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Japan and Singapore have the world’s most powerful passports

Monday, July 15, 2019

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 The new Henley Passport Index for 2019 revealed that Japan and Singapore both have the strongest passport of all, providing visa-free access to their citizens to 189 countries.

 

 

The top spot has been held by the two Asian countries for 18-months now. Currently South Korea has slipped to the second place which earlier shared the number one position.

 

With citizens of all three countries being able to access 187 destinations around the world without a prior visa it now sits with Finland and Germany.

 

 

After adding Pakistan to the  list of countries it can access Finland has climbed up from its previous third place.

 

 

In the hope of attracting tourists and boosting its struggling economy Pakistan currently offers an ETA ( Electronic Travel Authority) to citizens of 50 countries that includes Finland, Japan, Malta, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. Earlier, Pakistan had a highly restrictive visa policy.

 

 

However, the extension is not applicable to either the UK or the USA.Having a visa-free/ visa-on-arrival score of 186, Denmark, Italy and Luxembourg jointly took the third place on the index.In the fourth place lie France, Spain and Sweden having a score of 185.

 

Austria , the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland took the fifth place with a scoee of 185.

 

 

In the Henley Passport Index the UK came sixth jointly with the USA, Belgium, Canada, Greece and Ireland which have a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 183.

 

 

The UK has held one of the top five places in the ranking throughout most of the index’s long history. But after its exit from the EU now imminent and coupled with ongoing confusion about the terms of its departure, the UK’s once-strong position seemed increasingly uncertain.

 

 

The UK’s ranking has not been directly impacted by the Brexit process, however new research using the exclusive historical data from the Henley Passport Index indicated that it could change with consequences that extend beyond a decline in passport power.

 

 

The United Arab Emirates has entered the index’s top 20 for the first time in the index’s 14-yaer history with a visa-free/visa –on –arrival score of 165 which showed in significant shifts elsewhere in the rankings.

 

 

The UAE has more than doubled the number of destinations its citizens could travel to without a prior visa over the past five years.

 

In the global mobility spectrum Afghanistan remained at the bottom , its citizens are able to access only 25 destination worldwide without having a  prior visa.

 

 

Travellers will need six months left on their passport to travel and if not then they may be scuppered by the new rules that will come into force.

 

 

The new document will take a month to arrive and those waiting until the end of the summer for travel this autumn may be too late.

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