Compress a PDF for a visa or residence permit

A visa or residence permit portal does not use one shared limit. Some forms stop at a few hundred kilobytes, and others allow several megabytes.

This page starts at 2 MB. Set the size the portal asks for, or open one of the sizes below.

Questions

Does the file leave my device?

No. The PDF is compressed in this browser and is not uploaded.

Will the text stay selectable?

The lossless pass and the recompression of embedded images keep the text selectable. If you then turn the pages into images, the text can no longer be copied or searched.

What happens if the file cannot reach this size?

You can download the smallest file that still keeps the text. If that is still too big, you can turn the pages into images. If even that cannot reach the target, the smallest result is shown and can still be downloaded.

How do I start with a smaller PDF?

Fewer pages, a grayscale scan, or a lower scan resolution all make a smaller file. A photo of a page is usually larger than a text scan of the same page.