be?
A square JPEG between 200 × 200 and 900 × 900 pixels, no larger than 200 KB. Printed, that is at least 51 × 51 mm (2 × 2 inches), with your face covering about 80% of the photo. The tool finds your face and crops a square around it with your head at about 70% of the height, keeps it within those pixel limits, and lowers the JPEG quality only as far as needed to get under 200 KB. The face is found on your device; the photo is not uploaded.
Why does the OCI portal reject my signature?
Usually the shape. The portal wants a signature image exactly three times as wide as it is tall (it writes this as an aspect ratio of 1:3, height to width), between 200 × 67 and 900 × 300 pixels. A phone photo of a signature is 4:3, so it fails. The tool fits your signature inside a 3:1 white box instead of cutting it, and keeps the file under 200 KB. If you photographed the signature, it first makes the paper white and the ink dark and crops to the signature, so it fills the box instead of sitting small on a grey sheet.
Can my OCI photo have a white background?
No. The OCI portal asks for a plain, light-coloured background that is not white, and no border. If your photo was taken against a white or busy wall, tick "Make the background light grey": a model finds you in the photo, on your device, and puts plain light grey behind you. Look at the edges of your hair before you upload. A photo taken against a light grey or cream wall needs no editing.
My file is under 200 KB already. Do I still need this?
Only if the shape or pixel size is off: a photo that isn't square, or a signature that isn't 3:1, is rejected whatever its size. The checklist under each result tells you which rules a file meets.
Is 200 KB measured as 200,000 or 204,800 bytes?
The portal doesn't say. The tool keeps files at or under 200,000 bytes, so they pass either way.