Resume rules in Sri Lanka
What employers in Sri Lanka expect on a Curriculum Vitae (Resume), what the law lets them ask for, and where the two disagree.
Call it a CV for Sri Lanka or a resume for Sri Lanka: it's the same document. Employers there usually want it written in English.
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 for local/domestic job applications (passport-size, formal attire, face 60% of photo, professional quality, plain background); Avoid for international/foreign-affiliated companies and tech startups
What the law says: No law found
Date of birth: Common
Common/expected for local applications
What the law says: No law found
Marital status: Common
Common/expected for local applications
What the law says: No law found
Sex or gender: Uncommon
Uncommon/optional
What the law says: No law found
Nationality: Optional
Optional
What the law says: No law found
National ID number: Optional
Optional
What the law says: No law found
The rest of the entry
- Local name of the document
- Curriculum Vitae (Resume)
- Language to submit in
- English
- Officially prescribed form
- None found
- Other customary attachments
- None mentioned
- Data protection regime
- Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022 (Sri Lanka's first comprehensive data protection law)
- Anti-discrimination statutes
- Constitutional equality protections; Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No. 21 of 1996; Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children (Amendment) Act No. 2 of 2021
- Local language source
- English only
Where this came from
Looked up 2026-08-15. Independently checked 2026-08-15. Medium confidence. Result of that check: Corrected.
Notes: Limited published data on legal requirements. Information sourced from job boards and resume templates. No statutory source located. Clear bifurcation in practice between local employers (expect photo, DOB, marital status) and international/tech companies (prefer photo-less, minimal personal data). No authoritative legal or data-protection framework found.
Researched with AI assistants working from a written checklist, then independently checked. How we researched this