Can I send my LATAM CV as-is to a US company?

You can, but it works against you. A three-page CV with a photo and personal data clashes with what the ATS and the recruiter expect. Convert it first into a one-page, English, achievement-focused resume.

So are a resume and a CV the same thing?

In LATAM we use both words for the same document, but in the US we do not. A resume is the short marketing sheet for almost any opening; a CV is the long academic document for research, teaching, medicine, or fellowships.

Does a resume have to be one page?

For most profiles, yes: one page. Two pages are justified only with more than 10 to 15 years of relevant experience. Less is more when the recruiter spends seconds reading.

Do I need a photo on my US resume?

No. In the United States the photo, age, and marital status are left out; they can even create a legal problem for the employer. Use that space for your results and the role keywords.

CV vs Resume: Which One You Need to Apply in the US

One word, two very different documents —and sending the wrong one can quietly cost you the job.

5 min read

You apply to a remote role at a US company, attach the same CV you always use —three pages, photo up top, your date of birth— and hear nothing back. It is not your experience: it is the document. Across Latin America we say CV or currículum for the sheet we job-hunt with, but in the United States that word points to something very specific, and it is almost never what a recruiter there expects to receive.

The confusion is about language, not talent. Here is what a US employer actually means by CV and by resume, when to use each, and what concretely changes between them. The goal is the bridge: turning your LATAM CV into the one-page, results-driven, ATS-readable resume that opens doors in the remote and US market.

Same word, two different documents

In Latin American Spanish, CV and currículum are synonyms: the document you apply to any job with. In US English those two terms split apart and describe different pieces, with different audiences and rules.

The resume is a one-page marketing document. Its job is to sell a result in seconds: what you achieved, with what impact, and how well you fit the role. It is what roughly 95 percent of US companies expect for jobs in industry, tech, sales, operations —almost any corporate role.

The CV, in the United States, is something else: a long academic document —two, five, ten pages— listing publications, research, teaching, grants, and talks. It belongs to academia, scientific research, medicine, and some fellowships or international positions. Send that kind of CV to a normal company job and you are handing over the wrong document.

What a US employer actually expects

On the other side there are two filters before a human reads you. First the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) —Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Taleo, Ashby— which parses your file and matches it against the job description. Then a recruiter who spends seconds on each resume before deciding whether to keep going.

So the employer expects a short, scannable document focused on measurable achievements, not a full biography. They want to see impact (increased, reduced, launched, saved) with numbers, and the role keywords in a format the machine can read without tripping over tables, odd columns, icons, or a photo.

Details that are normal in LATAM —photo, age, marital status, full home address, national ID— in the US are not just unnecessary: they can create a legal problem for the employer and usually work against you. Fewer personal details, more results.

CV (LATAM/academic) vs resume (US), side by side

Length — CV: 2 to 3 pages in LATAM, or many more in the academic sense. Resume: 1 page (2 only with 10-plus years of experience).
Photo and personal data — CV: photo, age, marital status, address. Resume: none of that; just name, city/country, email, phone, and LinkedIn.
Focus — CV: describes duties and responsibilities. Resume: highlights achievements with metrics and results.
Language — CV: Spanish (or the local language). Resume: natural US English, with action verbs.
Format and ATS — CV: free design, tables, columns, color. Resume: clean single-column layout, standard headings, nothing that confuses the parser.
Purpose — CV: tell your full career story. Resume: convince for one specific role in seconds.
When to use it — CV (academic): research, teaching, medicine, fellowships. Resume: virtually every corporate or remote US role.

How to turn your LATAM CV into a resume

You do not start from scratch: your experience is already there, it just needs reframing. First, cut down to one page and remove the photo, age, marital status, and tax or national ID. That space is gold —you want it for your achievements.

Next, rewrite every bullet: swap duties for results. Instead of responsible for marketing campaigns, write something like launched campaigns that grew qualified leads by 32 percent in two quarters. Start with an action verb and, whenever you can, add a number.

Translate into natural English —not word for word— and fold in the exact keywords from the job description so the ATS recognizes you. Finally, use a single-column layout with standard headings (Experience, Education, Skills) and save as a PDF with selectable text, not as an image.

Check your resume before you apply

Before you send it, it helps to know how the machine reads it and how aligned it is with your field. NexCV audits your resume against the ATS: upload your PDF, pick your sector, and get, for free, a compatibility score, a breakdown by axes (format, impact, clarity, and keywords), your strengths, a spelling check, and the market roles you already fit.

The ATS score is a useful approximation, not a law or a hiring guarantee: it shows you where the document loses signal and what to prioritize. The paid detail unlocks the exact line-by-line rewrites and the keywords you are missing for the role, so you cross the bridge with a resume that actually reaches the recruiter.