“Photo check failed” — China COVA
COVA's photo check is the strictest of any visa portal — and famously fails photos that look perfect. It isn't judging how you look; it's measuring the file. Here's what it measures, and the tool below runs the same measurements on your photo.
Drag your photo here
or click to upload — JPG or PNG
Why you got this error
File outside the 40–120KB band
Not 354×472 pixels
Background not pure white
Face framing outside spec
Each cause, and how to fix it
File outside the 40–120KB band
- Why it fails
- COVA enforces both ends: under 40KB fails, over 120KB fails. Almost no camera or tool naturally produces a file inside this window.
- The fix
- Compress iteratively until the JPEG lands inside 40–120KB — the render does a precision quality search.
Not 354×472 pixels
- Why it fails
- COVA wants a 33×48 mm portrait — 354×472 px. Square photos and 35×45 crops are the wrong shape.
- The fix
- Re-crop to the exact 354×472 frame from your original photo.
Background not pure white
- Why it fails
- COVA's background detector is unforgiving — any tint, shadow, or texture reads as non-white.
- The fix
- Replace the background with clean white, with sharp hair edges so the face detector isn't confused.
Face framing outside spec
- Why it fails
- The head must fill roughly 58–69% of the frame with both ears visible; hats, hair over ears, and tilted poses trip the face check.
- The fix
- Use a front-facing photo with ears visible; the tool measures and re-crops the framing to the band.
Frequently asked questions
COVA's spec is unique: the 40–120KB two-sided band and 354×472 dimensions don't match any other portal's output. A DS-160 or Schengen photo fails COVA by construction.