How to Take a Cambodia eVisa Photo on Your iPhone: A 5-Minute Guide for Americans
Your iPhone already shoots at a higher resolution than the Cambodia eVisa form needs. The only real trap is the file format — iPhones save HEIC, the form wants JPEG. Here is the full 5-minute routine, from white wall to converted JPEG under 2 MB.
How do I take a Cambodia eVisa photo on my iPhone?
Stand about a foot and a half from a plain white wall, face a window so daylight hits you from the side, and have someone shoot you with the rear camera (not the selfie camera) held in portrait at eye level. Keep a neutral expression — eyes open, no smile, no glasses, no hat. Then crop the photo to a square of at least 600×600 pixels and make sure it is a JPEG under 2 MB. The one iPhone-specific step Americans miss: iPhones save photos as HEIC by default, and the form needs a JPEG, so either switch your Camera setting to "Most Compatible" before shooting or convert the photo to JPEG before you upload.
主なポイント
- Your iPhone shoots more than enough resolution — the only iPhone-specific trap is HEIC, the format iPhones save by default that the upload form will not accept.
- Fix HEIC one of two ways: switch Camera settings to "Most Compatible" before you shoot, or convert the finished photo to JPEG afterward in the Files app or a free conversion.
- Use the rear camera, not the selfie camera, against a plain white wall in daylight — a neutral face, eyes open, no smile, no glasses, no hat.
- Crop to a square (at least 600×600 pixels), confirm the file is a JPEG under 2 MB, and skip every filter, Portrait mode, and beauty setting.
- A clean iPhone photo against a white wall passes the upload check every time — no photo booth, no drugstore print, no paid app needed.
Why your iPhone is already good enough
The phone in your pocket is a better passport-photo camera than the booth at the post office. Every iPhone made in the last decade shoots at a far higher resolution than the Cambodia eVisa form requires, the color is accurate, and the front-facing daylight you get at a window beats the harsh ring light a booth uses. There is genuinely no reason for an American applicant to pay for a photo when the iPhone already does the job.
The catch is not the camera. It is one setting buried in iOS that quietly trips up more American applicants than anything else: by default, recent iPhones save photos in HEIC, a compact Apple format the eVisa upload form does not accept. You can shoot a flawless headshot and still get bounced purely because the file ends in .heic instead of .jpg. Fix that one thing and the rest is a five-minute routine.
This guide walks you through the whole thing on an iPhone specifically — the Camera setting to change first, where to stand, how to frame the shot, and exactly how to convert HEIC to JPEG when you forget. If you want the underlying numbers — dimensions, pixels, megabytes — our photo size and file format breakdown lays out every spec, and the full photo requirements guide for US citizens frames it as a complete checklist. When you are ready, you can apply in a few minutes.
Step 1: Fix the HEIC setting before you shoot
Do this before you take a single frame and you save yourself the most common iPhone headache entirely. HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is the format recent iPhones use to keep photos small, and it is fine for everyday life — but the Cambodia eVisa form expects a standard JPEG, and an .heic file will not upload cleanly.
There are two ways to handle it, and the easier one is to never create the HEIC in the first place. Open Settings, tap Camera, then tap Formats, and choose "Most Compatible." From that point on, your iPhone shoots JPEG instead of HEIC, and you can leave the setting that way or switch it back to "High Efficiency" once your application is in. Most Americans set it, shoot the photo, and forget about it.
If you already shot the photo in HEIC and do not want to reshoot, you convert it instead — that is covered in Step 4 below. Either path works. The point is simply that a JPEG has to be what lands in the upload box, because a rejected file format is one of the few snags that gets flagged before a human even looks at your application.
A quick word on Live Photos and Portrait mode
Turn Live Photos off for this — tap the concentric-circles icon at the top of the Camera screen so it shows a slash. A Live Photo bundles a short video with the still, which complicates the file when you export it. And do not use Portrait mode: the artificial background blur it adds is exactly the kind of processing the validator reads as a manipulated image. You want a plain, flat, ordinary photo in the standard Photo mode.
よくある質問
Can I use an iPhone photo for my Cambodia eVisa?
Yes — most American applicants do exactly that, and an iPhone shoots far more resolution than the form needs. Use the rear camera (not the selfie camera), hold it in portrait at eye level, stand about a foot and a half from a plain white wall, and use daylight from a side window. Keep a neutral expression with no glasses or hat. The only iPhone-specific step is the file format: convert HEIC to JPEG before you upload.
How do I change my iPhone photo from HEIC to JPEG?
The easiest fix is to prevent it: open Settings, tap Camera, tap Formats, and choose "Most Compatible," which makes the iPhone shoot JPEG from then on. If you already shot a HEIC, convert it by saving the photo through the Files app, by emailing it to yourself (which often converts it on the way), or with any free HEIC-to-JPEG converter. Confirm the saved file ends in .jpg before uploading.
Why does the Cambodia eVisa form reject my iPhone photo?
The most common reason for an iPhone specifically is the HEIC file format — the form expects a JPEG and will not accept .heic. After that, the usual flags are a smile, glasses, Portrait-mode background blur, or a shadow behind your head from standing too close to the wall. Fix the format first, then reshoot with a neutral face, glasses off, and a foot and a half of space from a true white wall.
Should I use the front or rear camera on my iPhone?
The rear camera. The front (selfie) camera is lower resolution and subtly distorts your facial proportions at arm's length, which the upload validator can catch. Hand the phone to someone else, or prop it on a shelf and use the timer or volume-button shutter, so you can shoot yourself with the rear camera held in portrait at eye level.
Can I use Portrait mode for my Cambodia eVisa photo?
No. Portrait mode adds artificial background blur, and the validator reads that as a manipulated image. Use the standard Photo mode against a plain white wall so the background stays sharp and uniform. Turn Live Photos off too — tap the concentric-circles icon so it shows a slash — because a Live Photo bundles a short video that complicates the exported file.
Do I need to print the iPhone photo?
No. The Cambodia eVisa is fully digital, so you only ever upload the image file — there is nothing to print and nothing to mail. You do not need a photo booth, a drugstore print, or any paid app. A clean iPhone JPEG against a white wall in daylight passes the upload check every time.
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