Kuwait CV format: how to write a CV for jobs in Kuwait City and the rest of Kuwait

Your job title must match your degree: PAM's checks

The Public Authority for Manpower now treats the link between your qualification and your job title as a condition of the work permit. In April 2025, according to a circular from its acting director general, PAM launched an automated system that verifies the applicant's academic degree, field of specialisation and the accreditation status of the qualification under Ministry of Higher Education standards before any work permit is issued. It covers expatriate, GCC and bidoon workers applied for through the Ashal portal or the Sahel Business app, and it followed the discovery of fraudulent certificates. In May 2025 Ministerial Circular 1/2025, published on PAM's X account, froze changes to the academic qualifications and job titles of expatriates hired on work permits or transferred into the private sector, and said requests to upgrade a qualification would be rejected if they did not fit the job the worker was hired for. A year later Circular 1/2026, in force from 2 June 2026, reopened amendments, but only where the qualification, the job title and the work actually done are shown to match, and it requires employers to correct titles where there is a mismatch. This is not new: since at least 2021 PAM has required degree accreditation, with the original certificate, to renew a work permit. The tips below are practice.

• Write the job title that your degree supports and that appears on your work permit or offer, not a grander one; a mismatch can now block the permit itself.
• Under each degree, write the specialisation exactly as on the certificate, because the specialisation is one of the three things PAM checks.
• If your real duties are above your registered title, say so in the experience bullets, but keep the title as registered until the change is approved.

Attesting your degree: why an apostille is not enough

Kuwait does not appear on the status table of the Hague Apostille Convention (last updated 30 June 2026), so a foreign degree goes through legalisation rather than an apostille. An Arab Times legal clinic of February 2026 described the usual chain for an engineering degree: attestation by the issuing university, by the education ministry and the foreign ministry of the country of study, and by the Kuwaiti embassy or consulate there, then a stamp from Kuwait's Ministry of Foreign Affairs once you are in Kuwait, followed by recognition or equivalency through PAM and, where needed, the Ministry of Higher Education. In December 2017 the immigration firm BAL reported that the Interior Ministry had begun to require an attested original degree with residency applications, renewals included, for jobs that require a university degree. Checks also reach back in time: in January 2024 the Civil Service Commission asked every government body for the degree records of Kuwaiti and expatriate staff holding post-secondary degrees obtained abroad since 2000, with the equivalency issued by the higher education ministry, so that forged degrees could be found and the holders' employment revoked. As practice, ask your employer which steps your own degree needs, finish them before you apply, and list each degree with its exact title, institution, country, mode of study and year so the CV matches the documents.

Engineers: equivalency first, then the work permit

Engineering is where Kuwait's degree rules bite hardest. A PAM circular reported in December 2024 says a work permit in an engineering profession is issued only to graduates of accredited Kuwaiti institutions in engineering, engineering sciences or architecture, or to holders of qualifications certified and equated by the Ministry of Higher Education, and that a request for recognition must be filed through PAM's electronic portals before the permit application. Engineers already registered on 8 September 2024 can renew or transfer with the profession registered temporarily until equivalency is complete; engineers arriving from abroad need initial recognition from a specialised committee, which gives a two-year temporary registration to finish the process. Anyone whose qualification is not yet recognised can move to a non-engineering profession while awaiting approval, and failing to complete equivalency in time can lead to reclassification. For years the Kuwait Society of Engineers (KSE) accredited engineers' degrees with PAM, and the checks reached long-serving residents too: in 2020 the society refused to recognise about 3,000 engineering certificates from India that did not meet its conditions, and the holders were given other jobs matching their degrees. The Arab Times clinic of February 2026 says verification is now documentation-based and run by PAM and the higher education ministry, with no KSE exam, although some employers still ask for KSE membership; other reports differ, so confirm the current step with PAM. As practice, put your equivalency status and any KSE membership number under a Licences heading near the top of the CV.

Government jobs and Kuwaitisation

Kuwait's localisation drive is strongest in the public sector. In February 2025 the Civil Service Commission (CSC) announced that expatriate contracts in government would not be renewed after 31 March 2025, with exceptions for the children of Kuwaiti women and for roles where qualified Kuwaitis are not available. Kuwait Times, citing the Public Authority for Civil Information, reported that 120,502 non-Kuwaitis and 401,215 Kuwaitis worked in government at the end of 2024, so expatriates were about 23 percent of public employees, with the largest numbers at the Ministry of Health (38,829) and the Ministry of Education (27,012). The commission had already said in 2021 that non-Kuwaiti appointments were limited to medical workers and teachers in specialties where no citizens are available. Movement between the two sectors became easier in March 2025, when the Interior Ministry removed the condition that a new role must match the expatriate's qualification or previous work when moving residency between government and private employment, according to Arab Times. The tips below are practice.

• If you are the child of a Kuwaiti mother, state it in your personal details, because it is a named exception to the non-renewal rule.
• For public-sector roles open to expatriates, such as medicine and teaching, lead with the rare specialty and the exact licence or qualification that a Kuwaiti candidate could not supply.
• Kuwaiti candidates should keep the degree on the CV identical to the one registered with the commission, because the commission audits degrees.

Doctors and dentists: national licensing exams from 2027

Health is the largest employer of expatriates in Kuwait's government, and its entry rules are changing. In April 2026 the Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation reported that Kuwait's Ministry of Health had approved a framework requiring newly graduated doctors and dentists to pass national licensing examinations before appointment to clinical posts such as resident physician or assistant registrar, starting in 2027. The exams are the Kuwaiti Medical Licensing Examination (KMLE) and the Kuwaiti Dental Licensing Examination (KDLE), run by a new council under the Kuwait Institute for Medical Specializations, and the report says the reform is meant to hold all practitioners, expatriates included, to the same benchmark. As practice, a recent graduate should list the exam and the result once taken, and every doctor should state the specialty, the licensing body and the registration number exactly as on the licence, with experience dates that match the letters from each hospital.

Contract, probation and notice under the Labour Law

Private-sector jobs fall under Law 6/2010 on labour in the private sector. According to the Know Your Rights booklet that Migrant-Rights published after review by the law firm Clyde & Co in September 2023, the contract should be in Arabic and signed by both parties, with a copy for each and a third for PAM (Articles 28 and 29). Lawyers writing in MEED add that the worker may ask for a version in a second language, but the Arabic text prevails in a dispute. Probation is allowed only if it is written in the contract, may not exceed 100 days, and can be used only once with the same employer; either side may end the contract during probation without notice (Article 32). For an open-ended contract, either party must give at least three months' notice if the worker is paid monthly and one month for other workers, and the side that does not respect the notice owes the wage for that period (Article 44). While serving notice given by the employer, the worker is entitled to one paid day, or eight paid hours, a week to look for a new job. In August 2026 PAM reminded workers that they may leave without notice and keep their end-of-service benefits when the employer breaches the contract or the law, assaults them or puts their safety at serious risk. The tips below are practice.

• Write a notice period of three months if you are paid monthly, or the longer period in your contract, because a shorter figure would not match your legal obligation.
• Make sure the job title on the Arabic contract is the one on your CV and offer, because the Arabic text is the one that counts.
• List a job you left during probation with its real dates; do not stretch it into a longer role.

Changing employer and leaving Kuwait

Kuwait's rules on moving to a new employer are among the strictest in the Gulf, according to the migrant workers' rights group Migrant-Rights, so a recruiter will ask whether you can transfer. In December 2024 PAM let workers of small and medium-sized enterprises transfer after one year of service instead of three, within the same sector and with the employer's prior approval. In 2026 Administrative Decision 680/2026 amended the transfer rules of Decision 842/2015 so that, after a labour complaint and an investigation, PAM may approve a transfer before one year of service when the employer neglected the worker's permit or residency procedures, the employer's file is suspended, a false absconding report was filed, the employer breached Article 48 of the Labour Law, or the business closed or went bankrupt. Leaving the country has its own step: from 1 July 2025, PAM requires every foreign national working in the private sector to obtain an exit permit before departing Kuwait, whether the departure is temporary or permanent, as EY reported. As practice, if you are already in Kuwait, write in your CV header that you hold a valid residency and state when you will be eligible to transfer, because the transfer rules decide how soon you could start.

Age, residency law and fees

Two recent changes affect what you can expect after an offer. In December 2024 PAM scrapped all the restrictions on expatriates aged 60 and over without a university degree. Kuwait Times reported that this group had been paying a special fee of KD 250 a year and buying private health insurance of at least KD 500, around KD 900 in total, and that they now pay the regular fees, including KD 70 for government health insurance, like other expatriate workers. In November 2024 Amiri Decree 114/2024 on the residency of foreigners replaced the 1959 law. The Amiri Diwan's summary says it has 36 articles in seven chapters, limits a regular residence permit to five years, with ten years for some categories such as the children of Kuwaiti women, and devotes a chapter to penalties for residency trafficking. In the Interior Ministry's briefing reported by Arab Times, the law also bars employers and recruiters from misusing visas or using workers for purposes other than those in their contracts, and punishes people who obtain work permits in exchange for money. The tips below are practice.

• Experienced candidates over 60 no longer face extra permit fees for their age alone, so present your full experience rather than cutting older roles.
• Never pay an agent or a so-called sponsor for a visa or a job; under the residency law that payment is itself an offence.
• Do not accept a visa issued for a different profession from the job you were offered; the title has to match your degree and your duties.

Layout and honesty: what works with Kuwait employers

These points are practice unless a rule is named. Put your contact details, nationality and whether you are in Kuwait now, with your residency status, at the top. Then list work experience in reverse order with exact titles and dates, then degrees with their attestation and equivalency status, then licences such as engineering recognition or a medical licence, then languages. Two pages suit most candidates. An Arabic version helps for many local roles, and because your contract will be in Arabic and the Arabic text prevails, spell your name exactly as in your passport in both versions. Honesty is checked by machine as well as by people: PAM verifies degrees before it issues permits and the Civil Service Commission audits government employees' degrees, so a forged or inflated qualification can cost you the permit and the job. If you already work in Kuwait and have a problem with wages, your contract or your employer, PAM says a labour complaint goes to the Labour Relations unit that holds the company's file or through the As'hal Manpower service, which also shows you the work permit and contract information on file. Violations you witness can be reported through the Report Me service in the Sahel app, and PAM runs shelters for migrant workers.