diff --git a/schema.go b/schema.go
index eacfb45b..7f80dfd1 100644
--- a/schema.go
+++ b/schema.go
@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@ type NameIDPolicy struct {
 // Element returns an etree.Element representing the object in XML form.
 func (a *NameIDPolicy) Element() *etree.Element {
 	el := etree.NewElement("samlp:NameIDPolicy")
-	if a.Format != nil {
+	if a.Format != nil && *a.Format != "" {
 		el.CreateAttr("Format", *a.Format)
 	}
 	if a.SPNameQualifier != nil {
diff --git a/schema_test.go b/schema_test.go
index c1073f6c..a8a6ec23 100644
--- a/schema_test.go
+++ b/schema_test.go
@@ -32,3 +32,17 @@ func TestAttributeXMLRoundTrip(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.NoError(t, err)
 	assert.Equal(t, expected, actual)
 }
+
+func TestNameIDFormat(t *testing.T) {
+	var emptyString string
+	el := NameIDPolicy{
+		Format: &emptyString,
+	}
+	doc := etree.NewDocument()
+	doc.SetRoot(el.Element())
+	x, err := doc.WriteToBytes()
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Equal(t,
+		"<samlp:NameIDPolicy/>",
+		string(x))
+}