Laos asks for a 4x6cm photo — taller than the 35x45mm most countries use, and stated outright on the official eVisa portal.
4 x 6cm, taken within the last six months, to the ICAO standard. The passport bio page goes up as a second file and must show the whole page including the MRZ — the two lines along the bottom
4x6cm on a plain white background — one of the few photo rules a government portal states in its own words.
Laos wants 4x6cm — a different shape.
The portal names this explicitly.
The size on the official eVisa FAQ.
Even lighting, nothing behind you.
It is not the ICAO 35x45mm frame.
The Lao eVisa portal asks for a photo sized 4 x 6cm. That is a taller, narrower-looking crop than the 35x45mm photo used for Schengen visas, British passports and most of Asia — so a leftover strip of European passport photos is the wrong shape here.
Vietnam and Cambodia use the same 4x6cm format, which is handy if you are travelling across the region on one trip: one crop covers all three.
The official FAQ lists the requirements itself.
Most countries leave photo rules to third-party interpretation. Laos does not: the official portal states the photo must be sized 4 x 6cm, in colour, taken within the last six months, with no shadows and a plain white background, facing the camera, with a neutral expression and both eyes open.
That list is short but it is authoritative, which is unusual and worth relying on.
No head height, no file size, no format.
The official guidance does not give a head height, a pixel dimension, a file format or an upload size limit. Third-party sites fill those gaps with numbers that are not traceable to the government, and some list a 3x4cm Laos photo that contradicts the official 4x6cm.
What the portal does say is that the photograph must be "as per ICAO Standard", which is the closest thing to a head-height rule you will get from it — the ICAO geometry is being referenced rather than restated.
This tool targets a 32-36mm head on the 60mm frame — the range consistent with ICAO practice and with Vietnam's 4x6cm layout. Treat that as a sensible default rather than a published rule, and export a standard JPEG unless the form tells you otherwise.
The passport page must include the MRZ.
The photograph is one of two uploads. The other is your passport bio page, and the portal is specific about it in a way it is not about the photo: the image must cover the whole page including the MRZ — the two lines of machine-readable text along the bottom.
That instruction exists because people photograph the top half, where the portrait and the details are, and crop away the strip that looks like nothing. The MRZ is the part a machine actually reads.
Lay the passport flat, shoot square-on from above, and check both MRZ lines are complete and legible before uploading.
An approval letter, not the visa itself.
Processing usually takes three working days after you submit and pay, longer around Lao public holidays. What arrives is an eVisa Approval Letter issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
That letter is not the visa. You present it with your passport at a designated eVisa lane on arrival and receive the visa sticker there. Without the letter, entry is refused.
It only works at the designated ports — Wattay and Luang Prabang and Pakse airports, the Lao–Thai Friendship Bridges I, II and IV, Boten checkpoint, and the Boten and Khamsavath railway stations. Arriving somewhere else means the eVisa does not apply.
Plain white, and genuinely shadow-free.
Stand about a metre away from a plain white wall so your body does not cast a shadow onto it. Light your face from the front, evenly, with no hotspots on one cheek.
Keep your head level and look straight into the lens. Remove glasses if you can, and any hat or head covering that is not worn for religious reasons.
Printed at 40 x 60mm, 945 x 1417px, JPG, under 2MB. Computed from this photo's own specification, not typed by hand.
Requirements verified · Source: laoevisa.gov.la
Watch out — At least 4 x 6cm, taken within the last six months, to the ICAO standard. The passport bio page goes up as a second file and must show the whole page including the MRZ — the two lines along the bottom
Create the 4x6cm photo the Lao eVisa portal asks for — plain white background, no shadows, free and 100% private.
Choose a clear, recent photo from your phone or computer.
We crop to 40x60mm with your head centred on the frame.
Attach the file to your Lao eVisa application.
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