Compress PDF for ImmiAccount

ImmiAccount, the Department of Home Affairs’ online system for Australian visa applications, refuses any attachment over 5 MB. Its own help pages (checked 8 October 2026 on immi.homeaffairs.gov.au) say visa files can be up to 5MB, with extensions including pdf, jpg, png, doc and docx, and that encrypted PDFs are not accepted. Scanned passports, bank statements, payslips and relationship evidence often come out bigger than that, especially from phone scanner apps.

This page opens Compress PDF with “Fit a size” already chosen and the limit set to 4.7 MB, comfortably under 5 MB however the system counts. It re-saves the scanned pages and photos inside the PDF, trying the gentlest setting that fits so that names, numbers and stamps stay readable for the case officer. Typed text and fonts are not touched.

Your documents are some of the most personal files you own, so they stay on your device: the compressing happens in your browser and nothing is uploaded. Rules can change, so check the limit shown in ImmiAccount when you attach.

1. Tap “Choose a PDF” and pick one document, for example a scanned passport or a bank statement.
2. Leave “Fit a size” selected with “At most” at 4.7 MB, the setting this page starts with.
3. Press “Compress PDF”. It takes up to three tries to find the gentlest setting that fits.
4. Check the pages side by side, especially small print and stamps, then press “Download PDF” and attach it in ImmiAccount.

• Starts set for ImmiAccount: “Fit a size” with a 4.7 MB target per file.
• Keeps the gentlest of five settings that fits, so scans stay as readable as possible.
• Typed text, fonts and links are left exactly as they were; only photos and scanned pages are re-saved.
• Says plainly when a document cannot get under the limit, and why.
• The new file has no password, which ImmiAccount needs: it does not accept encrypted PDFs.
• Page-by-page comparison of the original and the smaller copy before you download.

• Give each file a short, plain name with letters, numbers and dashes, such as passport-bio-page.pdf, so it is easy to find and less likely to trip an upload error.
• Several small documents can be joined into one PDF with Merge PDF, then compressed here, which helps with the cap on the number of attachments.
• If a document will not get under 4.7 MB, split it with Split PDF and attach it as part 1 and part 2.
• A bank PDF with a password must be unlocked first with Unlock PDF; ImmiAccount rejects encrypted files.
• Photos for evidence (not documents) can be shrunk with Compress Image to Size and attached as JPG.