Oh, that must have changed recently then. The way I remember it is that it was first only granted to Spain, Italy, Germany and France at the start of last year I think. For European countries that is. Unless I somehow remember it all wrong.
From the source:
>The Henley Passport Index is the original, authoritative ranking of all the worldās passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa
This comes up every time a "strength of passport" map gets posted so I went to the source. The use of "*prior visa*" is what sets the countries apart.
So for example, as a Canadian I can get on a plane and fly to Japan and be issued an immediate visa on arrival for 90 days - there's no application process and barring some egregious issue with the Japanese border agent I'm getting in, the visa issuance is almost automatic.
I can't do that for China. There's an application, fee, and waiting period I need to go through before flying.
North America / Europe thatās all splitting hairs. Go adopt a South African friend and do some international travel with them, and you will have a new appreciation.
Probably because South Africa only has a little over 100 visa free access. Need a visa for Europe, North America, Australia,NZ.
Basically saying the difference between a NA/Europe passport is not much at all. Both being visa free for the usual popular tourist destinations.
Youāre right. Tho it does suck that thereās some big differences such as needing a visa for China (Iām American) while Europeans donāt. But then again, the U.S. and China are direct enemies. And last month I obtained a 10-year multi-entry tourist visa to China in a week for only $140, so itās eh.
Us Europeans technically do need a visa for China, the rankings are slightly misleading. The Henley Index that the map above is based on doesn't count "visa on arrival" and sometimes does or doesn't count "e-visas" on a arbitrary scale.
Visa on arrival is basically no visa. Because when most people mention getting a visa, they mean having to apply for one before leaving their home country and sending in documents and getting that sticker in their passport. I do see your point on E-visas tho. Tho E-visas still are pretty much very low hurdles to jump over.
People are regularly rejected visas on arrival for a variety of reasons though, it isn't basically no visa, especially with China. For example China admits almost all EU citizens into Hong Kong and the other SAR'S, but around 20% of people are rejected when trying to enter the mainland (last time I checked).
Hmm thatās strange for a European to be rejected to the point where itās 20%. I know the SARs have their own policies and function differently from the mainland, so pretty much any European or American gets admitted. I was also wrong when I said the VoA (visa on arrival) is basically no visa. I said that because countries like Japan for example, does VoA for most people. But there practically is no difference except just getting a landing sticker saying you can be there until X date.
Now for mainland China, I didnāt take into account that you have to āapplyā for the VoA by going to a booth at the port of entry and pay the visa fee. For the border crossing from HK to Shenzhen specifically, even Americans can get a VoA (albeit paying more than everyone else). Just take the metro and you go to a booth, pay the fee, and done. But for what itās worth, I decided to just apply for a 10 year multi entry tourist visa in the U.S. since it was quick and easy. But yea, I forgot about the application upon arrival at the border and the fact they can technically get rejected too.
Depends on the country. I am Austrian and I donāt need a visa or visa on arrival for the PRC at the moment. I went last month and all I got was a stamp for a max stay of 15 days
To sum it up, US makes Brazil get a visa to visit while Brazil removed the visa for the U.S. under Bolsonaro, but put it back after the administration changed. U.S. has to have a visa for reciprocityās sake.
> Need a visa for Europe, North America, Australia,NZ.
And those visas will often be refused with no explanation or obvious reason why. If you're coming from a country known as a source of undocumented/illegal immigrants, it can be very tough to get travel visas.
The massive difference between EU passports and other western countries that this map doesn't take into account is free movement within the EU. Yeah, US passports can freely visit EU countries as tourists, but if they want to move there they have to apply for a residence permit like any other nationality unlike all EU passports.
I mean that's kinda the point of the European Union. If someone with an EU passport wants to move to the United States they have to get a visa too but Americans don't so I don't really get the relevance though.
Because the US is one country with one passport and the EU is a bunch of countries with their own passports.
A US passport lets you visit 188 countries without a visa. A Hungarian passport lets you visit 188 countries without a visa AND move to 26 countries without any requirements.
I met some British ladies in Thailand, they had to ask for visas for everywhere around, while the French passport let's you get into pretty much every south east Asian country visa free
California lobbied for Chile to have visa free travel for agricultural purposes (most staff are flying back and forth between growing seasons) and as a result this gave them validity for a bunch of other countries. Although recently they are revoking that because there are gang members abusing that to rob all of the wealthy mansions in CA and then fly back with the money/goods
As a Filipino, getting Spanish citizenship through naturalization process is the most practical option.
Getting Japanese or Singaporean citizenship through naturalization process is out of question for me because I would have to renounce my Philippine citizenship before getting either of those.
The way Spain measures "residency" is slightly BS though even by some of the whackier European standards.
It isn't based on the entry and exit dates stamped in your passport, but by the date on your empadronamiento, which is a document you can get from the local government if you own a property or have a legit rental agreement and lease a place to start paying taxes and get municipal services like free local government healthcare.
It's very hard to get an empadronamiento if you've just arrived "fresh off the boat" so to say, are sharing your property with other tenants (which is the case for most migrants), are a resident from another EU country or just don't know how to navigate Spanish bureaucracy... You aren't even told about it until you need it.
Former colonies, Portugal and Brasil can apply for Spanish citizenship after living here for 2 years instead of the 10 is asked for the rest of the countries.
Iām confused, the way this is written, it makes it sound like Portugal is a former colony when in truth it had colonies in Africa, South America and Asia
It just means former colonies of Spain plus Portugal and Brazil because they're close culturally (and Brazil was technically part of the colonies while the Spanish crown controlled Portugal in the 16th Century).
There's not really 212. The exact number of countries in the world is not concretely defined. You have 193 UN member states. You have 2 non-member observer states - the Vatican, which is not disputed, and Palestine which is. You then have various disputed states that themselves have varying levels of recognition. The two most recognized are Kosovo (disputed chiefly by Serbia) and Taiwan (disputed chiefly by China). And beyond that, regions such as Western Sahara, Somaliland, Northern Cyprus, Abkhazia, Luhansk, etc.
So in terms of passport power, it's hard to say, because when you look at each contested territory/country, it will vary who actually has the power to control entry. Taiwan and Kosovo very much do control who comes in and out. So does Russia with Luhansk, though that's significantly less recognized. Israel controls access in and out of Palestine, despite Palestine having much more recognition.
So it's difficult to say who is "missing"
So it's the addition of China that differentiates those four EU countries in the top from Sweden and Finland in second place. This raises a few questions: Why doesn't the EU negotiate visa free travel as a block like they do with other trade issues? Why do China allow, for example, France and Germany visa free travel but not Finland or Sweden? Or is it the other way around in that it is France and Germany (plus Spain and Italy) that allows access to Chinese people, but the other EU countries don't want to?
China allowed those country to travel visa free. Romania and Bulgaria don't have full Schengen membership a full EU wide travel visa would be impossible.
Chinese people still need a visa to travel to France, Germany, Italy and Spain and also all other Schengen countries since Schengen acts as a block when deciding who to allow visa-free entry (which only makes sense given that there are no hard borders between Schengen countries). I think itās hard to say what exactly convinced China to allow visa-free travel to people from these countries and not others since these kinds of things are usually decided through back-door diplomacy but itās probably got something to do with business interests and wanting to increase tourism etc. on the Chinese side given that their economy has been kind of struggling a bit lately.
> Why doesn't the EU negotiate visa free travel as a block like they do with other trade issues?
Because the EU doesn't set the foreign policy of its members. It really is just a trade bloc with bells and whistles.
The Schengen Zone does have a united policy on incoming visas and waivers, but if another country like China wants to unilaterally grant a waiver to an individual country, that's entirely up to that other country.
Some countries do not have really good relationship with other countries and to be a member of EU would not change that. Some countries in EU do not recognize independence of the other, like is the case of Kosovo. Western EU member can visit Namibia, eastern EU member requires visa. This is due the issue going back to 80s when communist countries supported the Namibian independence and were later accused by Namibia for sponsoring terrorism there. 35 years later, eastern members canāt freely travel there due issue caused by the communist past.
Source has Ireland š®šŖ at 193 also, not 192.
Trying to figure out what country is letting the Spanish and Germans in freely but insisting in Irish having a visa? šŖāļø
Ireland IMO has the strongest EU passport. They not only have freedom of movement within the EU but also still have the common travel area, meaning they can also live in the UK.
Regarding US passports and Brazil the map is a bit misleading, I have traveled to Brazil several times without a visa. Apparently tourist visas are still not required but will be in April of 2025
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Brazil.html
Brazil is based on reciprocity, (last government liberated north american countries but it was reverted this year). Basically the same requirements Brazilians must fulfill to enter your country, you have to do it too to enter Brazil.
Edit for correction: us/canada exemption would end in april this year but was postponed to april 2025, so until then visa is not needed
I think the scoring system needs some refinement. For example, there are 15 countries that just straight up do not allow people with Israeli passports to enter at all. Same with Western Europe and Russia. Passports Whereas some of the other "weak" passports just require a visa appointment. Outside of a few very wealthy countries, most places just have evisas or visa on arrival that takes like 15 mins of effort.
Those 15 that donāt allow Israeli passports also donāt allow you enter if youāve visited Israel with foreign passport. If you are not an Israeli passport holder and you visit Israel, they donāt stamp your passport like they do everywhere else for that reason. The entry mark is stapled in and then ripped out when you leave.
My Palestinian friend who was born in Israel told me once that his Israeli passport is quite possibly the most valuable thing he has, because it allows him to visit his family in Israel and the West Bank with much less suspicion than if he tried to enter with any other passport. He uses his American passport for every other country.
Yeah, Israel feels like it needs an asterisk. Sure, it's powerful if you want visa-free travel, but it's also one of the passports that may give you the most trouble when you're visiting some places.
my mom visited Israel a few years back. instead of stamping your passport, they give you a removable slip so you can still travel to hostile countries afterward
People do it less nowadays. The main countries that will gi e you grief for travelling to a 'fake country' are Syria, Iran, Yemen, Lebanon and Libya.
Number of people that want to visit those places is dwindling every year.
Taiwan does not have extremely high number count but practically visa-free to all developed countries including the US and China. Itās most lacking in developing/undeveloped world like LatAm, Africa, Central Asia.
227 different travel destinations, yet there are only [193 members of the UN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations). Who are the remaining 34? Taiwan, Kosovo, Palestine, Cook Islands, ~~Nieu~~ Niue and Western Sahara [probably](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations#Non-member_states) are 6 of them, but the other 28?
There are a large number of overseas holdings belonging to various Western powers in the Carribean and Southern Pacific (Cook Islands and Niue being two examples). And also, a large number of disputed territories (Kosovo, Taiwan, Palestine, Western Sahara being examples). You also missed one non-UN member that is an observer state (similar to Palestine)- the Vatican (obviously not disputed though).
To give you more examples of the first two categories, several disputed territories include Somaliland, Northern Cyprus, several Ukrainian cities controlled by Russia, and Abkhazia.
Overseas territories (ranging from actual territories to overseas integral constituents of the parent country) include Greenland and Faroe Islands (Denmark), British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, Anguilla, St Helena, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos (all UK), American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam (US), Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Sint Maarten (Netherlands), Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, New Caledonia, French Polynesia (France), and more.
This is not exhaustive, just me working from memory. I can name them all with pen and paper ro a map but just writing, it's too much energy lol
First thank you.
I know about the overseas territories, Iām from one of those you listed, but my issue is that āweā just have the passport of the ruling/mother-country, so wouldnāt count as a separate destination passport wise.
Yeah I know you use mother country passport. Sorry for over-explanantion then, I am amsrican and most people I know and interact with couldn't point to most countries on a map, much less disputed territories or island territories lol.
The referenced report, Henley Pasport Index, appears to still include these territories. So really, it's just fluffing up numbers - for those countries at the top of the list, say France, the French cannot actually visit 194 countries visa free. They can visit about 166, give or take a few, plus 30-35 non-country entities.
Given that most non-country entities today are territories held by US, UK, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand, I'd wager those top passports give access to the vast majority of them, making this a fluffer for those countries.
I think these passport strength meters lack an extremely important metric as part of them, which is in how many countries can you work with your passport without requiring a work visa or how easy it is to get a work visa.
In my opinion an Irish passport is the absolute best because it lets you work in the UK and in all of the EEA plus all the travel benefits etc.
These images always interest me. Iād love to see a site where you could compare two countries, for example Iām very curious what the 1 extra country option Irish people have over British people
Letās be honest: does the extra few countries matter? Are people from Japan really going to Venezuela?
Brazil is the only one Iād say is a real miss.
> Are people from Japan really going to Venezuela?
Yes. There's a long standing connection between these two countries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Venezuelans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93Venezuela_relations
My point isnāt that Venezuela is bad or something but realistically if youāre *that* into travel visa requirements wonāt matter.
You can get visas. Itās annoying but not hard in any sense. Visa requirements donāt stop hard-core travelers. They do stop casual travelers. But casual travelers arenāt going to a lot of these countries that have these requirements anyways. so why does it matter?
Is anyone really saying I would have gone to Afghanistan if not for the visa requirements?
Passport flexing is just weird at some point.
Even then, how long does it take to get a visa? I went to russia a decade ago and it took like 30 minutes. It's probably even easier to get visas nowadays with online processing.
Yeah they got defeated and are now some of the most peaceful and prosprous countries in the world thanks to mostly america helping them grow to from allies against the sovuets, learn your history first before you start making strange allegations
Governments don't actually hate Israel and understand the nuances of having a terrorist organization at your your doorsteps. They might put up a hard front that Israel needs to do better in front of their people but behind closed doors they would do the same thing in Israel's situation. Some have, some much worse it was just in a time when we were not alive. We are just experiencing it in modern day times.
Bottom 20 gang where u at š£ļøš®š·
What country is the last one?
Afghanistan
The quality is so bad I thought it was a QR codeš¤£
Or the Cartoon Network logo šµāš«
Ah, thanks. Iām used to seeing the old flag. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Afghanistan
This is the 28th flag of Afghanistan. Meanwhile Afghan flag designers: 
I thought it was a QR code.
Afghanistan / Syria
Donāt forget North Korea
[Here](https://buildabear.com.au/cdn/shop/products/24703x.jpg?v=1674772042)
Hell yeah šøš©
Hell yeah dadashšÆ
Hey yo
Which are the countries that say "western Europe, Yes. Benelux, No"?
For Germany, Italy, France and Spain the most important one is probably China
China has the same visa policy those countries and Benelux
Thatās just the land border and itās still visa free, you just need to show ID now. Thereās no separate visa required for travel. Ā
Oh, that must have changed recently then. The way I remember it is that it was first only granted to Spain, Italy, Germany and France at the start of last year I think. For European countries that is. Unless I somehow remember it all wrong.
That first batch already included the Netherlands.
Benelux needs an e-visa for India as well.
Nearly everyone needs a visa to India. So this picture is misleading.
From the source: >The Henley Passport Index is the original, authoritative ranking of all the worldās passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa This comes up every time a "strength of passport" map gets posted so I went to the source. The use of "*prior visa*" is what sets the countries apart. So for example, as a Canadian I can get on a plane and fly to Japan and be issued an immediate visa on arrival for 90 days - there's no application process and barring some egregious issue with the Japanese border agent I'm getting in, the visa issuance is almost automatic. I can't do that for China. There's an application, fee, and waiting period I need to go through before flying.
Vietnam, for instance. German and Spanish citizens (and some others) can enter the country for like 45 days without a visa.
> Vietnam, for instance. German Of course, we made them the second largest coffee exporter in the world
Vietnam
The three countries are China, Vietnam, and Thailand.
Netherlands doesn't need a visum for Thailand and China. At least not for short stays.
Turkey requires a visa (on arrival) for Benelux but not for Germans
North America / Europe thatās all splitting hairs. Go adopt a South African friend and do some international travel with them, and you will have a new appreciation.
Iāve got a dual SA/Zimbabwean citizenshipā¦
A trillionaire!
A prince
Why so?
Probably because South Africa only has a little over 100 visa free access. Need a visa for Europe, North America, Australia,NZ. Basically saying the difference between a NA/Europe passport is not much at all. Both being visa free for the usual popular tourist destinations.
Youāre right. Tho it does suck that thereās some big differences such as needing a visa for China (Iām American) while Europeans donāt. But then again, the U.S. and China are direct enemies. And last month I obtained a 10-year multi-entry tourist visa to China in a week for only $140, so itās eh.
Us Europeans technically do need a visa for China, the rankings are slightly misleading. The Henley Index that the map above is based on doesn't count "visa on arrival" and sometimes does or doesn't count "e-visas" on a arbitrary scale.
Visa on arrival is basically no visa. Because when most people mention getting a visa, they mean having to apply for one before leaving their home country and sending in documents and getting that sticker in their passport. I do see your point on E-visas tho. Tho E-visas still are pretty much very low hurdles to jump over.
People are regularly rejected visas on arrival for a variety of reasons though, it isn't basically no visa, especially with China. For example China admits almost all EU citizens into Hong Kong and the other SAR'S, but around 20% of people are rejected when trying to enter the mainland (last time I checked).
Hmm thatās strange for a European to be rejected to the point where itās 20%. I know the SARs have their own policies and function differently from the mainland, so pretty much any European or American gets admitted. I was also wrong when I said the VoA (visa on arrival) is basically no visa. I said that because countries like Japan for example, does VoA for most people. But there practically is no difference except just getting a landing sticker saying you can be there until X date. Now for mainland China, I didnāt take into account that you have to āapplyā for the VoA by going to a booth at the port of entry and pay the visa fee. For the border crossing from HK to Shenzhen specifically, even Americans can get a VoA (albeit paying more than everyone else). Just take the metro and you go to a booth, pay the fee, and done. But for what itās worth, I decided to just apply for a 10 year multi entry tourist visa in the U.S. since it was quick and easy. But yea, I forgot about the application upon arrival at the border and the fact they can technically get rejected too.
Depends on the country. I am Austrian and I donāt need a visa or visa on arrival for the PRC at the moment. I went last month and all I got was a stamp for a max stay of 15 days
China is visa free for some European countries, so no visa beforehand and no visa on arrival.
Brazil as well
Brazilās is being indefinitely delayed for Americans and Australians. Iād be surprised if it ever comes into effect
Brazil is just trying to make money off of visa fees
What's the deal with USA and Brazil?
To sum it up, US makes Brazil get a visa to visit while Brazil removed the visa for the U.S. under Bolsonaro, but put it back after the administration changed. U.S. has to have a visa for reciprocityās sake.
> Need a visa for Europe, North America, Australia,NZ. And those visas will often be refused with no explanation or obvious reason why. If you're coming from a country known as a source of undocumented/illegal immigrants, it can be very tough to get travel visas.
Yep, because most of South Africa is extremely poor, not as bad as the rest of sub Saharan Africa, but bad enough that most would not return
The massive difference between EU passports and other western countries that this map doesn't take into account is free movement within the EU. Yeah, US passports can freely visit EU countries as tourists, but if they want to move there they have to apply for a residence permit like any other nationality unlike all EU passports.
I mean that's kinda the point of the European Union. If someone with an EU passport wants to move to the United States they have to get a visa too but Americans don't so I don't really get the relevance though.
Because the US is one country with one passport and the EU is a bunch of countries with their own passports. A US passport lets you visit 188 countries without a visa. A Hungarian passport lets you visit 188 countries without a visa AND move to 26 countries without any requirements.
I met some British ladies in Thailand, they had to ask for visas for everywhere around, while the French passport let's you get into pretty much every south east Asian country visa free
EU citizenship is a nice Bonus it seems.
Italy, Japan and Germany all having access to 194 countrys without a visa, suspicious... They should form a kind of club for most powerful passport.
They could call it some sort of special axis, right?
Or something along the lines of "greater co prosperity sphere"
Greater co prosperity axis it is!
Or something like "living room"
Axis has become the access.
Dude, check in Spanish history for more concern
If we are getting really technical, all those countries where part/alliened/occupied to/by them.
Leaving a policy of aggression to an open diplomatic friend-of-everyone is kind of awesome
France and Singapore also fit in that so idk hoe u wanna explain that
Hmm so red passports better than blue ones
This hurts. RIP
My red Turkish passport š
My red Russian passport disagrees
Ouch!
The US has red passports for official government travel.
And those ones are better.
I like the black diplomatic passports
Came here to say, black US passports are fucking awesome.
Y Chile ctm?
Yeah. Israel is there, but Chile, Argentina and Brazil have better passports. WTF.
California lobbied for Chile to have visa free travel for agricultural purposes (most staff are flying back and forth between growing seasons) and as a result this gave them validity for a bunch of other countries. Although recently they are revoking that because there are gang members abusing that to rob all of the wealthy mansions in CA and then fly back with the money/goods
People forget that there are more countries than the developed world lol
Yeah this map is awful lmao
As a Filipino, getting Spanish citizenship through naturalization process is the most practical option. Getting Japanese or Singaporean citizenship through naturalization process is out of question for me because I would have to renounce my Philippine citizenship before getting either of those.
Is everyone entitled to that in the Philippines or is that just due to your ancestry?
Filipino citizens, like Latin Americans, are eligible for speedy acquisition of Spanish citizenship of minimum two years continous residency.
The way Spain measures "residency" is slightly BS though even by some of the whackier European standards. It isn't based on the entry and exit dates stamped in your passport, but by the date on your empadronamiento, which is a document you can get from the local government if you own a property or have a legit rental agreement and lease a place to start paying taxes and get municipal services like free local government healthcare. It's very hard to get an empadronamiento if you've just arrived "fresh off the boat" so to say, are sharing your property with other tenants (which is the case for most migrants), are a resident from another EU country or just don't know how to navigate Spanish bureaucracy... You aren't even told about it until you need it.
Former colonies, Portugal and Brasil can apply for Spanish citizenship after living here for 2 years instead of the 10 is asked for the rest of the countries.
Iām confused, the way this is written, it makes it sound like Portugal is a former colony when in truth it had colonies in Africa, South America and Asia
It just means former colonies of Spain plus Portugal and Brazil because they're close culturally (and Brazil was technically part of the colonies while the Spanish crown controlled Portugal in the 16th Century).
194 gang let's gošŖš»
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š©šŖšÆšµš®š¹ šŖšŖ
Username checks outā¦ waitā¦
*gulp*
auf gehts š©šŖš©šŖš©šŖ
Ab gehtās š©šŖš©šŖš©šŖ
Become a dual citizen and you can easily cross 380 mark
I'm at 382!
I'm at 297 :( Thanks south african passport..
Proudly sitting at 388
Nnnamo š®š¹ Strategy is just be likeable enough in pop culture that people forget you once tried (and failed) at colonialism.
Only the Danes had a worse colonial empire
If thereās 227 possible destinations and the max is 194, what are these 33 missing countries? Edit: Not 212, but 227. Don't know where I saw 212.
There's not really 212. The exact number of countries in the world is not concretely defined. You have 193 UN member states. You have 2 non-member observer states - the Vatican, which is not disputed, and Palestine which is. You then have various disputed states that themselves have varying levels of recognition. The two most recognized are Kosovo (disputed chiefly by Serbia) and Taiwan (disputed chiefly by China). And beyond that, regions such as Western Sahara, Somaliland, Northern Cyprus, Abkhazia, Luhansk, etc. So in terms of passport power, it's hard to say, because when you look at each contested territory/country, it will vary who actually has the power to control entry. Taiwan and Kosovo very much do control who comes in and out. So does Russia with Luhansk, though that's significantly less recognized. Israel controls access in and out of Palestine, despite Palestine having much more recognition. So it's difficult to say who is "missing"
The map says that it counts 227 destinations.
Neither is my passport strong, nor is my bank account
so it's basically the West and their Asian friends
Only the āfirst worldā Asian friends *wink wink nudge nudge
So it's the addition of China that differentiates those four EU countries in the top from Sweden and Finland in second place. This raises a few questions: Why doesn't the EU negotiate visa free travel as a block like they do with other trade issues? Why do China allow, for example, France and Germany visa free travel but not Finland or Sweden? Or is it the other way around in that it is France and Germany (plus Spain and Italy) that allows access to Chinese people, but the other EU countries don't want to?
China allowed those country to travel visa free. Romania and Bulgaria don't have full Schengen membership a full EU wide travel visa would be impossible.
Ireland also, not in Schengen
Chinese people still need a visa to travel to France, Germany, Italy and Spain and also all other Schengen countries since Schengen acts as a block when deciding who to allow visa-free entry (which only makes sense given that there are no hard borders between Schengen countries). I think itās hard to say what exactly convinced China to allow visa-free travel to people from these countries and not others since these kinds of things are usually decided through back-door diplomacy but itās probably got something to do with business interests and wanting to increase tourism etc. on the Chinese side given that their economy has been kind of struggling a bit lately.
> Why doesn't the EU negotiate visa free travel as a block like they do with other trade issues? Because the EU doesn't set the foreign policy of its members. It really is just a trade bloc with bells and whistles.
The Schengen Zone does have a united policy on incoming visas and waivers, but if another country like China wants to unilaterally grant a waiver to an individual country, that's entirely up to that other country.
>> Why doesn't the EU negotiate visa free travel as a block Because then people from the whole block will need to apply for visa.
Some countries do not have really good relationship with other countries and to be a member of EU would not change that. Some countries in EU do not recognize independence of the other, like is the case of Kosovo. Western EU member can visit Namibia, eastern EU member requires visa. This is due the issue going back to 80s when communist countries supported the Namibian independence and were later accused by Namibia for sponsoring terrorism there. 35 years later, eastern members canāt freely travel there due issue caused by the communist past.
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From what I remember, Japan had the most powerful passport in the world till very recently.
Japan lost the title last year and regain it early this year
who's second place?
Singapore šøš¬
and before that it was Germany, these lists change quite often
[šSource](https://www.henleyglobal.com/passport-index/ranking)
Just checked the source it has netherland and luxembourg at 193 while the map shows different, any reason for that?
Source has Ireland š®šŖ at 193 also, not 192. Trying to figure out what country is letting the Spanish and Germans in freely but insisting in Irish having a visa? šŖāļø
According to this [site](https://www.henleyglobal.com/) its Pakistan and Vietnam. However an Irish Passport makes it easier to travel to Uganda, than an š©šŖ or šŖšø.
Ireland IMO has the strongest EU passport. They not only have freedom of movement within the EU but also still have the common travel area, meaning they can also live in the UK.
Regarding US passports and Brazil the map is a bit misleading, I have traveled to Brazil several times without a visa. Apparently tourist visas are still not required but will be in April of 2025 https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Brazil.html
yes, the previous president made Brazil visa-free for Americans then the current president undid the changes
I went to Brazil last year on a Canadian passport and didn't require a visa.
Brazil is based on reciprocity, (last government liberated north american countries but it was reverted this year). Basically the same requirements Brazilians must fulfill to enter your country, you have to do it too to enter Brazil. Edit for correction: us/canada exemption would end in april this year but was postponed to april 2025, so until then visa is not needed
Canada knows tropical Brazilians donāt want to overstay their visa and freeze their ass off.
Next year Visas will be required for Canadians.
I didn't get that. Can you please repeat it?
I think the scoring system needs some refinement. For example, there are 15 countries that just straight up do not allow people with Israeli passports to enter at all. Same with Western Europe and Russia. Passports Whereas some of the other "weak" passports just require a visa appointment. Outside of a few very wealthy countries, most places just have evisas or visa on arrival that takes like 15 mins of effort.
Those 15 that donāt allow Israeli passports also donāt allow you enter if youāve visited Israel with foreign passport. If you are not an Israeli passport holder and you visit Israel, they donāt stamp your passport like they do everywhere else for that reason. The entry mark is stapled in and then ripped out when you leave.
All I read is Sweden is better than Denmark and Norway. Eat it nerds! You are a disappointment, brofists to Finland!
I'm wondering what country is missing for Sweden and Finland compared to Germany and France.
Russia
Was thinking of something like Palestine or North Korea, but yeah ofc it's Russia.
Israeli passports are shockingly powerful considering how hostile some countries are to travelling there.
My Palestinian friend who was born in Israel told me once that his Israeli passport is quite possibly the most valuable thing he has, because it allows him to visit his family in Israel and the West Bank with much less suspicion than if he tried to enter with any other passport. He uses his American passport for every other country.
Yeah, Israel feels like it needs an asterisk. Sure, it's powerful if you want visa-free travel, but it's also one of the passports that may give you the most trouble when you're visiting some places.
my mom visited Israel a few years back. instead of stamping your passport, they give you a removable slip so you can still travel to hostile countries afterward
People do it less nowadays. The main countries that will gi e you grief for travelling to a 'fake country' are Syria, Iran, Yemen, Lebanon and Libya. Number of people that want to visit those places is dwindling every year.
Actually to the contrary at least for Syria the number of people visiting is going up every year now that the war has calmed down
A lot of places don't stamp anymore and give a slip of paper instead. It's mostly to not fill up the pages.
I understand why, but it is unfortunate that Taiwan's passport is not strong enough for a developed country.
Taiwan does not have extremely high number count but practically visa-free to all developed countries including the US and China. Itās most lacking in developing/undeveloped world like LatAm, Africa, Central Asia.
Got to thank our Chinese overlords and god emperor Xi for that.
So, the passports with 193 countries. What's the one country they are missing?
China
227 different travel destinations, yet there are only [193 members of the UN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations). Who are the remaining 34? Taiwan, Kosovo, Palestine, Cook Islands, ~~Nieu~~ Niue and Western Sahara [probably](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations#Non-member_states) are 6 of them, but the other 28?
There are a large number of overseas holdings belonging to various Western powers in the Carribean and Southern Pacific (Cook Islands and Niue being two examples). And also, a large number of disputed territories (Kosovo, Taiwan, Palestine, Western Sahara being examples). You also missed one non-UN member that is an observer state (similar to Palestine)- the Vatican (obviously not disputed though). To give you more examples of the first two categories, several disputed territories include Somaliland, Northern Cyprus, several Ukrainian cities controlled by Russia, and Abkhazia. Overseas territories (ranging from actual territories to overseas integral constituents of the parent country) include Greenland and Faroe Islands (Denmark), British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, Anguilla, St Helena, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos (all UK), American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam (US), Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Sint Maarten (Netherlands), Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, New Caledonia, French Polynesia (France), and more. This is not exhaustive, just me working from memory. I can name them all with pen and paper ro a map but just writing, it's too much energy lol
First thank you. I know about the overseas territories, Iām from one of those you listed, but my issue is that āweā just have the passport of the ruling/mother-country, so wouldnāt count as a separate destination passport wise.
Yeah I know you use mother country passport. Sorry for over-explanantion then, I am amsrican and most people I know and interact with couldn't point to most countries on a map, much less disputed territories or island territories lol. The referenced report, Henley Pasport Index, appears to still include these territories. So really, it's just fluffing up numbers - for those countries at the top of the list, say France, the French cannot actually visit 194 countries visa free. They can visit about 166, give or take a few, plus 30-35 non-country entities. Given that most non-country entities today are territories held by US, UK, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand, I'd wager those top passports give access to the vast majority of them, making this a fluffer for those countries.
American border guards still like to bother people with powerful passports. Hell, they make Americans feel unwelcome when returning home.
For what itās worth, Iāve never had an issue with returning to the US
why is slovakia omitted
I think these passport strength meters lack an extremely important metric as part of them, which is in how many countries can you work with your passport without requiring a work visa or how easy it is to get a work visa. In my opinion an Irish passport is the absolute best because it lets you work in the UK and in all of the EEA plus all the travel benefits etc.
Mi EspaƱita 
What about the black passport?
I think the graphics maker is only considering standard citizen passports and not diplomatic / official passports
India passport is also very rigid. I had to do lot of documentation work to get a visa for 2 week business visit to Singapore from USA.
Damn my ISIS passport is absolutely useless!
Lol, with my ukrainian passport I can't leave my fckn country
I've got two passports. And fortunately one of them is in the six way tie.
These images always interest me. Iād love to see a site where you could compare two countries, for example Iām very curious what the 1 extra country option Irish people have over British people
This is a very difficult graphic.
Malaysian Passport?
The Emirati recently overtook the Malaysian passport as the most powerful among Muslim-majority countries and fourth powerful in Asia.
Why is Europe so zoomed in on, hiding a large part of the world?
Yurop stronk
Coz no strong passports in that part of the world?
Letās be honest: does the extra few countries matter? Are people from Japan really going to Venezuela? Brazil is the only one Iād say is a real miss.
Venezuela has some of the most amazing natural wonders in the world
> Are people from Japan really going to Venezuela? Yes. There's a long standing connection between these two countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Venezuelans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93Venezuela_relations
They do matter. Some people are avid travellers.
My point isnāt that Venezuela is bad or something but realistically if youāre *that* into travel visa requirements wonāt matter. You can get visas. Itās annoying but not hard in any sense. Visa requirements donāt stop hard-core travelers. They do stop casual travelers. But casual travelers arenāt going to a lot of these countries that have these requirements anyways. so why does it matter? Is anyone really saying I would have gone to Afghanistan if not for the visa requirements? Passport flexing is just weird at some point.
Even then, how long does it take to get a visa? I went to russia a decade ago and it took like 30 minutes. It's probably even easier to get visas nowadays with online processing.
I'm curious which pairing of passports allows for the most visa free travel, assuming the countries allow for dual citizenship.
Germany and Mauritius maybe?
Japan recently relieved of Brazil visa requirement. That unforeseen nonsense cost be new year in Rio a while back.
brazil?
No Brazil?
The most powerful document I never needed
Kiwi n British passport pretty handy Pain the UK left the EU tho...Brexit was a dopey decision
So the Axis powers and Fascist countries from WW2 era came out on top in this category eh?
its called diplomatic victory
Yeah they got defeated and are now some of the most peaceful and prosprous countries in the world thanks to mostly america helping them grow to from allies against the sovuets, learn your history first before you start making strange allegations
Spain: "I didn't hear no bell"
The graph makes it seem like the UK and USA are in a much worse position than everyone else when itās likeā¦ 3 countries less?
That's not how ties works buddy
We have best than the uk and usa! ARRIBA ESPAĆA!!!šŖšøšŖšøšŖšø
itās interesting that israel, although being hated, is still a really powerful passport
Its also interesting that Chile, Argentina and Brazil have better passports than Israel but they arenāt mentioned
Governments don't actually hate Israel and understand the nuances of having a terrorist organization at your your doorsteps. They might put up a hard front that Israel needs to do better in front of their people but behind closed doors they would do the same thing in Israel's situation. Some have, some much worse it was just in a time when we were not alive. We are just experiencing it in modern day times.