Photo on your CV: yes or no? A country-by-country answer
Photo on your CV, yes or no? For Gulf and Egyptian employers, often yes; for the UK and US, no. A country table and what a good CV photo looks like.
Not legal advice. This article describes hiring conventions and quotes published guidance and reporting, checked in October 2026. Conventions differ by employer as well as by country. When a job posting or an application form says what it wants, follow it.
Short answer: it depends on where the employer is, not where you are. In the Gulf and Egypt, a professional photo is often expected. Bayt.com's recruitment experts said in 2023 that most companies in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa expect one, without naming the countries. For employers in the UK and the US, leave it off: Cambridge University's careers service advises against one in the UK, and US equal-employment guidance tells employers not to ask for one. Germany is one European country where a photo is still expected. If you apply to both kinds of employer, keep two versions of your CV, one with the photo and one without.
This guide covers the Gulf, Egypt, the UK, the US and Germany, what a good CV photo looks like, and the cases where the photo should go even in the Gulf.
Photo on CV: yes or no, by country
| Where the employer is | Photo? | What the guidance says |
|---|---|---|
| UAE, Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf | Often yes | Bayt.com's recruitment experts, quoted by Emarat Al Youm in April 2023, said a photo helps in some countries in Europe or the Middle East and North Africa, because most companies there usually expect to find one in a job application. They did not name individual countries (Emarat Al Youm, in Arabic). |
| Egypt | Often yes | The same Bayt.com statement is about the Middle East and North Africa as a region, which includes Egypt. It does not name Egypt. |
| United Kingdom | No | The University of Cambridge Careers Service answers "Should I include a photograph on my CV?" with "Not in the UK", unless the employer specifically asks (Cambridge CV guide). |
| United States | No | The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says employers "should not ask for a photograph of an applicant", and that a photo needed for identification can be collected after a job offer is made and accepted (EEOC). |
| Germany | Yes | EURES, the European Commission's job portal, says that despite a trend towards anonymous applications, a photograph "remains part of a job application in Germany", placed on the cover sheet or the top right-hand corner of the CV (EURES, Germany). |
Two notes on reading this table. First, the Gulf and Egypt rows describe what employers usually expect, not a rule; no Gulf or Egyptian law that we know of requires a CV photo. Those two rows rest on one regional statement from 2023; we found no official guidance for those countries. Second, "the employer" means the company that will read your CV. A UK or US company hiring for its Dubai or Cairo office may still screen the way it does at home.
Why the answer differs by country
In the US, the EEOC's guidance says information collected before an offer "should be limited to those essential for determining if a person is qualified for the job" (EEOC). The same paragraph says questions that could reveal an applicant's race, sex, national origin, age or religion should generally be avoided, and that employers "should not ask for a photograph of an applicant". In the UK, Cambridge's careers guide goes further and tells candidates to "be cautious of any organisation who want to know what you look like, if there's no good reason for this".
In Germany, EURES treats the photo as a normal part of a job application, and in the Gulf it usually sits in the personal-details block at the top of the CV. We covered that Gulf block (photo, nationality, visa status, date of birth) in the CV format guide for Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
When to leave the photo off, even in the Gulf
- The posting or the form says so. Some application forms have their own photo field; some say not to attach one. The form wins over any general rule, including ours.
- The employer screens the Western way. If a company's careers page, application process and job ads read like a UK or US employer's, send the version without a photo.
- You only have a bad photo. In our view, a cropped holiday picture or a selfie does more harm than no photo: an empty space says nothing, a careless photo says something.
What a good CV photo looks like
There is no official size or format for a CV photo in the Gulf or Egypt that we could find, so treat these as practical judgement, not rules:
- Head and shoulders, facing the camera, like a passport photo but with a natural expression. EURES describes the German norm as "a friendly application photograph with a neutral background", which is a sensible standard anywhere.
- Plain, light background and work clothes you would wear to the interview.
- Recent. It should look like the person who walks into the interview.
- Small and in the corner. Top right or top left of the first page, about the height of your name and contact block. It should not take space from your experience.
- Text stays text. Never write your name, nationality or anything else inside the image. Keep every detail as normal text in the document; our ATS guide explains why.
Can I use an AI-edited or AI-generated photo?
Light edits, such as fixing the lighting or cropping, are fine. A photo generated from a prompt is a different thing: if it doesn't look like you on the day of the interview, the first impression the photo made turns into a question about what else on the CV was made up. Our rule for a CV photo is the same as for every line on the CV: it has to be true.
Checklist before you send
- Where is the employer that will read this CV, and what does the table say for that country?
- Did the job posting or the application form ask for a photo, or say not to send one? Follow it.
- Is the photo recent, head and shoulders, plain background, work clothes?
- Is the photo small, in a top corner, and free of any text?
- For a UK, US or Western-style employer: is the photo removed, along with the other personal details covered in the Gulf CV format guide?
- Does the photo look like you today?
FAQ
Photo on CV: yes or no? For Gulf and Egyptian employers, often yes. For UK and US employers, no. For Germany, yes. When the job posting or form says otherwise, follow it.
Should I put a photo on my CV for a job in the UAE or Saudi Arabia? Often, yes: in 2023, Bayt.com's recruitment experts said that in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa, most companies usually expect one. They did not name the countries. A multinational that hires the Western way may not, so for those, send the version without a photo.
Is a CV with a photo or without better for an ATS? The photo is not what an applicant-tracking system is looking for; it works with the text of your CV. Keep the photo free of text and every detail in normal text, and the choice comes down to the employer's country, not the software. See our ATS guide.
What makes a good CV photo? A recent head-and-shoulders photo, with a plain, light background and work clothes, small and in a top corner of the first page, with no text inside it.
What size should a CV photo be? We found no official size. Keep it small: roughly the height of your name and contact details, in a top corner of the first page.
Can I add a photo to my CV for a UK or US job if I want to? You can, but both sources point the other way: Cambridge's careers service advises against it unless the employer asks, and the US EEOC tells employers not to ask for one.
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Related: CV format for Saudi Arabia and the UAE: photo, date of birth and visa status · ATS CV for UAE and Saudi jobs: what matters, what's a myth · Arabic CV or English CV? · How to apply for jobs in Egypt.
Sources
- Emarat Al Youm, "3 reasons to put a personal photo on your CV" (17 April 2023, in Arabic, quoting Bayt.com recruitment experts): emaratalyoum.com
- University of Cambridge Careers Service, short CV guide (2023), FAQ "Should I include a photograph on my CV?": careers.cam.ac.uk
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices, "Pre-Employment Inquiries (General)": eeoc.gov
- EURES (European Commission), Living and working conditions: Germany, "Finding a job": eures.europa.eu