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A cover letter changes when you apply abroad. This guide compares the name, length, layout, greeting and sign-off in the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy.
Canonical: https://www.prezumi.com/blog/cover-letter-by-country
A cover letter is one page in every country on this list. What changes is its name, its layout, how you greet the reader, how you sign off, and in France even the order of your argument. If you send a letter built for a US employer to a company in Hamburg or Lyon, the content may be fine and it will still look foreign.
This guide covers five countries, plus the Europass version used across the EU. Start with the table, then read the section for the country you are applying to.
| Country | What it is called | Length | Greeting | Sign-off | What is specific |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Cover letter | One page, 250 to 400 words | Dear Ms. Lopez, or Dear Hiring Manager, | Sincerely, | Opens with a result or a reason, date written October 3, 2026 |
| United Kingdom | Cover letter (older: covering letter) | One A4 page, three to five paragraphs | Dear Ms Lopez or Dear Sir/Madam | Yours sincerely with a name, Yours faithfully without one | The sign-off depends on the greeting |
| Germany | Anschreiben | One DIN A4 page | Sehr geehrte Frau Weber, | Mit freundlichen Grüßen | Business-letter layout: address block, place and date, bold subject line, list of attachments |
| France | Lettre de motivation | One page, often short | Madame, Monsieur, | A full formal closing sentence | Three-part structure: vous, moi, nous |
| Italy | Lettera di presentazione | About three quarters of a page | Gentile Dott.ssa Rossi, or Egregio Dott. Bianchi, | Cordiali saluti or Distinti saluti | A subject line (Oggetto) naming the role |
| EU-wide | Europass cover letter | One page, three paragraphs | Follows the country you apply to | Follows the country you apply to | Official editor in 31 languages, pairs with the Europass CV |
Where these rules come from. UK conventions follow Prospects, the UK graduate careers service. German layout follows DIN 5008 as summarised by Indeed Germany and Karrierebibel. French structure follows France Travail, the national employment agency. Europass guidance is from the official Europass site. Lengths for the US come from Resume.io's guide and a Resume Genius survey of 625 hiring managers.
A US cover letter is three or four paragraphs on one page. Guides put the target at 250 to 400 words, and the hiring managers surveyed by Resume Genius preferred about 400. The date is written month first: October 3, 2026.
Address a named person when you can find one, with "Dear Ms. Lopez," and fall back to "Dear Hiring Manager," when you cannot. Close with "Sincerely," and your name. Put most of your effort into the opening. In the same survey, 41% of hiring managers said the introduction leaves the biggest impression.
The UK letter looks like the American one at first glance. It is one A4 page of three to five concise paragraphs, and the date is written day first: 3 October 2026. The detail that catches people is the sign-off.
| If you open with | Close with |
|---|---|
| Dear Ms Lopez (a named person) | Yours sincerely |
| Dear Sir/Madam or Dear Hiring Manager | Yours faithfully |
Prospects describes a four-part order that most UK employers expect. The first paragraph says which role you are applying for and where you saw it. The second covers your relevant experience. The third explains why you want this role at this organisation. The last one repeats your interest and says when you are available for interview.
UK guidance also treats the cover letter as the place to explain a gap in your work history. One clear sentence about the gap is better than hoping nobody notices it on the CV.
In Germany the cover letter is called an Anschreiben, and it is laid out like formal business correspondence. The convention behind that layout is DIN 5008, a standard for business letters. No employer checks it line by line, and Karrierebibel notes that it is a convention nobody is obliged to follow. German readers are used to this layout, though, and a letter without it looks imported.
Maria Beispiel
Musterstraße 12, 10115 Berlin
maria.beispiel@email.de · 0151 2345678
Nordlicht GmbH
Frau Dr. Anna Weber
Hafenstraße 4
20457 Hamburg
Berlin, 03.10.2026
Bewerbung als Projektmanagerin, Ihre Anzeige vom 28.09.2026
Sehr geehrte Frau Dr. Weber,
[three or four short paragraphs]
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Maria Beispiel
Anlagen
The body is three or four paragraphs of three to four sentences each, and the whole letter stays on one page. If you are moving to Germany for work, the rest of the application has its own rules, which we cover in the guide to working in Germany.
The French lettre de motivation is organised around three ideas, and France Travail recommends them in this order. First you write about the company, then about yourself, then about what you would do together.
Objet : Candidature au poste de chef de projet Madame, Monsieur, [Vous] one paragraph about the company [Moi] one paragraph about your experience [Nous] one paragraph about working together Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées. Camille Exemple
Two details surprise applicants from English-speaking countries. The closing is a full sentence, and a short "Cordialement" is too casual for a first application. France Travail also advises the present tense over the conditional, so write "je souhaite" instead of "je souhaiterais".
Keep it short. France Travail estimates that a recruiter spends about 30 seconds on the letter, and some French career guides recommend as little as 150 to 200 words.
The Italian lettera di presentazione is a formal letter of about 250 words, which fills roughly three quarters of a page. It carries a subject line that starts with "Oggetto:" and names the position, for example "Oggetto: Candidatura per la posizione di Project Manager".
Greet a named person with "Gentile Dott.ssa Rossi," or "Egregio Dott. Bianchi,". Italian business writing uses professional titles more than English does, so check the person's title before you write it. Close with "Cordiali saluti" or the slightly more formal "Distinti saluti".
Italian guides often explain the letter this way: the curriculum covers your past, so the letter should say what you want to do next. For the rest of the application, see our guide to working in Italy.
Europass is the European Union's own set of application documents. Most people know the Europass CV, and the same site has a cover letter editor that works in 31 languages and stores your letters in a Europass library.
The official guidance asks for one page and three paragraphs: why you are applying, why you are the most suitable candidate, and why the organisation matches your goals. It also recommends a plain font at 11 or 12 points and line spacing of 1 or 1.5.
A Europass letter is a safe choice for EU institutions, public bodies and programmes that ask for Europass documents by name. For a private employer, the national conventions above matter more than the Europass template. If the posting asks for a Europass CV to go with it, you can convert an existing one with the free Europass CV converter.
The fastest way to work is in two steps. First get the argument right: which of your experience answers this posting, and why you want this role. Then put that text into the form the country expects, with the right greeting, sign-off and layout.
Prezumi's free cover letter generator does the first step. You upload your resume as a PDF, paste the job description and get a tailored draft in under a minute, with a list of the job requirements it covered. It writes only from what is on your resume. You then add the address block, subject line and closing formula from the section above.
If your CV is still in another language, translate it before you write the letter, so that both documents use the same job titles and terms. The guide to translating your CV for international jobs explains what to change beyond the words. Two related guides cover the content of the letter: what to write when you don't meet every requirement and what two studies found about AI cover letters.
No. The purpose is the same and it is one page everywhere, but the name, the layout, the greeting and the sign-off change. Germany expects a business-letter layout with an address block and a bold subject line. France expects a three-part structure about the company, you and your future together. The UK ties the sign-off to the greeting.
Anschreiben is the German word for the cover letter in a job application. It is one DIN A4 page laid out as a formal business letter: your address, the company's address, place and date, a bold subject line naming the role, the greeting "Sehr geehrte Frau" or "Sehr geehrter Herr" with the surname, three or four short paragraphs, and the closing "Mit freundlichen Grüßen".
In a UK letter, use "Yours sincerely" when you addressed the letter to a named person, such as "Dear Ms Lopez". Use "Yours faithfully" when you opened with "Dear Sir/Madam" or "Dear Hiring Manager". US letters do not make this distinction and close with "Sincerely".
It is the three-part structure of a lettre de motivation. "Vous" is a paragraph about the company and what it does. "Moi" is a paragraph about your experience and how it fits the posting. "Nous" is a paragraph about what you would achieve together, ending with a request for an interview.
Write it in the language of the job posting. If the posting is in German, the employer expects a German Anschreiben, even if the team works in English. If the posting is in English, an English letter is correct, and you can still follow the local layout.
No. Europass is an option the EU provides, and some institutions and programmes ask for it by name. Private employers in Germany, France or Italy usually expect a letter in the national style. Use the Europass editor when the posting mentions Europass or when you apply to an EU body.
Zubair Baqai is an AI engineer and the founder of Prezumi. He started it after researching what gets candidates interviews at companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon. He writes Prezumi's guides on resumes, ATS screening and CV formats. About Prezumi