Resize a photo for a NADRA CNIC application

What NADRA actually states

These are quoted from NADRA’s "Online Application-Photograph capturing guidelines". They are the authority’s own words, not a summary from a third-party site.

• File size: "The photograph size should be maximum up to 60 KB."
• Print size: 45 millimetres high by 35 millimetres wide.
• Framing: a close up of your head and the top of your shoulders, so that your face takes up 70 to 80 percent of the photograph.
• Age: no more than 6 months old.
• Background: a plain white background, described elsewhere in the same document as a plain light-coloured background.
• Glasses: the photograph must show your eyes clearly with no glasses on.
• Head coverings: permitted, but your features from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead, and both edges of your face, must be clearly shown.
• Expression: you alone, no chair backs or other people visible, looking at the camera with a neutral expression and your mouth closed.
• Also required: sharp focus, natural skin tones, even lighting with no shadows, no flash reflection on the face, no red eye, eyes open with no hair across them, and no ink marks or creases.

What NADRA does not state

The guidelines give no pixel dimensions, no DPI figure, no file format and no minimum file size. This matters, because several websites publish exact pixel sizes for CNIC photographs and they contradict each other, with 350 by 467, 413 by 531 and 826 by 1062 all presented as the official requirement. None of those numbers appears in NADRA’s document. Treat any site quoting an exact pixel size as unverified, and go by the 60 KB cap and the framing rule instead.

Background: white is the safer choice

NADRA’s own document says "plain white background" in one place and "plain light-coloured background" in another. Where an authority is inconsistent with itself, follow the stricter version: use plain white. A white wall in even daylight, with you standing far enough forward that you cast no shadow on it, satisfies both readings.

Why 60 KB is comfortable here

Because NADRA wants your face filling 70 to 80 percent of the frame, you are cropping tightly anyway, and a tight head-and-shoulders crop at 60 KB keeps plenty of detail. Crop first, then resize. If you hand the resizer a photograph where you are standing in a room, most of the 60 KB is spent on the room.

Requirements can change without notice. Before you submit, open NADRA’s current guidelines at id.nadra.gov.pk and confirm the figures for yourself.

Steps

1. Crop your photo to your head and the top of your shoulders, so the face fills about three quarters of the frame.
2. Choose the cropped file. The limit on this page is already set to 60 KB.
3. Check the result is sharp, evenly lit and on a plain white background.
4. Press Download and upload it to your NADRA application.

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