What is the best passport in the world? And the worst?
A comparison of the passport “value” of various countries makes interesting reading.
It’s easy to assume that a British or American passport would open more immigration doors than any other.
Not so, by quite a margin.
Best passport in the world? Belgium. It allows you to travel visa free to 90 countries, with a further 31 allowing a visa on arrival. All-in-all 121 countries that a Belgian may enter easily.
In the same league, ranked in order, are France, Germany, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland and New Zealand. They all have easy access to 121 countries, the difference being the visa free v. visa on entry. Bottom of that list, for instance, is New Zealand which has visa free entry to 81 countries and visa on arrival at 40 borders. A total, also, of 121.
A British passport will get you smoothly into 120 countries (85/35), while an American passport is good for only 85 countries, 48 visa free, 37 visa on entry.
And the wort passports to carry? Iraq and Afghanistan . . . so no surprise there. They each get easy access to only 28 countries.
But all this is historical, theoretical. It belongs back in those dreamy days before anyone had heard of a bug called SARS-COV-2, which causes Covid-19.
The result of that visitation upon the world of travel has been, unsurprisingly, traumatic. Now, many countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand simply won’t let you in at all. Even North Korea has a total ban on travel . . . but that’s, maybe, not much of a change from normal.
Others have severely limited access. The US is open to citizens from only 12 countries. The UK allows entry from 91 countries. Italy, France and Germany 49. Among the more liberal is Ireland which allows entry from 87 other states.
Couple of surprises – the island states of Tuvalu and Samoa with free movement from 198 countries. Curious, given that these places remain Covid-free.
Unfortunately none of it is likely change soon.
For more information go to https://www.passportindex.org/
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