On March 8th I applied online to renew my PR card. This involved uploading scanned passport pictures and I used the tool on their website to crop the picture following the provided workflow. The picture was taken by London Drugs and I am pretty sure the original pictures does meet the specifications.
On May 8th I get a message stating 'Your photo does not meet the specifications' and my application was rejected as incomplete. We are travelling to Europe in 4 weeks, so the timing quite annoying.
Has this happened to anybody else?
Does anybody have an idea how to avoid this from happening again when resubmitting the application?
You may have no choice but to apply for a PRTD to return to Canada. If, however, you can return via the U.S., you can re-enter Canada at a land PoE in a private/personal vehicle without a valid PR card. You can show the CBSA officer your expired PR card, which will still show that you have PR status. The card expires, but the status does not (although it can be revoked if failing to meet the Residency Obligation).