How to Convert Your CV to a US Resume (Country Table)

To convert a CV to a US resume, delete everything personal: the photo, birth date, marital status, nationality, signature and any declaration. Switch the page from A4 to US Letter. Cut it to one or two pages, move to a single column, and rewrite duties as results. That’s the whole job in one sentence. The details depend on where your CV comes from, so below is a country-by-country table and a step-by-step method.

These changes matter because a CV that follows another country’s rules looks out of place to a US recruiter. And large US employers handle applications with software: Jobscan detected an applicant tracking system at 97.4% of Fortune 500 companies in 2026.

Same word, different document

In Europe, India and much of the world, a CV is the standard job application document. In the US, a CV is a long academic record used for research and university jobs, and everyone else sends a resume. Yale’s career office puts the difference simply: a resume “prioritizes only relevant experiences”.

What goes into the document differs too. The University of Sheffield’s guide to international CVs notes that “some countries require comprehensive personal details such as nationality, gender, marital status or date of birth”, and that in Europe and Asia “adding a photograph is often standard practice”. In the UK and the US, it says, anti-discrimination laws make this information unnecessary.

The short answer: 8 changes

1. Delete the photo. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says “employers should not ask for a photograph of an applicant” (EEOC).
2. Delete birth date, age, marital status, children and nationality. The EEOC treats questions about age and national origin and about marital status and children as possible evidence of discrimination, so US employers don’t want them.
3. Delete the signature, the date line and any declaration (“I hereby declare that…”). “Resumes are not signed,” says Fordham Law’s guide for international students.
4. Delete references and “References available on request”.
5. Switch from A4 to US Letter, 8.5 × 11 inches, with margins of 0.5–1 inch.
6. Cut to one or two pages. Keep only what is relevant to the job.
7. Move to a single column with plain headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills.
8. Rewrite duties as results: what you achieved, with a number, and how.

Country-by-country conversion table

From a Europass CV

Europass is widely used: 10.6 million accounts in total, and 9.8 million CVs downloaded in 2026, according to Europass’s own figures. Its older official instructions mark the photo, nationality, birth date and gender as optional. Today’s Europass editor suggests adding “a professional photograph”, though. For a US employer, leave every optional personal field empty. A Europass file still looks like a European CV, so we suggest copying the content into a plain one-column template rather than sending the Europass file.

From a German Lebenslauf

EURES, the EU’s job mobility portal, says an application photo “remains part of a job application in Germany” and reminds you to sign and date your CV. The University of Bremen adds that, under Germany’s General Equal Treatment Act, a photo is no longer required. Either way, none of it belongs on a US resume. Remove the photo, the signature, the place and date line, and the birth date. Turn the table of dates and duties into bullets that show results.

From a French CV

A French CV often opens with a civil status block. According to EURES, marital status and age are optional in it, and so is nationality if you’re from the European Economic Area. Keep your name, city, phone with the country code, email and LinkedIn, and drop everything else.

From a UK CV

Of the European CVs, a British one is the closest to a US resume. The UK’s National Careers Service already tells you not to include your age, date of birth, marital status or nationality. Three things change: delete “References available on request”, which US career centers say to leave off; switch from A4 to Letter; and use US spelling (“organized”, not “organised”).

From an Indian CV or biodata

Indian CVs often carry a photo, birth date, marital status, family details and a declaration at the end: “I hereby declare that the information provided above is true…”. Even Naukri, India’s big job portal, now advises leaving the photo, birth date and marital status off, and listing only your city instead of a full address. On the declaration, Naukri says that for companies in the US, UK or Australia a one-liner is enough, “if included at all”. For a US resume, leave it out.

From a Canadian resume

Canada and the US follow almost the same rules. Canada’s Job Bank says to leave out age, marital status and religion, that a photo “is not the norm”, and to never include your Social Insurance Number. It suggests up to two pages. For US jobs, use Letter, and keep to one page if you’re early in your career.

Step by step: convert your CV

1. Save a copy. Keep the original for jobs in your own country.
2. Strip the personal data: photo, birth date, age, gender, marital status, children, nationality, religion, ID numbers, signature, date line, declaration and references.
3. Rebuild the header: name, city and country (or city and state in the US), phone with the country code, email, LinkedIn.
4. Change the page: US Letter, margins of 0.5–1 inch, one column, a standard font.
5. Order the jobs newest first, with month and year for each date (“Mar 2023 – Present”).
6. Rewrite every duty as a result. Use the formula Google’s former people chief Laszlo Bock gave: “I accomplished X, relative to Y, by doing Z” (via Quartz).
7. Translate titles and degrees into plain English a US recruiter will understand.
8. Cut to one or two pages. Drop old jobs that have nothing to do with the role.
9. Run the copy-paste test. Open your PDF, select all, and paste it into a plain text editor. If the lines come out in the wrong order, software may read them that way too.

Two-column and photo templates: what the tests show

Many CV templates outside the US use two columns, a sidebar and a photo. Career centers such as MIT’s warn against them. MIT says “ATS may struggle with reading tables, columns, graphics, and images.” Two recent tests by resume-tool companies show what goes wrong. Neither tested a named ATS:

• Enhancv ran 357 text extractions. Two columns kept almost every word, but under the worst extraction the sections stayed intact only 35% of the time, against 60% for one column.
• ATS Verification scored a one-column resume 100 out of 100 and a two-column layout with a sidebar 85, because the sidebar text got mixed into the work history.

So the words survive, but which bullet belongs to which job can get scrambled. A recruiter reading the parsed profile may then see bullets under the wrong job. One column makes that much less likely.

Before and after: an example

Here is a made-up example: an Indian CV for a QA engineer, converted for a US job.

The numbers in the example are invented. In your resume, use only numbers you can back up.

Is there a tool that converts a CV to a US resume?

We’re building one: upload your CV, get it back in US format. Until it’s ready, Dovira does the closest thing, and it goes a step further, because it tailors the result to a specific job:

• Upload your CV as it is, in PDF, DOC, DOCX or TXT, photo and all. It needs selectable text, so a scanned image won’t work. If your CV has two columns, check that each bullet ended up under the right job.
• Paste the US job posting. Dovira writes a new resume for it in one column, with no photo. The header has only your name, title, email, phone, city and LinkedIn.
• Your duties become results, and Dovira is told to use the employer’s keywords only where they truthfully apply. It is also told never to invent numbers, employers or dates, so it should use only the ones in your CV. Read the result before you send it.
• Refine it by chatting (“shorter”, “more focus on automation”) and download a PDF. Dovira exports A4 for now, so for a US Letter file, paste the text into a Letter-size document.

Your first 3 tailored resumes are free, no credit card needed. Try it on the next US job you want to apply for.

FAQ

Can I send a Europass CV to a US company?

You can, but it will look foreign. Leave out the optional personal fields and the photo, and move the content into a one-column resume on US Letter.

Should I keep the photo for jobs in Europe?

It depends on the country. In Germany a photo is customary but no longer required. In the UK it’s not usual, says the University of Sheffield. Keep two versions: one with the photo where it’s the norm, one without for the US and UK.

Should I translate my degree name?

Yes. Write it in English, and add a short explanation if a US recruiter won’t recognize it, such as the field and length of the program.

Is two pages too long for a US resume?

Not if you have the experience. MIT says two pages maximum and Yale allows two or three for PhDs. Early in your career, one page is safer.

Do I still need a CV in the US?

Mostly for academic and research jobs. For everything else, send a resume. See resume vs CV and our guide to the US resume format.