Compress a PDF to 2 MB
2 MB is the limit on most visa document uploads, and it is roomy enough that the right answer is usually to change as little as possible.
Where 2 MB comes from
- Schengen and other visa applications, which commonly cap supporting documents at 2 MB.
- Immigration and residence-permit portals.
- Tax and company filings submitted through a web form rather than by email.
What actually fits in 2 MB
Worked out from what this tool produces, not from a rule of thumb. Where a row says no, it says what to do instead.
| What you have | Fits in 2 MB? | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Almost any text document | Comfortably | The lossless pass, nothing re-encoded |
| Fifteen to twenty scanned pages, greyscale | Yes | Around 140 dpi |
| Ten to twelve scanned pages in colour | Yes | Around 140 dpi |
| Bank statements, six months, exported | Comfortably | These are text, however long they look |
| A folder of phone photographs saved as a PDF | Yes, but | It will fit and still look like phone photographs. Rescan if it has to be read |
Visa documents are read by a person who may be deciding whether a stamp is genuine. Compress to the limit, not past it: there is no advantage in submitting 400 KB when 2 MB is allowed, and there is a real cost if a seal becomes illegible.
If you are told 2 MB and your file is 2.4 MB, the lossless pass almost always closes a gap that size on its own.
Questions
- Should I compress a visa document as hard as possible?
- No. Aim at the limit you were given and stop. The risk at this size is not the upload failing, it is a consulate being unable to read a stamp, a date or a signature and treating the document as unverifiable.
- Does this keep my document private?
- Yes. Everything happens inside this browser tab — the file is never uploaded, so there is no copy on a server to worry about. For passports, bank statements and birth certificates that is the whole point.
A different limit?
Every one of these opens the same tool with a different number in the box. If the limit you were given is not here, open Compress PDF and type it in.