Drop your citizenship photo, get a JPEG under IRCC’s 4 MB cap at the best quality that fits — without cropping or retouching it. Nothing is uploaded; it all runs in your browser.
Online citizenship applications — both citizenship grant and proof of citizenship — take one digital photo (colour preferred) that is a JPG/JPEG with minimal compression, at least 420×540 pixels, and approximately 240 kB in file size, but no more than 4 MB. The frame itself is the 50×70 mm citizenship format, with the face measuring 31–36 mm from chin to crown, taken within the last 6 months — IRCC directs you to a commercial photographer or studio for this, and that's genuinely the right move. This page is preset to the 4 MB cap with no pixel size set, which is deliberate; both of those choices are explained below.
IRCC's altered-photo list is stricter than most countries': it includes not just retouching and background edits but cropping and even adjustments to colour, brightness, contrast or sharpness. The spec says the file should be saved directly from the camera without any changes. So the honest first advice from a photo tool is: if your photographer's file already meets the format — JPEG, at least 420×540, at most 4 MB — upload it exactly as you received it and close this tab. Don't “improve” it, don't crop it, don't run it through anything, including PixFit.
First: the file is over the 4 MB cap. Modern cameras and phones routinely produce 5–15 MB JPEGs, and the portal won't take them. “Minimal compression” means the fix is the largest acceptable output, not the smallest: PixFit binary-searches for the best JPEG quality that fits under the target and keeps full resolution, which at 4 MB is typically visually indistinguishable from the original. Don't crush the photo toward 240 kB — that figure is IRCC's description of a typical camera file, not a target to hit; 4 MB is the enforceable ceiling. Second: the photographer sent an iPhone HEIC. Drop it straight in — PixFit decodes it in your browser and outputs the JPEG the portal wants. In both cases, keep the original file unchanged; the re-encode strips EXIF metadata as a side effect, and if IRCC ever asks questions about the photo, the untouched original is your answer.
Leave the Exact size field empty on this page: cropping is explicitly on IRCC's altered list, and the 50×70 mm framing with correct face height is the photographer's job, not yours. Likewise, a photo smaller than 420×540 pixels needs retaking or rescanning, not upscaling — resampled pixels add no detail and the “clear, sharp and in focus” requirement still applies. If all you have is a printed photo, IRCC allows scanning it, but says a digital file straight from the photographer is safer.
Everything that actually gets citizenship photos rejected: neutral expression with mouth closed, eyes open and clearly visible, uniform lighting with no shadows or glare, plain white or light background with clear contrast to the face, straight-on centred pose, no tinted glasses, head coverings only for religious or medical reasons. For proof of citizenship applications, IRCC additionally wants your name, the photographer or studio's name and complete address, and the date the photo was taken — on the receipt or in a separate text file uploaded with the application. Check the current specification on canada.ca before you submit. Paper applications use printed photos with a stamped back — a different process this page doesn't cover, as is the Canadian passport photo, which has its own rules.