Resignation letter in Saudi Arabia: professional template and checklist
A resignation letter has one job: to be unambiguous, and to be a document that cannot be used against you later.
It is not where you explain why you are leaving. It is not where you settle anything. It is a short administrative record that fixes two facts — that you are resigning, and when your employment ends — and everything else people put in it is either unnecessary or actively costly.
The template below is short on purpose. The hard part of resigning is the conversation and the notice period, not the document: should I resign or stay if the decision is not yet made, and what to check in a job offer letter for where your notice terms actually live.
ICF ACC · MBA · Riyadh · Arabic and English
What belongs in it
Five things, and nothing else is required.
- A clear statement that you are resigning from your named position.
- The date of the letter.
- Your intended last working day, consistent with your notice obligation.
- An offer to support the handover.
- A brief, plain closing line and your signature.
What must never be in it
Your reasons. You may choose to give them in the conversation. Putting them in the permanent record helps nobody and constrains you later.
Any grievance. Whatever happened, the resignation letter is the wrong instrument. It will be read by people who were not involved, filed, and potentially produced years afterwards.
Conditions. "I resign unless X is resolved" is not a resignation and creates an ambiguity you will have to untangle.
Gratitude you do not mean. Two warm sentences read as sincere. Six read as sarcasm, particularly if people know the circumstances.
Where you are going. You can say it in person. It does not belong in the file.
A date you have not checked. The most common practical error on the page, and the one that causes actual problems.
Anything about a counter offer. If one is coming, that is a separate conversation: counter offer after resigning.
The template
Copy, fill the bracketed fields, delete this line. Nothing to download and no email required.
[Your name] [Your position] — [Department] [Date] [Manager's name] [Their position] [Organisation] Subject: Resignation — [Your name], [Your position] Dear [Manager's name], I am writing to formally notify you of my resignation from the position of [position] at [organisation]. In line with my notice period, my final working day will be [date]. Please let me know if a different date would work better for the team, and I will do what I can to accommodate it. I am committed to a complete handover. Over the coming weeks I will document [the two or three things only you hold], prepare a handover note, and support whoever takes over in whatever way is most useful. Thank you for the opportunity and for your support during my time here. Yours sincerely, [Signature] [Your name]
The line offering flexibility on the date is worth keeping. It costs you nothing, it is often not taken up, and it changes the tone of the whole document from a notification into a handover.
The short email version
Where your employer's practice is a message rather than a letter, this is enough.
Subject: Resignation — [Your name] Dear [Manager's name], Following our conversation today, this is to confirm my resignation from the position of [position], with my final working day on [date], in line with my notice period. I will prepare a full handover and am happy to discuss how best to sequence it. Thank you for the opportunity. [Your name]
Send the written version after the conversation, not instead of it. A manager who learns you are leaving from an email has been handled badly, and they will remember it for longer than the reason.
A completed example
The example below is written for this page. It is an illustration, not a real letter, person or organisation.
Subject: Resignation — [name], Senior Procurement Specialist
Dear [manager],
Further to our conversation this morning, I am writing to formally notify you of my resignation from the position of Senior Procurement Specialist.
In line with my notice period, my final working day will be 14 December. If a different date would work better for the tender schedule, please tell me and I will do what I can.
Before I leave I will complete the supplier pre-qualification file, document the framework renewal dates that currently sit with me, and write a handover note for the two open tenders. I am happy to brief whoever picks them up, in person or afterwards by phone.
Thank you for the opportunity and for your support over the past four years.
Yours sincerely, [name]
About 130 words. Note what it does not say: no reason, no destination, no grievance, and no promise it cannot keep.
Before you send: the checklist
- [ ] My new offer is in writing, signed, and not conditional on anything outstanding
- [ ] I have read my contract and know my notice period exactly
- [ ] I have checked any bond, training commitment or repayment clause that applies to me
- [ ] The last working day in the letter is consistent with my notice obligation
- [ ] I have had the conversation with my manager before sending anything
- [ ] I know who else must receive a copy, per my employer's process
- [ ] I have kept a copy, and a record of when and how it was submitted
- [ ] There is nothing in the letter I would not want read aloud in two years
- [ ] I have not told colleagues before telling my manager
- [ ] I have decided what I will say to colleagues, and it is the same thing I will say to everyone
The second and third items are where people get hurt, and neither is answerable by a template. Your notice period, your end-of-service position and any repayment obligation come from your contract and the regulations that apply to you — establish them with your own HR before you commit to a date, and take advice from someone qualified if anything is significant or unclear.
Who gets it, and how
Your manager first, in person or on a call. Not a message, and not at the end of another meeting.
Then the written version the same day, so there is a record with a date on it.
Then whoever your employer's process specifies — HR, a portal, a form. Ask rather than assume; processes vary and a letter that goes to the wrong place can sit unprocessed.
Keep a copy and a record of submission. Not because you expect a problem, but because the cost of having it is nothing and the cost of not having it is occasionally real.
If you are leaving on bad terms
The letter stays neutral. All of it.
Whatever happened, the permanent record is not the place to settle it. A resignation letter containing a grievance achieves nothing that a grievance process would not achieve better, and it converts a routine document into an exhibit.
Say what you need to say, if you choose to, in the exit conversation or the exit interview — and even there, describe the situation rather than the people.
Then work your notice properly. How you spend the last month is what people remember about the whole tenure, and in a market this interconnected it is the version that travels.
In the Saudi market
Arabic correspondence is more formal than the English equivalent, and that is fine — but short still beats elaborate. A warm, formal, brief letter reads better than a long one in either language.
Check which language your employer's process expects. Some organisations require Arabic for formal HR documents regardless of the working language.
Use the calendar your employer's HR uses for the final working day, and state the date unambiguously. A date written one way and understood another is a real problem in the last fortnight of an employment.
Follow the process exactly where one exists. Larger and public-sector organisations frequently have a defined resignation procedure, and a letter that bypasses it may not be treated as submitted.
The market is small. How you resign is known by more people than you expect.
Common questions
Do I have to give a reason?
No. You may choose to in the conversation. It does not belong in the letter.
Can I resign by email?
Where your employer's practice allows it, yes — after the conversation, not instead of it. Check whether your organisation requires a signed document.
What if my manager will not accept it?
Acceptance is not what makes a resignation submitted. Follow your employer's process, submit it through the specified route, and keep a record of when and how. If there is a dispute about notice or dates, that is a matter for your HR and, if it is significant, for someone qualified to advise you.
Can I withdraw it?
Sometimes, and it depends on your employer and how far things have moved. If the reason you are considering it is that you have been offered more to stay, that is a specific decision: counter offer after resigning.
How long should it be?
Under 150 words. Longer signals that something else is going on.
Should I say where I am going?
Not in the letter. In the conversation, if you want to and if there is no reason not to.
What about a handover note?
Separate document, and worth doing properly. It is the last thing with your name on it that people will use after you leave.
Start with the date
Before you write a word, confirm your notice period from your contract and work out your last working day from it. Every other line in the letter is standard. That one is yours to get right.
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If the decision itself is not settled, the letter is premature: should I resign or stay.
A useful next step, matched to this topic
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Saad Al-Wuqayan
Career & Executive Coach — ICF ACC, MBA
Saad Al-Wuqayan coaches professionals and executives in Riyadh. Nearly two decades across engineering, business development, financial leadership as a CFO and government transformation sit behind every session.
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