Compress a PDF for a permanent residence application (IRCC)

4 MB per document, not per application

The limit applies to each file on its own. A complete application can weigh considerably more, as long as no single piece goes over 4 MB by itself.

It is the scan that causes the problem, almost never the document. A page scanned in colour at high resolution easily runs to several megabytes, while the same document generated digitally would be a few hundred kilobytes.

Getting under 4 MB

1. Open Compress PDF and drop the scanned document in.
2. Aim for 3.5 MB to keep a margin.
3. Check that the text is still readable on screen before uploading, especially numbers and dates.

The document never leaves your device: for a passport, a birth certificate or a bank statement, that guarantee matters.

If the document is still too heavy

• Rescanning at 200 or 300 dpi in greyscale is almost always enough for an administrative document.
• Scanning with a phone often gives a lighter file than a badly configured office scanner — see Scan to PDF.
• A multi-page document can be separated with Split PDF if IRCC accepts it in several pieces.
• Don't go below what stays readable: an illegible document gets an application refused far more surely than a heavy one.