IRCC file size limit: how to make your documents fit

The limit depends on the account you use

IRCC runs several online application systems, and each one sets its own maximum per file. Its help centre lists them like this:

On its page about reducing file size, IRCC adds that, depending on what you are applying for, the limit can be as low as 2 MB. So the table is a starting point, not the final word: the upload page in front of you is what counts. If it shows a smaller number than the table, work to that smaller number.

Why only one file per field matters

The second rule catches more applicants than the size limit. IRCC says you can only upload one file per field, and that if you upload several files to the same field, only the last one you upload is kept. Nothing warns you that the earlier pages are gone.

Picture a passport with an identity page, a page of entry stamps and an observations page, photographed as three images. Uploaded one after another into the passport field, only the observations page survives. The officer opens the file and sees one page out of three.

The fix IRCC suggests is to combine the files first: several PDFs into one PDF, or several images into one PDF. That combined file then has to meet the size limit, which is where most people get stuck - three phone photos can easily add up to 8 or 10 MB.

Step by step: one document, one PDF, under the limit

1. Open the IRCC document checker. Under Your account or form, pick the system you are applying through. If your upload page shows a lower limit, choose My form shows a lower limit - 2 MB.
2. Add the pages of one document: Take a photo to use the camera, Choose photos for pictures you already have, or Add PDF files for scans or downloaded PDFs. Up to 20 photos and PDFs can go into one file.
3. Check the order. Use the arrows to move a page earlier or later, and rotate any page that came out sideways.
4. For photographed paper, keep Look of photos on Document - white paper, dark text, shadows removed and a smaller file. Choose Original colour only when colour carries meaning, such as a coloured stamp.
5. Press Create PDF. The pictures are re-saved from the best quality downwards until the whole file is at or under your limit.
6. Read the Upload check: PDF file, size within the limit, not password-protected or encrypted, all pages in one file. Then tick the points in Check these yourself, download the PDF and upload it to the matching field.

Everything happens on your phone or computer. Your passport, bank statements and certificates are not sent to SentrueFile or anyone else - which is worth knowing, since IRCC itself notes that it can't guarantee the security of third-party tools that upload your files.

IRCC's own tips for smaller files

IRCC's help centre gives practical advice for each file type. The points that matter most for a typical document:

• Scan at a lower resolution. IRCC suggests 96 DPI for JPG scans, and 96 or 150 DPI for images inside a PDF. Text on a printed page stays readable at those settings.
• With a phone, choose a smaller image size rather than the camera's largest setting.
• Crop the empty space around each page so you are not storing a picture of the table.
• Remove images you don't need, and when saving a PDF from other software, pick its lowest-file-size option.

If you can't change how the scan was made - an office sent it to you, or the photos are already taken - the checker applies the same idea afterwards by re-saving the pictures inside the PDF at a lower quality, only as far as it has to.

Organising a whole application

Think in documents, not in pages. Each upload field asks for one thing - identity, proof of funds, a marriage certificate - and each of those becomes its own PDF. A single giant file containing everything is harder for an officer to read and much harder to keep under the limit.

• Name each PDF after its field before you upload it, for example passport.pdf or bank-statements.pdf, so you don't attach the wrong one.
• Keep pages in the order they were printed: the identity page first in a passport, page 1 first in a statement.
• When a document comes with a translation, keep both in the same file if the field asks for the document and its translation together.
• Store the finished PDFs in one folder. You will want them again if IRCC asks for more information later.

When a document still won't fit

Most documents fit easily: a few pages photographed in the Document look are usually well under 2 MB. Problems come with long documents - a year of bank statements, a 40-page lease, a thick employment record.

• Leave out pages the officer doesn't need, such as blank backs or advertising inserts in a statement.
• Split the document if the form provides more than one field for it, and mention the parts in a letter of explanation if one is allowed.
• Use the account's real limit. If you chose 2 MB as a precaution but your system allows 4 or 5 MB, choose your account in the list instead.

If the target can't be reached while keeping the pages readable, the checker gives you its smallest readable version and marks the size line of the upload check as over the limit, so you know before IRCC rejects it.

Common mistakes

• Uploading pages one at a time into the same field, which silently keeps only the last page.
• Photographing documents under a ceiling lamp, so a shadow crosses half the page.
• Sending a password-protected PDF from a bank; save or print an unprotected copy first.
• Shrinking a scan until stamps and signatures are unreadable - zoom in on the final file before uploading.
• Trusting the table over the upload page when the page shows a smaller limit.

SentrueFile is an independent tool, not affiliated with the Government of Canada. It helps you prepare files that meet the technical rules; it doesn't tell you which documents your application needs. The application checklist and the instructions in your account remain the authority on that.