We study theoretically the intensity-dependent nonlinear optical properties of an asymmetric coupled quantum well under a static electric field. Effects such as nonlinear absorption, optical rectification and refractive index are investigated theoretically by using the density matrix equations including the permanent dipole terms. Our results show that the effects of the permanent dipoles on the corresponding optical processes depend crucially on the direction and strength of the static electric field, especially for large optical intensities. Another interesting result of this work is that the nonlinear optical spectra studied here saturate with an increasing optical intensity and specifically the optical spectra in the case that the permanent dipoles are considered reach saturation for lower intensities than when the permanent dipoles are not considered.