Drop your photograph, get a 200×230 px JPEG between 20 and 50 KB — the PFRDA Grade A upload format, minimum included. Nothing is uploaded; it all runs in your browser.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority recruits Officer Grade A (Assistant Manager) across General, Finance & Accounts, IT, Research (Economics and Statistics), Actuary, Legal and Rajbhasha streams, on the same IBPS-style application platform as the other financial regulators — and the form takes four image uploads. The most recent advertisement on pfrda.org.in (Advt No. 01/2025) specifies them as follows:
Photograph: recent passport-size colour picture (4.5×3.5 cm) against a light-coloured, preferably white background, 200×230 pixels (preferred), JPG/JPEG, 20–50 kb — this page is preset to exactly that, minimum included. Caps, hats and dark glasses are not acceptable; religious headwear is allowed if it doesn't cover the face; glasses are fine if your eyes are clearly visible. Signature: 140×60 pixels (preferred), 10–20 kb, black-ink pen on white paper, in your running hand — capital-letter signatures are not accepted. Left thumb impression: black or blue ink on white paper — size discussed below, because the advertisement disagrees with itself. Handwriting declaration: written in English in your own hand in black ink, 50–100 kb — capitals rejected here too.
In the upload-guidelines section, the size bullet reads: “Size of file should be between 10kb – 20kb for signature and left thumb impression.” Two pages later, the same advertisement's how-to paragraph (the one recommending MS Paint) twice puts the thumb impression at “not exceeding… 50kb”. Both sentences are in the same official PDF. The safe move is to keep the thumb scan inside 10–20 kb — a file that satisfies the stricter reading satisfies both, and a 35 KB thumb satisfies only one of them. Type 10-20kb into the target box for the thumb file; and whatever the upload screen itself says when you apply, believe the screen.
The only pixel figures PFRDA's advertisement contains are 200×230 for the photo and a single 140×60 (preferred) line in the signature section. There is no 240×240 thumb and no 800×400 declaration anywhere in it — those are the IBPS-standard figures that SEBI, SIDBI and IRDAI do print in their advertisements, and several resizer sites have imported them wholesale into “PFRDA specification” pages (“4×3 cm or 240×240 pixels”, “10×5 cm or 800×400 pixels”) — one of them also selling the thumb at 20–50 KB, the risky end of the contradiction above. Those shapes are sensible and very likely accepted — PFRDA runs the same platform — but the bytes are what the advertisement actually legislates. If you want a shape to aim at, the IBPS thumb & declaration page has the family-standard presets and scanning advice; just set the byte targets to PFRDA's own numbers.
Besides the uploaded file, the form makes you capture a live photograph during registration — by webcam, or by scanning a QR code and shooting on your phone — against a light background, passport-style, no sunglasses or cap. And on the day of the Phase II examination PFRDA captures your biometric thumb impression and photograph at the venue and matches the photo against the one you uploaded: the advertisement's words are that you must NOT change your appearance from the uploaded photo. So upload something recent that actually looks like you. The signature is printed on your call letter, and a mismatch between it and what you sign in the hall is a disqualification ground.
In the 2025 cycle, applications ran July 2 – August 6, 2025, with Phase I on September 6, Phase II on October 6, and interviews intimated to Phase II qualifiers by email/SMS. The fee is ₹1,000 (inclusive of GST) for unreserved, EWS and OBC candidates — and nil for SC, ST, PwBD, ex-servicemen and all women candidates, a wider exemption than the other regulators give (SEBI charges ₹100 in those categories). You may apply in up to two streams, each with its own application, fee and set of these four uploads — and both applications must choose the same exam centres. The next cycle's advertisement will restate the formats; the careers page on pfrda.org.in is the authority. The matching signature preset, and the near-identical SEBI, SIDBI and IRDAI sets, have their own pages. Everything here runs in your browser — your photo, signature, thumb print and handwriting never leave your device.
Spec source: PFRDA’s own Final Advertisement — Recruitment of Officer Grade ‘A’ (Assistant Manager) 2025 (Advt No. 01/2025, dated 29.06.2025, 33 pp), sections C–D, on pfrda.org.in — read August 2026. Photo 200×230 px 20–50 kb; signature 140×60 px 10–20 kb; left thumb 10–20 kb by the spec section (50 kb by the how-to paragraph — the contradiction is the advertisement’s, not this page’s); handwriting declaration 50–100 kb with no stated pixel size. The advertisement for the cycle you apply in — and the upload screen itself — win over this page.