Aadhaar / UIDAI document requirements

This guide is for people updating their Aadhaar details online through myAadhaar, where you attach a scanned proof of identity or proof of address. There is only one kind of upload, but it is the step where many update requests stall, usually because of a blurred scan, a missing page or a file name the system will not take.

The points below reflect the myAadhaar online document update as checked on 2 Oct 2026. UIDAI can change its process, and its list of acceptable documents, at any time, so confirm on myAadhaar and on UIDAI's enrolment and update page before you start.

What the upload step expects

Your proof should be a clear colour scan of the original document, kept under 2 MB (2048 KB). UIDAI's FAQ names PDF and JPEG as the formats, and the upload screen also accepts PNG. If a document runs over more than one page, every page has to be included. File names may use only letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores and spaces.

Two words in that summary deserve attention. Original means you scan the actual document, not a photocopy of it, because copies lose contrast and fine print. Colour means you keep the scan in colour rather than switching to black and white, so stamps, seals and photographs on the document stay recognisable.

Rename the file before anything else

The file-name rule is easy to miss and easy to fix. Phones, scanning apps and messaging apps often add characters that fall outside letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores and spaces. Watch for:

• brackets, such as a name ending in (copy)
• apostrophes, as in Meena's proof
• ampersands, commas, hash signs or the at sign
• extra full stops in the middle of the name

A plain name such as address-proof-scan.pdf avoids the problem. As a general precaution, stick to English letters in the name even if the document itself is in another script. The full stop before the extension is part of how files work, so leave that one in place.

Scanning a document that UIDAI can read

Whoever checks your request needs to read your name and address without effort. Lay the original flat, in daylight or under a bright lamp, and keep all four corners inside the frame. Avoid flash on laminated cards, since the glare can wipe out a line of text. Hold the phone directly above the page, not at an angle, so the lines stay straight.

If you only have phone photos, Scan to PDF turns them into a single document. For a quick single-page proof, a well-lit JPEG is fine, and Image Convert can change a HEIC or PNG photo into JPEG, the format UIDAI's FAQ names alongside PDF.

Proofs with more than one page

Some documents put your address on one page and your name or photo on another. Because every page must be included, scan the whole document and keep the pages in their natural order. Sending only the page with the address on it would not meet that rule, even if it looks like the important part.

You will usually want those pages in one file. If you scanned them separately as images, Images to PDF combines them in the order you choose. If they are already separate PDFs, Merge PDF joins them. A sideways page can be put upright with Rotate PDF, which saves the reader turning their head.

Keeping it under 2 MB

A limit of 2 MB is generous for a single page but can be tight for a long colour scan. If your combined file is too large, Compress PDF reduces it towards a KB target. Set a figure a little under 2048 KB rather than exactly on it, and zoom in on the result to confirm small text is still sharp. If one image is the problem, compress that page before merging rather than squeezing the whole document hard.

Before uploading, run the final file through Portal Preflight for Aadhaar. It checks the format and size against the rule above, so you find out about a problem on your own phone instead of halfway through the update. All of these DocNimble tools work inside your browser, and your documents are not uploaded to DocNimble, which matters for papers carrying your address and identity details.