Permanent residence card & PR Portal
IRCC returns the whole application when the photo is wrong, and the reasons are narrow and specific. The one that catches most people is not the picture at all — it is the twelve-month date, or the studio details that a paper application needs on the back.
Check My Photo – $3.99This decides whether you can take the photo yourself at all. Almost nothing written about PR card photos makes the distinction, and it is the whole ballgame.
A digital upload
This is the route where doing it yourself genuinely works.
Printed photos in an envelope
We cannot give you a studio address, so for a paper application go to a photographer. We would rather say that than sell you a return.
Submitted photos must not be altered or digitally corrected — that covers editing shadows, backgrounds and facial features. So the automatic background replacement that most photo apps lead with is the feature that gets a Canadian application returned, exactly as it does an American one.
We do not do it on Canadian photos. The app measures and crops, and where the background will not pass it tells you to retake rather than quietly repainting it.
Which edits are actually ruled out →Print is not exactly 50 × 70 mm
No tolerance on this one. Cropping a 2 × 2 photo down will not produce it.
Face outside 31–36 mm chin to crown
Measured on the print itself, not as a percentage of the frame.
Background not plain white
Off-white, grey and beige are all returned, as is a shadow cast on the wall.
Photo older than 12 months
Checked against the date written on the back. Retake it.
Photo has been edited
Background replacement, retouching or relighting all count. Submit the original.
Missing studio details on the back
Paper applications only — needs a real photographer. See below.
Head tilted or turned
Square to the camera, shoulders level.
Glare, or the face too dark
Face a window; do not use flash straight at a white wall.
The photo has to have been taken within twelve months of the day you submit. On a paper application it is the date written on the back that gets checked — so reusing the photos left over from your last application is the single easiest way to have the whole thing returned, no matter how good the picture is.
If you need the stamp, these are the usual options. Prices are for two prints, in Canadian dollars, and vary by location.
Members only, and the cheapest of the lot
Quebec; among the cheaper walk-ins
Most locations, highest price
Stopped taking passport photos in 2021
Applying through the PR Portal instead? Then none of this is necessary — you need a digital file, not a stamped print.
Upload your photo, let AI do the work, and download in 2 minutes. Only $3.99 — pay only if you're satisfied.
Check My PR Photo100% acceptance guarantee or money back