Saudi Arabia CV Format (2026): Photo, Iqama Status, Arabic and a Sample

Saudi recruiters expect more personal detail than employers in the UK or US, but not everything on an old-style biodata.

Detail	Include?	Notes
Photo	Usually yes	Recent, professional headshot; business attire
Nationality	Yes	Drives visa and Saudization decisions
Iqama or visa status	Yes	Tells the employer how quickly you can join
Notice period	Yes	Recruiters plan mobilization around it
Current city	Yes	Riyadh, Jeddah, Eastern Province, or your home city
Date of birth / age	Optional	Include if the ad asks; otherwise your choice
Marital status	Optional	Some candidates add it because family status can affect the package; most leave it off
Religion	No	Not needed to assess your application
Passport number, iqama number	No	Give them only after an offer, on official forms
Expected salary	Usually no	Discuss it when asked, as basic plus allowances

EZProCV has optional Gulf fields for photo, nationality, visa status and notice period, so you can add them to a Saudi version of your CV and remove them for other markets. Our UAE resume format guide covers the same fields for Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Your status line answers the recruiter's first practical question: can we hire this person, and how fast? Write it in plain words.

Your situation	What to write
Saudi national	Nationality: Saudi
Expatriate in the Kingdom, able to move employers	Iqama: Transferable
Expatriate in the Kingdom, transfer not yet confirmed	Iqama: Valid until Mar 2027 (transfer eligibility to be confirmed)
Dependent of a resident	Residence: Dependent iqama (family sponsorship)
Living outside Saudi Arabia	Visa status: Requires work visa
GCC national	Nationality: Kuwaiti (GCC national)

Only write "transferable" if you've checked. Moving to a new employer runs through Qiwa, the labor platform of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD), and eligibility depends on your contract and current rules. If you're applying from abroad, your employer requests the work visa through Qiwa and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa platform; you can't apply for one on your own. Rules change, so confirm the current position on those official sites (as of October 2026).

Saudization

Saudization (localization) is the government's policy of increasing private-sector employment of Saudi nationals. HRSD has reserved some occupations and activities for Saudis and updates these decisions over time. If an ad says Saudi nationals only, an expatriate application won't progress, so read the eligibility line before applying.

If you're Saudi, make it obvious: put Nationality: Saudi in your header, and add any national programs, internships or cooperative training you completed.

Professional accreditation

Many regulated occupations need registration before you can work under that title:

• Healthcare: the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties sets criteria for professional classification and registration, and verifies certificates issued outside the Kingdom.
• Engineering: engineers are generally asked for Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) accreditation.
• Skilled and technical trades: some occupations go through professional or skill verification before a visa is issued. Our guide to the Saudi skill verification program explains how to align your CV with it.

On your CV, write status, not just the body: SCFHS: Registered Nurse, classification completed or SCE accreditation: in progress.

Job titles

Your visa and iqama list an occupation. Keep the job titles on your CV consistent with your degree and the occupation you're applying for, and avoid inflated titles that won't match your documents during verification.

Most private-sector employers in engineering, healthcare, IT, finance and consulting work in English, and an English CV is standard. Arabic is a strong advantage in customer-facing, HR, government relations and sales roles, and some ads list it as essential.

List languages with honest levels:

Languages: Arabic (Native), English (Fluent, IELTS 7.0)

Languages: English (Fluent), Urdu (Native), Arabic (Basic, workplace conversation)

Some Saudi companies and government-linked entities ask for an Arabic CV, or for both. If you provide one, have it written or checked by a fluent professional rather than machine-translated, and keep the same structure, dates and job titles as your English version. Names should match your passport spelling in both.

If your name has several common English spellings (Mohammed, Muhammad, Mohamed), use the one in your passport everywhere: CV, LinkedIn, certificates and email address. Mismatched spellings slow down attestation, accreditation and visa checks.

Expatriates commonly find Saudi roles through LinkedIn, Gulf job boards such as Bayt, GulfTalent and NaukriGulf, licensed recruitment agencies and company careers pages. Large employers and national projects typically use an applicant tracking system (ATS), software that stores CVs and lets recruiters search them by title, skills and nationality.

Recruiters scanning a Saudi CV look for:

1. Job title match with the role and your documents.
2. GCC or Saudi experience, because it signals you know local working conditions.
3. Project scale: values, headcount, client names and durations.
4. Accreditation status for regulated roles.
5. Availability: notice period and whether you need a new visa.

Sample bullet points

Managed procurement for a SAR 420M hospital project in Riyadh, sourcing 1,800 line items from 65 suppliers and cutting long-lead delays by 6 weeks.

Supervised 35 technicians across 3 shifts at a 1,200-bed hospital, keeping preventive maintenance compliance above 97%.

Keep the layout single-column with standard headings so the ATS reads it correctly; our ATS-friendly resume guide explains why.

A short cover letter or email helps when you're applying from abroad, because it lets you explain availability and visa needs in a sentence:

I'm a mechanical engineer with eight years in HVAC design for hospitals in Pakistan and the UAE. I hold a PEC registration and am ready to begin SCE accreditation. I can join within 60 days of an offer and will require a work visa.

Before you apply from abroad:

• Start degree attestation early; employers commonly request attested certificates.
• Check whether your occupation needs accreditation or verification.
• Check your own country's emigration rules, for example India's eMigrate or Pakistan's Bureau of Emigration.
• Never pay for a work visa or a job offer. Legitimate Saudi employers sponsor the visa.

If you're targeting several Gulf countries, compare our guides to the Qatar CV format, Kuwait CV format and Bahrain CV format. For a full cover letter structure, see how to write a cover letter that gets read.