Drop your studio photo, get a JPEG inside IRCC’s real 715×1000–2000×2800 pixel window and under the 4 MB cap — the numbers on canada.ca’s own PR photo page. Nothing is uploaded; it all runs in your browser.
Applying for permanent residence in the Permanent Residence Portal (Express Entry landings included) or for a PR card (IMM 5444, first card or renewal) takes one digital photo, and IRCC’s own requirements page states the format block plainly: photo dimensions between 715 × 1000 and 2000 × 2800 pixels, file size 4 MB or less, file format .jpeg or .jpg, colour or black and white, taken no more than 12 months before you apply. The same page’s list of reasons a photo gets returned repeats the numbers word for word. This page presets PixFit to 1500×2100 pixels — the exact 5:7 shape, comfortably inside the window — at a 3.8 MB ceiling, under “4 MB” whichever way the server counts it. One wrinkle worth knowing: the page’s step-by-step upload instructions mention “JPEG or PNG format”, while the spec block and the return-reasons list say .jpeg/.jpg only. A JPEG satisfies every version of the rule, which is what this page produces.
Both ends of the pixel window are the same shape: 715/1000 and 2000/2800 are each 5:7 — the digital form of the printed 50 × 70 mm PR photo. That is not the shape of the photos most applicants already have: a 35×45 mm visa or passport photo is 7:9, and a US-style 2×2 photo is square. Upload one of those and the measurements fall outside the window or the portal’s editor crops away chin or crown. The preset’s draggable crop preview lets you position the 5:7 frame yourself — keep the head centred with the top of the shoulders visible, the way the spec diagram shows.
The portal runs a photo checker at upload, and IRCC’s help section says it may warn about brightness, background, or pixel range requirements — and lists your three options: “try to resize your photo”, upload a new photo, or continue anyway, in which case “an officer will review the photo and let you know if you need to submit a new one”. Resizing an out-of-range file into the window is exactly what this page does, in your browser, with the crop under your control. If the warning is about brightness or background, no resizer fixes that honestly — that’s a retake.
If your photographer’s file is already a JPEG inside the pixel window and under 4 MB, upload it as-is and close this tab — IRCC’s originality rule bans altered photos, and there is nothing to fix. Use this page when the file is outside the window: an oversized studio original (say 3000×4200, or a 6 MB export) scales down losslessly in spirit — detail to spare. The opposite case has no honest shortcut: a photo smaller than 715×1000 — a WhatsApp forward, a website avatar, a heavily-compressed copy — cannot be upscaled into real compliance, and PixFit won’t pretend otherwise. Go back to the studio file, or rescan the print properly. And note IRCC’s explicit rule: a photo of a paper photo taken with your phone is not accepted — scan the print with a scanner or a scanner app instead.
The photo table in the portal has a second row most guides never mention: “Upload your photo (back)”. If the studio gave you a digital file, IRCC wants a document carrying what would normally be written on a print’s back: your name and date of birth, the date the photo was taken, the studio’s name and complete address, plus a confirmation from the studio such as a receipt. If you scanned a print, you scan its back showing the same details. No guarantor signature is needed. A phone photo of the receipt is usually a multi-megabyte file at a odd angle — PixFit’s PDF output mode turns it into a tidy one-page PDF under whatever size you set, or a plain JPEG works too.
Three behaviours IRCC documents itself, so they don’t cost you an evening: the Add/Edit photo button stays greyed out until the digital IMM 5444 form is complete; your colour photo displays in black and white after upload (“This is not a technical issue” — the words are IRCC’s); and you can replace the photo any time up to submission — the new upload simply overwrites the old one. After you submit, the photo can no longer be changed; if it’s later returned, you’ll be asked for a new one that meets the rules above.
Search for a PR photo resizer and the confident numbers begin: one tool sells “1200×1680px — official IRCC specifications” (that figure appears nowhere on canada.ca; it’s inside the real window, but it is not the spec), another lists “1200 × 1680 px, 300 DPI” (1200 px at 300 DPI prints 101.6 mm wide — double the real 50 mm frame), a third invents “50.8×71.12 mm at 600 DPI”. The enforced rule is the window: anything from 715×1000 to 2000×2800 pixels passes, and bigger inside the window means more detail for the card printer. The 50×70 mm figure belongs to the paper route, which needs 2 identical studio prints with a 31–36 mm chin-to-crown head — a different flow this page doesn’t handle.
A PR photo travels with your name, date of birth and application details, and it will be printed on the card you carry for five years — it shouldn’t detour through a resizer’s server. PixFit runs entirely in your browser: the photo never leaves your device, and the re-encode strips EXIF metadata (including GPS) as a side effect. iPhone HEIC files drop straight in. Keep the untouched studio original — if IRCC ever asks about the photo, that file is your answer. Two neighbouring IRCC specs use different numbers, so don’t mix them up: citizenship applications want at least 420×540 pixels with a strict no-cropping rule, and temporary-resident (visitor) visa applications use printed 35×45 mm photos with no published pixel window at all. Check the current rules on canada.ca before you submit, or see the full verified table.
Spec source: IRCC’s own “Permanent resident photos” page on canada.ca (online-application instructions, including the format-and-size block, the return-reasons list, the back-of-photo instructions and the upload troubleshooting section), read 2 August 2026. The portal’s upload screens are the live authority — if they disagree with anything here, they win.