Crop your Canadian PR card photo. Same size as a Canadian passport photo.

A Permanent Resident (PR) card photo is the same physical size as a Canadian passport photo: 50x70mm, with your head measured chin-to-crown between 31 and 36mm. If you've seen a size chart quoting a "PR size" that doesn't match a passport photo you already had done, it's almost always looking at the wrong document; the print dimensions for a Canadian PR card and a Canadian passport are identical.

Two things differ from the passport spec: the PR card photo stays valid for 12 months rather than 6, and the digital upload channel has its own pixel range, 715x1000px up to 2000x2800px, up to 4MB. The tool above exports at 1181x1654px, comfortably inside that range, so a studio-taken photo that passes the framing check here should upload cleanly to IRCC's own system too.

IRCC requires a commercial photographer or studio for this photo, for both the printed and digital-upload versions; there is no path that accepts a photo you took yourself. Use this tool to check your framing and compliance before that appointment, not as a substitute for it. Confirm current requirements at canada.ca/IRCC before your appointment.

Most people land on this page mid-renewal, not out of curiosity. A Canadian PR card is valid for five years (or one year for a protected person's first card), so at some point you'll fill out IMM 5444, IRCC's official Application to Renew a Permanent Resident Card, and the photo is one of the first things it asks for.

You can file IMM 5444 online through your IRCC secure account or by mail, and the online route is generally the faster of the two to submit since there's no mailing time involved. Either way, the photo requirement itself doesn't change: studio-taken, within the last 12 months, plain white background, 50x70mm print with a 31 to 36mm head. If you're applying online, you'll upload a digital scan or photo of that same print at 715x1000px to 2000x2800px, which is exactly the range this tool's 1181x1654px export fits inside.

Processing times and the renewal fee both change over time, and canada.ca is the only source that's actually current, so check there before you pay or plan a travel date around a specific window. What you can control is whether your first submission gets accepted on the first pass. A photo that's the wrong size, off-centre, or on the wrong background is one of the more avoidable reasons an application comes back for correction, and that adds real weeks to a process you'd rather not repeat.

Getting the size and pixel dimensions right clears the automated part of the check. The photo still goes through manual review once it reaches IRCC, and most real rejections happen there rather than on a measuring tape.

The background is the most common trip-up. IRCC wants a plain, untextured white background with no shadows, patterns, or visible edges, and a photo shot against an off-white wall, a light grey backdrop, or anything with texture usually comes back. Expression is the second big one: a neutral, closed-mouth expression with both eyes open and a direct gaze at the camera is required, and a slight smile that would pass fine for a driver's licence photo elsewhere often doesn't pass here. Glasses with tinted or photochromic lenses, glare across the lenses, and hats or head coverings worn for reasons other than religious or medical need round out the usual list.

None of that shows up when you're just checking pixel dimensions, which is exactly why this tool works as a framing check rather than a substitute for the studio visit itself. Line your studio-taken photo up against the guide above, confirm the crop and head position look right, and you'll walk into the actual application with one less variable to worry about.

If you've had a Canadian passport photo taken recently, it's worth knowing exactly where the PR card spec overlaps with it and where it doesn't, because the differences are easy to miss.

The print size and head-height range are identical across all three documents, the PR card, the Canadian passport, and Canadian citizenship: 50x70mm, with a head measured chin-to-crown between 31 and 36mm. What changes is the recency window. A passport or citizenship photo is only valid for 6 months, while a PR card photo has a longer 12-month window. That gap catches people out in both directions: a photo that's too old for a passport application might still be fine for a PR card renewal, and a photo you had taken for last year's passport could already be too old for this year's PR card renewal if enough time has passed.

The other thing to check is which channel you're applying through. IRCC requires a commercial photographer or studio for the PR card photo on both the printed and digital-upload paths, so there's no self-upload option the way there sometimes is for other ID photos. If you're also renewing a passport or applying for citizenship around the same time, see our Canada passport photo and Canadian citizenship photo pages; the studio visit and the underlying size spec carry over even though the recency rule doesn't.