How should a date of birth be written on an international CV?

Spell the month out: write 13 December 1976 rather than 13/12/1976. Numeric dates are ambiguous internationally because the United States reads the first number as the month (12/13/1976), most of the world reads it as the day (13/12/1976), and Japan, China, South Korea and Sweden write the year first (1976-12-13). Spelling the month is unambiguous in every market and parses cleanly in applicant tracking systems.

Should I include marital status on a CV?

Leave marital status off in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia, where it is legally sensitive. It remains conventional in the Gulf states, Russia, Türkiye, Egypt, Nigeria and the Philippines, and is optional in most of continental Europe. When a country treats it as optional, omit it — no recruiter has ever rejected a candidate for leaving it out in an optional market.

What kind of photo should go on a CV?

A recent, formal headshot on a plain light background, shot from the chest up, in business dress matching the industry, with a neutral or lightly smiling expression and eyes to camera. Roughly 3.5 by 4.5 centimetres, placed top-right or in a sidebar. Never use a cropped social photo, a holiday picture, a selfie or a filtered image.

Should I put my nationality and visa status on a CV?

State nationality and visa or work-permit status whenever it affects whether you can legally be hired — this is essential in the Gulf states, Switzerland (permit category B, C or L) and Singapore (Citizen, PR, EP or S Pass). In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, only confirm that you have the right to work, without giving your nationality.

Photo, Date of Birth & Personal Details on a CV — Country Rules

Q: Should I put my date of birth on my CV?

Only where the destination country expects it. Leave the date of birth off for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia, where it invites age discrimination and recruiters actively avoid it. Include it for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the Gulf states, China, Japan, South Korea and most of Latin America, where a personal-data block is conventional and its absence looks incomplete.

Q: Should I put a photo on my CV?

No photo for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Israel, where anti-discrimination practice means a photo can get an application discarded. Yes to a formal studio headshot for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the Gulf states, China, Japan, South Korea and most of Latin America. Optional in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, India, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa.

The short answer

Personal details on a CV are country rules, not personal preference. In the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Israel, leave out your photo, date of birth, age, gender, marital status and nationality — including them can get your application discarded on anti-discrimination grounds. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, the Gulf states and most of Asia and Latin America, a photo and a personal-data block are conventional and leaving them out makes your CV look incomplete.

The trap is that both groups feel obvious from inside. If you grew up writing CVs with a photo and a date of birth, a bare US resume looks evasive. If you grew up without them, a German Lebenslauf looks intrusive. Neither instinct travels. Use the country's rule, not your own.

This guide covers each field one at a time. For the wider format rules — length, document name, language and section order — see the international CV format guide.

Should you put a photo on your CV?

❌ No photo — anti-discrimination markets

🇺🇸 United States · 🇨🇦 Canada · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · 🇮🇪 Ireland · 🇮🇱 Israel · 🇦🇺 Australia · 🇳🇿 New Zealand

In these markets, employment law makes employers cautious about seeing protected characteristics before shortlisting. Many large recruiters will not forward a CV that carries a photo, because doing so creates a paper trail they would rather avoid. This is not about how professional your headshot looks — a perfect photo is still a liability here. Use the space for a stronger professional summary instead.

✅ Photo expected — formal-headshot markets

🇲🇽 Mexico · 🇩🇪 Germany · 🇦🇹 Austria · 🇨🇭 Switzerland · 🇫🇷 France · 🇪🇸 Spain · 🇮🇹 Italy · 🇵🇱 Poland · 🇵🇹 Portugal · 🇷🇺 Russia · 🇹🇷 Türkiye · 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates · 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · 🇶🇦 Qatar · 🇰🇼 Kuwait · 🇴🇲 Oman · 🇯🇵 Japan · 🇨🇳 China · 🇰🇷 South Korea · 🇵🇭 Philippines · 🇮🇩 Indonesia · 🇻🇳 Vietnam · 🇪🇬 Egypt · 🇧🇷 Brazil · 🇦🇷 Argentina · 🇨🇴 Colombia

Here the photo is part of the document's structure, not decoration. In Germany especially, a Bewerbungsfoto is such an established convention that its absence prompts a question rather than avoiding one. Gulf employers generally expect a passport-style photo alongside nationality and visa status.

🟡 Optional — either way is fine

🇳🇱 Netherlands · 🇧🇪 Belgium · 🇸🇪 Sweden · 🇳🇴 Norway · 🇩🇰 Denmark · 🇮🇳 India · 🇸🇬 Singapore · 🇲🇾 Malaysia · 🇿🇦 South Africa · 🇳🇬 Nigeria · 🇰🇪 Kenya · 🇨🇱 Chile

When a market is genuinely split, omit the photo. No recruiter in an optional market has ever rejected a candidate for leaving it out, but a poor photo can still count against you.

What a CV photo should actually look like

When the country does expect one, the standard is closer to a passport photo than a LinkedIn portrait:

Framing: head and upper chest, face taking roughly 60% of the frame, eyes to camera.
Background: plain and light — white, light grey or a soft neutral. No rooms, no outdoors.
Dress: match the industry. Suit or blouse for finance, law and consulting; a clean collar is enough for tech and healthcare.
Expression: neutral or a light smile. Professional, not stiff.
Size and placement: around 3.5 × 4.5 cm, top-right corner or in the template's sidebar.
Recency: within the last two years, and recognisably you.

🚫 Never use

A cropped group photo, a holiday or wedding picture, a selfie, a filtered or beautified image, sunglasses, a car interior, or a photo where someone else's arm is still visible. In markets that expect a photo, a bad photo is worse than none.

QuickCVLab's headshot-ready templates — Berlin, Europa, Terra and Slate — place and crop the photo correctly for you, and the photo never leaves your device.

Should you put your date of birth on your CV?

Only where the country expects it. Leave the date of birth off in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia. Include it in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the Gulf states, China, Japan, South Korea and most of Latin America.

The reasoning differs by market. In common-law countries, age is a protected characteristic and its presence creates legal exposure for the employer — so recruiters filter it out on sight. In structured-Europe and Gulf markets, the date of birth sits in a persönliche Daten or personal-details block alongside nationality, and omitting it reads as an incomplete document rather than a principled stand.

A middle path exists and is worth knowing: France commonly uses an age ("34 ans") rather than a full date of birth, which gives the recruiter the information without exposing your full birth date to identity-theft risk on public job boards.

How to write a date of birth so nobody misreads it

This is the part almost every guide skips, and it causes real confusion. The same six digits mean different things in different countries:

Written as	Read in the US as	Read in Europe / India as	Read in Japan / Sweden as
12/13/1976	13 December 1976	Invalid — no 13th month	Invalid
13/12/1976	Invalid	13 December 1976	Invalid
05/06/1976	5 June 1976	6 May 1976	Ambiguous
1976-12-13	13 December 1976	13 December 1976	13 December 1976
13 December 1976	Correct	Correct	Correct

The rule: spell the month. Write 13 December 1976 (or "Date of birth: 13 December 1976"). It is unambiguous in every market, it survives copy-paste into an applicant tracking system, and it avoids the 05/06 problem entirely. The ISO form 1976-12-13 is a good second choice and is the local norm in Sweden, Japan, China and South Korea.

The same rule applies to employment dates. Write March 2022 – June 2025 rather than 03/2022 – 06/2025, and never abbreviate a year to two digits.

Marital status

Marital status is the field most likely to be a genuine mistake, because it has largely disappeared from Western CVs while remaining standard elsewhere.

Leave out: US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Israel, Singapore. In several of these it is explicitly legally sensitive.
Still conventional: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Russia, Türkiye, Egypt, Nigeria, the Philippines — and, in India, for government, PSU and traditional employers.
Optional: Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Latin America, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, South Africa.

When it is optional, leave it out. When it is expected, one word in the personal-data block is enough — "Marital status: Married". Never add children's names or ages anywhere.

Nationality, visa and work-permit status

This field is different from the others: it is not about convention, it is about whether the employer can legally hire you. Where that question is live, answering it up front is a genuine advantage.

Gulf states (UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman): nationality plus current visa status and notice period. In Saudi Arabia, say whether your Iqama is transferable. This is the single highest-value line you can add to a Gulf CV.
Switzerland: permit category — B, C or L — decides your hireability. State it.
Singapore: Citizen, PR, EP or S Pass eligibility.
US, Canada, UK, Australia: do not give your nationality. If relevant, write one neutral line: "Authorised to work in the UK — no sponsorship required."
EU applications: if you are an EU citizen applying within the EU, no statement is needed. If you are not, state your permit position plainly.

What never belongs on a CV, anywhere

National ID, passport, social security or Aadhaar numbers — hand these over after an offer, never on a document you upload to job boards. (Some Latin American and African application forms ask for an ID number; that is the form, not the CV.)
Full home address. City and country is enough everywhere; a street address is an identity-theft risk.
Religion, caste, political affiliation or trade-union membership.
Health conditions or disability status, unless you are choosing to request an accommodation.
Current or expected salary — unless the advertisement explicitly asks (common in Malaysia and parts of the Gulf).
Bank details, or a photo of any identity document.

When you genuinely cannot tell

Two reliable tiebreakers:

Follow the employer, not the country. A multinational's Bangalore office screens like its head office. A local government body screens like the local norm. When the two conflict, the employer wins.
Look at the application form. If the portal has separate fields for date of birth and nationality, it does not need them on the CV as well.

And if you are still unsure: omit personal data and keep the CV strong on results. The downside of leaving a field out in a market that expects it is mild. The downside of including it in a market that treats it as a legal risk is your application being discarded unread.

Frequently asked questions

Should I put my date of birth on my CV?

Only where the country expects it. Leave it off for the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia. Include it for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the Gulf, China, Japan, Korea and most of Latin America.

How should I write the date — 13/12/1976 or 12/13/1976?

Neither. Spell the month: 13 December 1976. Numeric dates flip meaning between the US (month-first), most of the world (day-first) and Japan, China, Korea and Sweden (year-first). The ISO form 1976-12-13 is a safe second choice.

Should I put a photo on my CV?

No for the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. Yes for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the Gulf, China, Japan, Korea and Latin America. Optional in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, India, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa.

Should I include marital status?

Leave it off in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia. It is still conventional in the Gulf, Russia, Türkiye, Egypt, Nigeria and the Philippines. Where it is optional, omit it.

Should I state my nationality and visa status?

Yes wherever it decides whether you can legally be hired — the Gulf states, Switzerland (permit B/C/L) and Singapore (Citizen/PR/EP/S Pass). In the US, UK, Canada and Australia, confirm only your right to work, without stating nationality.

Is it safe to put personal details on a CV uploaded to job boards?

Include only what the country genuinely expects. Never put an ID or passport number, full street address or bank details on a CV you upload anywhere. QuickCVLab builds the document entirely in your browser, so your photo and personal data are never uploaded to us.

Photo, Date of Birth & Personal Details on a CV