Cambodia eVisa Photo Size and File Format for Australians (2026)

How to check the file before you upload (Mac and Windows)

Three checks need to happen before you click upload: file format (must be JPEG), pixel dimensions (must be inside 413×531 to 1200×1600), and file size (must be 100KB to 2MB). All three can be done in under a minute on either platform.

On a Mac (macOS Sequoia or earlier)

Open the photo in Preview. From the menu bar, choose Tools > Show Inspector (or press Command + I). The first tab shows the file format, the second tab shows the pixel dimensions and the resolution in dpi. The file size is visible in the General tab at the top. If all three values sit inside the table above, you are clear to upload.

On Windows (Windows 11 or 10)

Right-click the photo file in File Explorer and choose Properties. The General tab shows the file size in KB and the file format extension. Click across to the Details tab — pixel dimensions appear under 'Dimensions', and the resolution appears under 'Horizontal resolution' and 'Vertical resolution' in dpi. If all four values sit inside the table above, you are clear to upload.

On an iPhone or iPad

Open the Photos app, tap the photo, then tap the small (i) info icon at the bottom of the screen. The pop-up shows the file format, pixel dimensions, and approximate file size. If the format reads HEIF or HEIC, you need to convert before uploading — covered in the next section. iPhone resolution sits well above the 300dpi floor by default so that check is rarely a problem.

Converting HEIC and PNG to JPEG without losing quality

If your photo is currently a HEIC or a PNG file, you cannot upload it directly to the Cambodia eVisa portal. Both formats get rejected at the header-scan stage. Conversion to JPEG is free, fast, and lossless enough for passport-style use.

iPhone — convert HEIC to JPEG via the Files app

Open Photos, find the photo, tap Share, then choose Save to Files. In the destination picker, pick a folder on your iPhone (Downloads is fine). The Save to Files action automatically converts HEIC to JPEG during the save — confirmed by tapping the saved file in the Files app and checking the extension is .jpg, not .heic. This trick works for any photo, including Live Photos. If the file still saves as HEIC, open Settings > Camera > Formats and switch from High Efficiency to Most Compatible before retaking the photo.

iPhone — alternative via Mail attachment

Email the photo to yourself as an attachment from the Photos app's Share menu. iOS automatically converts HEIC attachments to JPEG when sending via Mail. Open the email on your laptop, save the attachment, and the file is JPEG. About 20 percent of Aussie iPhone-using applicants use this method because it also moves the file from phone to laptop in one step.

macOS — convert via Preview Export

Open the photo in Preview, choose File > Export, then in the Format dropdown choose JPEG. Set the quality slider to 80 to 90 percent (this puts most photos comfortably under the 2MB ceiling). Click Save. The new JPEG sits beside the original HEIC or PNG file and is ready to upload.

Windows — convert via Photos app

Open the photo in the Windows Photos app. Click the menu (three dots) at the top-right and choose Save As. In the dialog, pick JPEG from the Save As Type dropdown, give it a new name, and click Save. The new JPEG sits in the folder you chose. Windows 11's Photos app handles HEIC natively from version 23000 onward — older Windows 10 builds may need the HEIF Image Extensions add-on from the Microsoft Store first.

Resizing when too big, and the EXIF rotation trap

Once the format is JPEG, two checks remain. If the file is over 2MB, you need to resize. If the EXIF rotation flag is set, you need to clear it. Both fixes are quick.

Resizing a photo over 2MB

Open the photo in Preview on Mac. Choose Tools > Adjust Size. Set the longest edge (height for a portrait photo) to 1500 pixels, untick Resample Image only if it is currently ticked, and click OK. Save. The file now sits well under 2MB. On Windows, the Photos app's Resize button does the same thing — choose Custom Dimensions and set the larger edge to 1500 pixels.

The EXIF rotation trap

EXIF rotation is a small metadata flag inside the JPEG file that tells the viewer 'this image was shot landscape but please display it portrait'. Most cameras and phones set this flag automatically when you rotate your device during the shoot. Some viewers (Apple Preview, iOS Photos) silently honour the flag and show the photo upright. Others (web browsers, Cambodia's eVisa portal) ignore the flag and show the photo in its original sideways orientation. The result is a photo that looks upright to you but lands sideways on the validator and gets rejected.

The fix is to re-save the photo with the rotation baked in rather than flagged. On Mac, open the photo in Preview, click Tools > Rotate Right and Tools > Rotate Left back to back (this forces Preview to bake the orientation), then File > Export as JPEG. The new file has no EXIF rotation flag — the pixels are stored portrait natively. On Windows, the Photos app's Rotate buttons do the same thing automatically when you save.

How to know if the EXIF flag is set

Open the photo in your web browser by dragging it onto a new tab. If the photo appears sideways even though it looked upright in Photos, the EXIF rotation flag is set. Bake it out using the rotate-then-export trick above before uploading.

Both fixes — resize and rotation-bake — also strip out any embedded GPS or device-identifying metadata Aussie applicants might prefer not to share. Cambodian Immigration does not need it. The Cambodia eVisa documents required for Australians guide covers what else gets uploaded alongside the photo.

The iPhone Live Photo trap that catches Aussies weekly

About 10 percent of Aussie applicants who hit the HEIC rejection email had no idea they were using HEIC because Photos showed them what looked like a normal JPEG preview. The culprit is the Live Photo format. Here is how the trap works and the one-tap fix.

What a Live Photo actually is

When you tap the shutter on an iPhone with Live Photos enabled (default since iPhone 6S in 2015), the phone captures a 3-second video clip plus a still frame. The 'photo' the user sees is the still frame, but the underlying file is a HEIC container with the video clip wrapped inside. AirDropping a Live Photo to a Mac transfers the whole HEIC bundle, not just the still frame.

Why the AirDrop fix sometimes still fails

Aussies often AirDrop the photo to their Mac, see it open as a normal-looking JPEG in Preview, and assume it converted. But the Mac sometimes shows the HEIC still frame using its built-in HEIC support without re-encoding it as JPEG. The file on disk is still HEIC, even though the Preview window looks normal. Upload to Cambodia and it gets rejected at the header scan.

The fix — use Save to Files first

On the iPhone, before you AirDrop, open the Photos app, tap the Live Photo, hit Share, scroll to Save to Files, and save it to the iPhone's local Files folder. iOS forces a conversion to JPEG during this save and strips the Live Photo wrapper. Then AirDrop or email the resulting JPEG file (not the original Photo). The file lands on your Mac as a plain JPEG with no Live Photo baggage and no HEIC header. Three taps total, one minute of work.

The longer-term fix

If you do not use Live Photos often, you can switch off Live Photo capture entirely. In the Camera app, tap the small Live Photo icon at the top of the screen and set it to Off. The icon shows a slash through it when disabled. Future photos save as plain HEIC or JPEG without the Live wrapper. To switch the whole camera to JPEG by default, go to Settings > Camera > Formats and select Most Compatible. From that point onward every photo your iPhone takes is JPEG, no conversion needed.

The five-second pre-upload check

Before you click upload, run through this five-second mental checklist. Format: JPEG. Pixel dimensions: between 413×531 and 1200×1600. File size: between 100KB and 2MB. Orientation: portrait, looks upright in a web browser. EXIF rotation: not flagged. If all five answers are yes, the file passes Cambodia's validator on the first try.

The Cambodia eVisa file-spec rule is strict but predictable in 2026. Get the format right and the application moves through processing on schedule. Tourist eVisa stays at $80 USD (~$122 AUD) all-in, approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email, with free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction. Aussie-timezone support on every application.

Next steps and related reading for Australians: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when you are ready to lodge, bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for Australian citizens as the single canonical reference, skim the FAQ on Cambodia visa documents for quick answers, and use our glossary of Cambodia visa terms to decode any acronym in this guide.