Should you include your date of birth in Kuwait?

In practice: Expected - date and place of birth commonly included

Should you state your marital status in Kuwait?

In practice: Expected - marital status commonly included

Should you state your sex or gender in Kuwait?

In practice: Expected - gender commonly included

Should you state your nationality in Kuwait?

In practice: Expected - nationality commonly included

Resume rules in Kuwait

Q: Should you put a photo on your CV in Kuwait?

In practice: Expected - professional photo in formal attire with neutral background is standard

What employers in Kuwait expect on a السيرة الذاتية (al-sira al-dhatiya) or CV, what the law lets them ask for, and where the two disagree.

Call it a CV for Kuwait or a resume for Kuwait: it's the same document.

This is research, not legal advice. Employment and data protection law changes, state and provincial rules matter in federal countries, and practice varies by industry and seniority. Each entry shows when it was looked up and how confident we are. Where nothing reliable was published it says Not found rather than a guess.

Law and practice, side by side

The label on the right is what local hiring expects. The two lines under it are the law and the habit, which often disagree.

Photo: Expected

Expected - professional photo in formal attire with neutral background is standard

Date of birth: Expected

Expected - date and place of birth commonly included

Marital status: Expected

Expected - marital status commonly included

Sex or gender: Expected

Expected - gender commonly included

Nationality: Expected

Expected - nationality commonly included

National ID number: Not found

Not found

The rest of the entry

Local name of the document: السيرة الذاتية (al-sira al-dhatiya) or CV
Language to submit in: Arabic; English widely used for business
Address detail expected: Full address typically expected
Other customary attachments: Military service status often included
Employer may not ask for: Not found; sources note Kuwait lacks employment discrimination laws comparable to Western countries
Anti-discrimination statutes: Resolution No. 177 of 2021 (Prohibiting Discrimination in Employment in the Private Sector); Decision No. 46 of 2024 (Data Privacy Protection Regulation); Kuwait Labour Law prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, gender, nationality
Local language source: Arabic

Where this came from

Looked up 2026-08-15. Independently checked 2026-08-15. High confidence. Result of that check: Corrected.

Notes: Contrasts sharply with Western practice: photos standard practice due to permissive legal environment regarding personal data in hiring. Sources explicitly note Kuwait's weaker discrimination law framework enables inclusion of details prohibited or discouraged in Western hiring.

Researched with AI assistants working from a written checklist, then independently checked. How we researched this