Resume rules in South Korea
What employers in South Korea expect on a 이력서 (rirekisho), what the law lets them ask for, and where the two disagree.
Call it a CV for South Korea, a resume for South Korea, or 이력서 (rirekisho): 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: Common
Common/expected in private sector (passport-style ID photo); Prohibited/Avoid in public sector and large companies using blind hiring
What the law says: Fair Hiring Procedure Act (2017+) prohibits photos in public-sector/blind-hiring forms; no restriction in private sector
Date of birth: Common
Common/expected in traditional private-sector forms; Avoid in public sector (blind hiring bans photo, age, birthplace, school name, family)
What the law says: Fair Hiring Procedure Act prohibits age/birthdate requests in public sector and blind hiring; no restriction in private sector
Marital status: Uncommon
Uncommon/avoid (violates fair hiring standards)
What the law says: Fair Hiring Procedure Act prohibits marital status in prohibited-information list for companies with 30+ employees
Sex or gender: Common
Common in private sector forms; avoid in public sector
What the law says: Fair Hiring Procedure Act does not explicitly list gender, but included in employment discrimination protections
Nationality: Optional
Optional
What the law says: Not mentioned in Fair Hiring Procedure Act
National ID number: Optional
Optional
The rest of the entry
- Local name of the document
- 이력서 (rirekisho)
- Language to submit in
- Korean (local); English (international)
- Typical length
- Not specified; varies by format
- Officially prescribed form
- Public sector and many large enterprises use standardized blind-hiring forms that prohibit photo, age, birthplace, school name, family background
- Religion, ethnicity or caste
- Not explicitly mentioned
- Health, disability or pregnancy
- Prohibited to ask; Avoid
- Other customary attachments
- Military service status for men (traditional forms, not legally required but culturally common)
- Employer may not ask for
- Fair Hiring Procedure Act (companies 30+ employees) prohibits: birthplace, marital status, property, family-related academic/occupational background, physical appearance (height, weight)
- Named statutes
- Fair Hiring Procedure Act (공정한 채용 절차법); Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) guidance; 2023 MOEL inspection found 151 of 627 businesses still in violation
- Data protection regime
- Not found in search results
- Anti-discrimination statutes
- Fair Hiring Procedure Act; employment discrimination law
- Local language source
- Korean (이력서)
Where this came from
Looked up 2026-08-15. Independently checked 2026-08-15. High confidence. Result of that check: Corrected.
Notes: South Korea has explicit statutory prohibition (Fair Hiring Procedure Act 2017+) on personal data in public sector and blind-hiring forms. However, 2023 MOEL enforcement found 151 of 627 businesses (24%) still violating prohibitions. Private sector remains largely unregulated and continues to request prohibited fields. Significant divergence between law and practice.
Researched with AI assistants working from a written checklist, then independently checked. How we researched this