Chinese Travel Document Photo Rules

Because China does not recognise dual nationality. If at least one parent is a Chinese citizen who has not settled abroad, China considers the US-born child a Chinese national — and a national cannot hold a visa to their own country. The child travels to and from China on a China Travel Document, which works in place of a visa and is valid for 2 years.

33 × 48 mm — the same specification as a Chinese visa or passport photo. Plain white background, head 31–33 mm tall, taken straight-on with the face fully visible. Our tool crops and sizes any clear phone photo to this exact spec.

Plain pure white. Off-white, cream, light grey, and any colour or pattern are rejected. For a baby, the easiest method is to lay them on a clean white sheet — our tool then normalises the background to the required white.

Lay the baby on their back on a plain white sheet and shoot straight down from above with your phone. Use burst mode — take 20+ frames so you can pick one with the eyes open. No hands, toys, or pacifiers in the frame. Upload the best shot and our tool rotates it upright, crops the head to the 31–33 mm band, and sets the white background.

It is valid for 2 years. When it expires — or runs out of blank pages — parents apply for a new one through their consular district. Each renewal needs a fresh photo because the child's appearance changes so much in the early years; you cannot reuse the old photo.

It depends on where you live. The five US consular districts are the Embassy in Washington DC, and Consulates-General in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (旧金山总领事馆, covering Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington state). The Houston consulate closed in 2020 and its district was reassigned. Confirm your district and the current document checklist with that consulate before applying.

The official Chinese Baby Travel Document Photo Maker Online size is 33 mm × 48 mm (1.30 in × 1.89 in). For digital uploads it equals 390 × 567 px at 300 DPI.

Chinese Baby Travel Document Photo Maker Online photos must be taken on a plain white background, evenly lit and free of shadows or patterns.

The head should fill approximately 70–80% of the photo height, with eyes positioned in the upper-middle of the frame and a neutral expression looking straight at the camera.

Yes. Use a recent phone photo against a plain wall, with even daylight and no glasses. Our tool then crops, recolors the background, and resizes to the official 33 mm × 48 mm template.

Yes. We generate a 4x6 print sheet with 9 photos that any pharmacy or photo kiosk can print.