K-ETA Photo Maker

The K-ETA form itself takes minutes. The photo upload is where applications stall — because the portal checks your file the moment you attach it, and it refuses anything larger than 700 × 700 pixels or heavier than 100 KB. Most phone photos fail on both counts. We built this maker to produce exactly the file the portal accepts: a square 700 × 700 JPG, kept under 100 KB, in your browser.

K-ETA Photo Maker

Add a photo taken in the last six months, against a plain white or light-coloured wall, with your glasses off. Drag it inside the square and use the zoom slider until your face fills roughly three quarters of the frame — full face, front view, eyes open.

📷 Click to select your photo or drag & drop it here

Zoom Make my K-ETA photo

Download k-eta-photo.jpg

The upload wall: the portal checks the file as it goes in

With most applications, a wrong photo is something an official notices days later, and you lose time. K-ETA is stricter than that. The website validates the portrait file at the moment of upload — dimensions and file size, both of them — and an oversized file simply will not attach. There is no submitting it anyway and fixing it later; the application cannot move forward until the file fits the rules.

That is why we aim just under the line instead of at it. This maker renders your crop at exactly 700 × 700 pixels, then adjusts the JPEG quality until the file lands at about 95 KB or less — close to the limit, but safely under the portal's 100 KB wall, so the file never bounces back at you over a handful of kilobytes.

Two files, two limits: do not mix up 100 KB and 300 KB

This is the most common K-ETA photo mistake we see, and it starts with the form itself. The application asks for two different images with two different size limits — and a good half of the advice online quotes the wrong one for the photo of you.

So when a website tells you the K-ETA photo can be up to 300 KB, it has read the passport-scan line and applied it to your portrait. Follow that advice and the upload refuses your photo. For the portrait, the number that matters is 100 KB — and that is the limit this maker is built around. The passport image is a separate upload, with its own 300 KB allowance.

How to make your K-ETA photo

1. Take the photo in good, even light, against a plain white or light-coloured wall. Take your glasses off, face the camera squarely, eyes open, mouth closed — and switch off filters and beauty mode.
2. Make sure the photo is recent. K-ETA wants one taken within the last six months.
3. Add the photo above and drag it inside the square. Zoom until your face fills about three quarters of the frame; a small face in a big frame is a common reason photos get questioned.
4. Press the button. The maker crops your photo square, exports it at 700 × 700 pixels as a JPG, and brings the file down to about 95 KB or less.
5. Download the file and upload it in your K-ETA application exactly as it comes out. Do not send it through a messaging app first — that can change the size and quality of the file.

Why K-ETA photos get refused

When an application stalls at the photo step, it is almost always one of these:

• The file is over 100 KB. The most common failure of all. The portal checks the size at upload and refuses the file on the spot — no warning, no way around it.
• The photo is bigger than 700 × 700 pixels. A normal phone photo is several times larger in both directions. It has to be sized down, not just attached.
• A 35 × 45 mm visa photo. That is the printed-photo spec for a regular Korean visa application at an embassy. K-ETA is a different process with a different file: square, digital, 700 × 700 or smaller. A 35 × 45 picture is the wrong shape for it.
• Glasses. The guidance says eyeglasses should generally not be worn. Take them off rather than arguing with the checker.
• Filters and beauty mode. The photo must not be digitally altered. Beauty mode is alteration — take the photo plainly.
• Dark or patterned background. The rule asks for plain white or a plain light colour, with nothing behind you.
• Face too small in the frame. Your face should fill roughly 75% of the picture. A full-body shot cropped loosely will not do.
• An old photo. Anything taken more than six months ago is outside the rules, however good it looks.

Who needs a K-ETA right now — and who is exempt until 2027

Korea has been phasing K-ETA in, and the timetable matters before you spend time on an application. Travellers holding passports from the United States, the United Kingdom, EU member states and Canada are temporarily exempt until 31 December 2026 — they can travel without applying. Applying anyway is allowed, and some travellers do it voluntarily, so the approval is one less thing to think about before a flight.

Plenty of other nationalities are not exempt, and need an approved K-ETA before they can board today. And the exemption has an end date: from 1 January 2027, every visa-free traveller needs one, exempt passport or not. If your trip is coming up, check the official site — k-eta.go.kr — for your nationality and the current rules. It is the final word, and the final decision on any application is Korea Immigration's, not ours and not any tool's.

Frequently Asked Questions