Nepal Passport & Lok Sewa Photo Requirements 2026: Sizes, Rules and Print Guide

Ahead of the printed certificate and the exam admit card, the photo is the first thing an application reviewer checks — and the easiest thing to get wrong. Nepali government portals, passport offices and most private employers each enforce slightly different photo dimensions, background rules and file-size ceilings, and an upload that misses any one of them is bounced back at the final submission step. This guide collects the sizes that matter in 2026, explains the reasoning behind each rule, and shows you how to produce a compliant photo and a printable sheet without paying a photo studio every time.

Official photo sizes at a glance

Nepal uses two competing standards, and confusing them is the single most common rejection cause. The classic PP size (short for passport size) is the 35×45 mm print standard used for Nepali passports, most academic forms and European-style CVs. Government recruitment portals, including Lok Sewa Aayog online applications, typically ask for a smaller 30×40 mm upload with a stated minimum pixel resolution. Always check the individual vacancy notice first, because a few commissions and banks still publish their own bespoke dimensions.

Use case	Print size	Typical digital size	Notes
Nepali passport (new / renewal)	35 × 45 mm (PP)	≥ 600 × 770 px	White background, neutral expression
Lok Sewa / PSC online form	30 × 40 mm	136 × 187 px minimum	JPEG, usually ≤ 200 KB
US visa / DV lottery	2 × 2 in (51 × 51 mm)	600 × 600 px – 1200 × 1200 px	Square format, ≤ 240 KB for DV
Schengen / European visa	35 × 45 mm	≥ 413 × 531 px	Face 70–80% of frame height
CV / resume photo (EU & Asia)	35 × 45 mm	413 × 531 px at 300 DPI	Only where culturally accepted

Background, pose and quality rules

Size is only half the specification. Reviewers also reject photos for background and pose issues, so match every checkpoint below before you upload or print:

• Background: plain white or very light grey, evenly lit, with no shadows behind the head or shoulders. Patterned walls and outdoor backgrounds are rejected outright by passport systems.
• Head position: face centred and looking straight into the lens, with the head occupying roughly 70–80% of the frame height. Tilting more than a few degrees distorts biometric comparison.
• Expression: neutral, mouth closed, eyes open and clearly visible. Heavy smiles are discouraged for passport-class photos.
• Glasses and accessories: no tinted lenses; avoid glare on ordinary glasses. Remove caps and headphones; religious headwear is permitted if the full face stays visible.
• Recency and quality: the photo should reflect your current appearance (taken within the last six months) and be sharp, with no pixelation, overexposure or visible compression artifacts.

Digital upload rules for online forms

When a portal asks you to upload the photo digitally, it validates three things at once: the pixel dimensions, the aspect ratio and the file size in kilobytes. A photo that is 4,000 pixels wide will fail a portal expecting a 136×187 px minimum simply because it is oversized; a beautiful photo saved at 2 MB will fail a 200 KB ceiling. Convert to JPEG for maximum compatibility — every Nepali government portal accepts it — and let the compression engine iterate quality until the file sits safely below the ceiling. Modern browsers strip EXIF metadata, including GPS coordinates, when the image is re-encoded, which also protects your home address from leaking inside the file.

Printing a compliant sheet of copies

Physical submissions — admit cards, attestation bundles, walk-in interviews — need printed copies. A print shop will happily sell you eight copies, but you can lay out an entire A4 sheet yourself at true 300 DPI and print it for the cost of one page. The key points for a print-ready sheet:

• Set the sheet to A4 (210×297 mm) at 300 DPI — that is 2480 × 3508 pixels, the resolution laser printers expect.
• Enable scissors cut marks so each 35×45 mm cell can be trimmed evenly without a ruler.
• Use matte or semi-matte photo paper between 130 and 200 GSM; glossy paper fingerprints easily during handling.
• Check that the printed copy measures exactly 35 mm across — shrink-to-fit options in print dialogs silently rescale the sheet.

Common rejection reasons — and the fix for each

Most rejections fall into five buckets. Wrong aspect ratio (a 3:4 crop of a 1:1 selfie) — fix by cropping to the exact mm standard, not by eyeballing. Oversized file — fix with an iterative compressor rather than one aggressive quality drop. Wrong background — reshoot against a plain wall; software background removal often leaves halos that reviewers notice. Shadows on the face — move the light source in front of you, not behind. And stale photos — if your appearance changed noticeably since the last application, reshoot; reviewers compare the photo against the citizenship certificate you attach.

Specifications summarized from publicly available official notices current as of October 2026. Requirements can change between vacancies — always confirm against the notice of the specific office, commission or embassy before submitting. Job Finder is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with any government body.