India e-Visa Photo Upload Errors: Only JPG and Size Fixes
When the India e-Visa portal refuses your photo, the photograph is rarely the problem. The file is. The upload step on indianvisaonline.gov.in checks shape, format, and file size before anyone looks at your face, and a perfectly good passport photo fails those checks all the time. If you are staring at red error text right now, the fix is usually a two-minute change to the file, not a new trip to the pharmacy photo counter.
This guide is for the person stuck on that screen. Match what you are seeing to its cause below, change one thing, and upload again.
What the portal accepts
The e-Visa form asks for two uploads with two different sets of rules, and mixing them up is one of the most common ways to get stuck. The photo must be an image; the passport page must be a PDF. Each has its own size band.
| Upload | Format | File size | Shape and size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your photo | JPEG | 10 KB minimum, 1 MB maximum | Square (height equals width), at least 350 × 350 pixels |
| Passport bio page | 10 KB minimum, 300 KB maximum | The page showing your photo and personal details |
The picture itself follows ordinary visa-photo rules. The portal's instructions ask for a full face seen from the front with eyes open, the head centred and shown from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin, a plain light or white background, and no shadows or borders. Take your glasses off; it is the safe choice here as it is for most countries now.
Match your error to its cause
Almost every failure on this step traces back to one of five file problems. Start with the row that matches what the portal is telling you.
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A message that only JPG files can be uploaded, even though your file is a JPEG | The file ends in .jpeg, is really a HEIC or PNG with the wrong name, or the browser is misreporting it | Re-save as a true JPEG with a .jpg ending; if it still fails, try another browser |
| File too large | A phone photo or a pharmacy's digital file above 1 MB | Resize to about 1000 × 1000 pixels and export as JPEG at medium quality |
| File too small, or the image looks blurred in the preview | Over-compressed, or a tiny thumbnail under 10 KB or under 350 pixels | Go back to the original and export larger |
| Height and width must be equal | A portrait-shaped photo, such as a UK, Schengen, or uncropped phone picture | Crop to a square before uploading |
| The passport page will not upload | It is a JPEG, or a PDF scan above 300 KB | Save it as a PDF and lower the scan resolution |
The "only JPG" error on a file that is already a JPEG
This is the error that makes people doubt their own eyes, and it is usually about the file's name or its true format rather than the image. Travellers on Reddit's travel forums have described the portal rejecting a valid photo with a message that only JPG files can be uploaded. The fixes they report cluster around the same three moves, which points to a strict check on the file rather than a judgement about the picture.
- Check the ending. A file called photo.jpeg and one called photo.jpg are the same kind of image, but applicants report that the portal is happier with .jpg. Re-save or rename so the name ends in .jpg, in lower case.
- Check the real format. iPhones save photos as HEIC by default. Renaming a HEIC file to .jpg does not convert it; the file is still HEIC inside and will be refused. Open the picture and use Export or Save As to produce a real JPEG. The same goes for screenshots, which are PNG files.
- Switch browsers. Several people report that the identical file went through on a different browser, or on a laptop after failing on a phone. If the file is right and the portal still refuses it, this costs you one minute to try.
These fixes come from applicants' public accounts, not from the Indian government, so treat them as things to try in order rather than official guidance. They are free to test and none of them changes your photo.
Why a good US passport photo still fails
A compliant US photo already has the right shape for India, so the trouble is nearly always file size. The US digital standard published by the State Department is a square JPEG between 600 × 600 and 1200 × 1200 pixels at 240 KB or less, which sits comfortably inside India's 10 KB to 1 MB band. A file built to that standard should upload without changes.
The files people actually have are not built to that standard. A pharmacy that emails you a "digital copy" often sends a high-resolution scan of several megabytes. A phone picture of yourself against a wall is typically 2 to 5 MB and portrait-shaped. Both are fine photographs and both are refused, the first for size and the second for size and shape. Our guide to US passport photo requirements covers the 2 × 2 standard itself; for India the only extra work is getting the file under 1 MB.
The opposite failure happens after an aggressive fix. Running a photo through a "compress to 20 KB" tool gets it past the size check and then leaves you with a smeared, blocky face. The upload step will not stop that, but a person reviews the application afterwards, and a face they cannot make out is a reason to send it back. Aim for the middle of the band: a 600 to 1000 pixel square at somewhere between 100 and 500 KB.
The passport scan is a separate problem
The passport upload fails for the opposite reason to the photo: people send an image when the portal wants a document. A phone picture of your passport page is a JPEG, and the passport field only takes PDF. The 300 KB ceiling is also far tighter than most scanner apps produce by default.
Use your phone's built-in document scanner (in Notes on an iPhone, or Google Drive on Android), scan the single bio page, and choose the lowest quality setting that keeps the text and the machine-readable lines at the bottom sharp. If the PDF is still above 300 KB, scan in greyscale or reduce the resolution and try again. Check that all four corners of the page are in frame before you upload.
A file that works first time
You can avoid the whole loop by preparing one file to the middle of every limit before you open the form. Start from the original picture rather than a copy that has been through a messaging app, since those are compressed in ways you cannot control.
- Crop to a square with your head centred and some space above your hair.
- Resize to between 600 and 1000 pixels on each side.
- Export as JPEG and make sure the name ends in .jpg.
- Confirm the file is between about 100 KB and 500 KB.
- Scan the passport bio page to a PDF under 300 KB as a separate file.
If you are starting from a phone picture, the free photo tool crops to a square with a plain background; choose the US 2 × 2 format, which gives the shape India's portal needs. Our guide to taking a passport photo at home covers lighting and background so the picture is right before you worry about the file.
e-Visa, paper visa, and OCI are three different photos
Advice for one Indian application does not carry over to the others, and a lot of confusing forum answers come from people mixing them up. The e-Visa is the online form described here. A regular visa filed through a visa centre uses a printed 2 × 2 inch photo on a white background. An OCI card application has its own upload limits, which are tighter than the e-Visa's, and asks for a light background that is not white; check the current figures on ociservices.gov.in before you prepare that file.
The India passport photo requirements page covers the photo for an Indian passport, which is a fourth case again. The same thing happens with other countries' online forms: the UK eVisa upload rejects square photos because it wants a portrait shape, the reverse of India's rule.
Leave yourself time
Upload errors are easy to fix but they eat into a deadline that is shorter than most people expect. India's e-Visa instructions tell applicants to apply at least four days before arrival. Sort the files out a week or more ahead, so that a stubborn error costs you an evening rather than a flight. If the photo passes the upload but your application is later returned over the picture itself, our rundown of why passport photos get rejected covers the photographic causes: shadows, glasses, expression, and background.