Nepal Residence Card Photo — Exact Standard

Whether you are applying for a Nepal Residential Permit, an NRN Identity Card, or a tourist/business residential visa, your supporting photo must meet the national passport-photo standard: 35×45 mm, white background, neutral expression. Nepal's immigration authorities do not publish a separate dedicated photo specification for residence-type documents — instead, they default to the same standard used for Nepali passports and national identity cards. Getting this detail right from the start means your application moves forward without delay.

Because no isolated residence-card photo standard exists, applicants sometimes submit photos produced to foreign-country norms (such as 2×2 inch US-style or 25×35 mm UK-style photos). These are consistently rejected at the Department of Immigration counters in Kathmandu. The correct size is strictly 35 mm wide × 45 mm tall — taller than it is wide, in the European portrait format. The background must be pure white; off-white, cream, or light grey backgrounds that may be acceptable for other countries are not a safe substitute here.

• Print size: 35×45 mm (digital equivalent: 827×1063 px at 600 dpi)
• Background: plain white (#FFFFFF) — no shadows, gradients, or patterns
• Face coverage: face must occupy 70–80% of the frame height
• Expression: neutral, mouth closed, both eyes open and clearly visible
• Glasses: not permitted under current guidelines
• Head coverings: only permitted for documented religious reasons; face must remain fully visible
• Photo age: taken within the last six months
• Focus and lighting: sharp, evenly lit, no harsh shadows across the face or background

• Common reasons photos are rejected at Nepal immigration:
• Wrong dimensions — submitting a 2×2 inch (51×51 mm) or 25×35 mm photo instead of the required 35×45 mm portrait format
• Off-white or grey background instead of pure white, a frequent mistake when photos are taken in studios calibrated for other countries' standards
• Glasses on the subject — even thin prescription frames are now rejected in line with the biometric standard applied to the national ID infrastructure
• Uneven or shadow-heavy lighting, commonly caused by indoor phone photos taken without a dedicated background, which the counter staff can identify immediately

To get a photo that meets every requirement, upload your normal selfie or portrait — it is automatically cropped and sized to the exact 35×45 mm official standard, the background is corrected to pure white, and the composition is checked against the face-coverage rule. Before you pay anything, you receive a free watermarked preview to confirm the result looks right. If your photo is submitted and rejected for any technical reason, we redo it at no charge or issue a full refund — you only pay for a final file you are confident in.