Which countries have the most powerful passport in the world?
Traveling without a pre-approved visa can be a real struggle, but some citizens are lucky. They can get a passport almost anywhere. A passport is like a magic carpet, and with one of these passports, traveling to foreign lands is just a matter of wishing. In achieving it (and paying for it), and without the passport, you are headed for Earth, but as powerful as the passport is, some passports are stronger than others.
For lucky citizens of some countries, a passport is all it takes to get into most countries on the planet, and for others, the documents are practically useless without a pre-approved visa affixed to one of its pages.
It is sometimes said that people who can enter a country without such a visa travel without a visa. Technically, this is not true. When an unsmiling immigration officer gives you a long look and then slaps the stamp on one of the pages of your passport, you are granted a visa at access, but it beats the long and often complex process of applying for a visa at a consulate or embassy office in a country.
You may be wondering where your passport ranks, and UK-based citizenship and immigration firm Henley & Partners addresses this question with its 2018 Visa Restrictions Index, a global ranking of countries based on the number of other countries a resident's passport can access without... Pre-approved visa.
Who issues these great documents? Passports from the US and UK can take you to many places, but they are only tied for fifth place along with many other countries. Japan is the most powerful passport in the world with an impressive 190 countries.
Many countries lag behind: a passport from Singapore can open 189 countries without a pre-approved visa, while Germany, France and South Korea are tied for third place with 188 countries, and Denmark ranks fourth with access to 187 countries, a joint ranking with Finland, Italy, Sweden and Spain. Many countries' passports fall in the range of 170 to 150.
Iraq and Afghanistan issued the weakest passports index. Iraqis and Afghans can visit only 30 countries without first obtaining a visa, and passports from Pakistan, Syria and Somalia are classified as barely worth. Meanwhile, the rarest passport in the world came from the independent military order of the Knights of Malta, only about 500. Of the passport currently circulating around the planet in accordance with the Malta order.
If you hold a diplomatic passport, you are important. This type of passport is issued to government representatives and diplomats traveling on official business, and often allows holders of this type of passport to avoid the usual immigration and customs checkpoints.
Over the past decade, US citizens have been required to use a passport for any travel beyond the 50 states and territories, but not everyone needs to cross national borders, and people whose home countries issue an EU-compliant ID card can skip the EU without one.
Some other ID cards can replace a passport. The Business Travel Card entitles you to entry into any of the 21 member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, and the NEXUS Card, intended for low-risk citizens who frequently travel between the United States and Canada, can It gets you through this line, and when even the strongest passport can't get you into the country of your choice, getting a pre-approved visa isn't always a problem, and in the US, a good travel agent can usually take care of it.