The Chinese visa photo is 33 by 48 mm. It is close enough to 35 by 45 mm that people assume the two are interchangeable, and they are not: both dimensions differ, so the crop is genuinely different.
The specification
| Rule | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Print size | 33 × 48 mm |
| Head height | 28-33 mm, chin to crown |
| Head width | 15-22 mm |
| Background | Plain white |
| Expression | Neutral, mouth closed, both ears visible where possible |
| Glasses | Not permitted for most applications |
| Colour | Colour, no uniform, no hat |
| Age of photo | Taken within the last six months |
Head width, which is unusual
Specifying head width as well as height is rare, and it has a practical consequence: it constrains how far the face may be turned. A head rotated even slightly narrows in the image, and a face photographed from a shallow angle can satisfy height while failing width.
It also implicitly rules out heavy hair volume at the sides, since width is measured across the head rather than across the face.
The instruction that both ears should be visible where possible follows from the same intent - the specification wants a genuinely frontal photograph, not a three-quarter portrait.
The digital upload
Online visa applications add a pixel-size range and a file-weight window, typically expecting a JPEG at a few hundred pixels on a side and a file measured in tens of kilobytes rather than hundreds. These numbers are set by the application system and change; the page you are uploading through is the authority.
The narrow weight window is worth preparing for. It usually means a modest pixel size with careful JPEG quality rather than a large image compressed hard.
What gets refused
- A 35 by 45 mm photo submitted as though it were 33 by 48. The single most common error.
- Head turned slightly, failing the width measurement.
- A background that is not pure white, or that carries a shadow.
- Glasses, which most Chinese visa categories do not accept.
- Hair covering the ears or the eyebrows.
Preparing one
The technique is the same as any frontal ID photo - plain wall, a metre of separation, soft light from the front, camera at eye level about a metre and a half away - with extra attention to squareness. Face straight at the lens, shoulders level, chin neither raised nor dropped.
IDShot carries the Chinese preset at 33 by 48 mm with both the head-height and head-width bands, and measures head turn and tilt explicitly, which is what the width rule really tests.
Requirements are changed by the authorities that publish them, and the official page is the only source that settles an argument. Each preset in IDShot links to that page, so you can confirm the current wording before you submit.