Add the PDFs, photos and iPhone HEIC files a portal asks for, in the order it should get them, and pick its limit — Berlin LEA, jobcenter.digital, uni-assist, ELSTER, KKH, Barmer, or a number you type. Photos go onto A4 pages, the set is compressed toward the per-file limit without dropping below a readability floor, and if it still does not fit it is split into the fewest parts that do. Every part is re-opened and measured. This page uploads nothing; the upload to the portal is yours to make.
UnboundPDF is a free suite of 54 PDF and image tools that run entirely in your browser — merge, split, compress, edit text, OCR in 126 languages, redact, sign, convert and archive to PDF/A. Your document is read and written by the page on your own device; there is no document-upload endpoint in the core tools, no account, no watermark and no daily cap. Every result can be checked — with the Network tab, or with the Document Passport the Workspace writes for a chain of steps.
How it works, step by step
- Add the PDFs, photos and HEIC files, then put them in the order the portal should receive them.
- Pick the portal, or type the limit printed on its upload page.
- Choose the levers: grayscale, fitting PDF pages to A4, page images as a last resort.
- Run it — the set is compressed toward the per-file limit and split only if it must be.
- Read the receipt for each part, then download the parts one by one or as a ZIP.
The limits, and how sure we are of each
| For uploads to | Per file | Also stated | Source, checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin LEA (Landesamt für Einwanderung) online application | 7 MB | 100 MB in total; PDF, JPG, PNG | Official page, service.berlin.de |
| jobcenter.digital | 7.5 MB | — | From a Jobcenter guide (Landkreis Rottal-Inn click guide), not the portal itself |
| uni-assist (My assist) | 10 MB | PDF only | Official uni-assist FAQ |
| ELSTER Belegnachreichung | 10 MB | 14 MB in total; at most 20 attachments; at most 100 pages per attachment | Reported by users, not an official page (ELSTER user forum quoting the form’s help text) |
| KKH upload | 5 MB | 10 MB per batch; at most 5 files | Official site, kkh.de |
| Barmer upload | 20 MB | 25 MB in total | Official site, barmer.de |
Each number is the one its source states, checked on 5 October 2026, and the tool prints the source’s standing exactly as this table does: two of the six come from a guide or a user forum rather than the portal itself. Portals change their limits without notice, so the number printed on the upload page always wins — pick Custom and type it. A megabyte is counted as 1,000,000 bytes, the stricter reading. Why portals reject files, and what else they check, is covered in compressing a PDF for government portals.
Photos become A4 pages
A photo of a payslip or a residence permit is placed on its own A4 portrait page, inside a 12.7 mm margin, proportions kept, at up to 150 DPI. A landscape photo stays landscape on the portrait page unless you tick the option that turns it. iPhone HEIC files are decoded on this device by the engine behind HEIC Converter; the pixels are re-encoded, so EXIF data and any GPS position do not travel into the PDF. For a one-off conversion the single tool is JPG to PDF, and the format background is in HEIC to JPG and PDF. PDF pages keep their own size unless you ask for them to be fitted to A4.
Compression, with a floor
The set is joined in your order with the engine behind Merge PDF, then compressed toward the per-file limit by Compress PDF’s Balanced engine, which re-quantises photos and leaves text, fonts and line art alone. It stops the moment the file is under. It never goes below JPEG quality 40 and — only if you allow page images — never below 110 DPI: under those numbers stamps, signatures and small print begin to smear, and an unreadable scan is sent back for a different reason. Black and white is offered as a lever, off by default: grey photos make markedly smaller files, while coloured text costs almost nothing either way.
Splitting, only when it must
If the floor is reached and the set is still too big, it is cut into the fewest parts that each measure under the limit. Every candidate part is built and weighed rather than estimated, because fonts and shared resources are copied into every part that uses them. Cuts fall between documents whenever that needs no extra part; when a cut has to land inside a document, the receipt names the document and the page. Among splits with the same number of parts, the least-compressed one wins. The general-purpose version of this step is Split by Size.
When it will not fit, it says so
Some sets cannot meet a portal’s rules: one page too big on its own, parts that add up to more than a total limit — ELSTER’s 14 MB, KKH’s 10 MB per batch — or more parts than the portal takes. Then no file is handed over. The receipt prints the real numbers and the levers left: grayscale, page images, fewer documents. Tighter single-file targets have their own walkthrough, compressing to 2 MB.
The receipt and the passport
Each part is re-opened from its own bytes: it opens, its page count matches its range, its size is compared with the limit to the byte, its encryption state is read, and its text layer is sampled. A parts table lists the pages each part holds and its exact size. Each part also gets a Document Passport — a JSON with its SHA-256 and the limits it was measured against, including their source and the date they were checked. The hash proves the bytes are unchanged since. It does not prove who wrote the document or that a portal will take it.
Nothing leaves your device
Residence permits, payslips, tax receipts and insurance letters are the documents people least want on a stranger’s server. Every step here runs in the browser tab; the upload to the portal is the only one, and it is yours to make. The way to check that with the Network tab is in the PDF Privacy Lab, and the trade-offs against upload-based tools are on the comparison page. If the documents carry metadata you would rather not send, run them through Privacy Check & Clean first; a job application pack has its own outcome, Job Application Ready.
Frequently asked questions
Will the portal accept the files?
This page cannot know. It measures its own output against the limit you picked and prints the numbers; the portal decides what it accepts, and portals change their limits. Compare the preset with the number on the upload page before you rely on it, and use Custom when they differ.
Why does it split instead of compressing harder?
Below a certain quality, small print, stamps and signatures smear, and a document a case worker cannot read gets sent back for a different reason. The chain never compresses pictures below JPEG quality 40 and never re-renders pages below 110 DPI. If the limit cannot be met above that floor, it cuts the set into the fewest parts that each fit, preferring cuts between documents.
What if even splitting does not work?
Then nothing is handed over and the receipt says why, with the real numbers: a single page too big for the per-file limit, parts that add up to more than the portal’s total, or more parts than the portal takes. A file that bounces at upload is worse than an honest refusal.
Does an iPhone HEIC photo work?
Yes. It is decoded on this device by the same decoder the HEIC converter uses, placed on an A4 page, and re-encoded from its pixels, so its EXIF data — including any GPS position — is not carried into the PDF.
How is a megabyte counted?
As 1,000,000 bytes. Some portals count 1,048,576; working to the smaller number means a part under our limit is under theirs whichever way they count.