It is for the first time that the UAE has entered into the top 10 most powerful passports of the world and this has come out in the Henley passport index released on Tuesday.
The country’s Visa-free score is 185 and it takes the 9th position.
From the 62nd position to the present 9th one, the UAE has increased its positions by 53; at present it has 152 destinations since the index starting in 2006.
As far as the index of all the international passports is concerned then the Henley Passport Index is the most authentic source that ranks passports of all the countries based on the number of visa-free countries that are allowed for the passport holders. The index is calculated with data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) –’s single largest travel information database employed in the investigations by Henley & Partners.
Dr Juerg Steffen, the CEO of Henley and Partners, stated that the meteoric ascent is realistic and is evident since the Emirati government aimed intentionally to make the UAE an attractive country for business, tourists, and investors.
He added: “Overall, our study has revealed that there is particularly close relationship between visa-free score and economic development: the higher the visa freedom score the higher is the GDP per capita, FDI and international trade.”
The top five
- Singapore takes the top of the list alone as it has again been recognized as the holder of the world’s most powerful passport; citizens of the lion city are now able to visit 195 out of 227 world’s countries without a visa.
- France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain similarly slide down to a second place with 192 countries where they don’t need a visa.
- The pack remains slightly squeezed in the third place of the ranking for seven countries that can visit 191 destinations without a visa. These are the countries, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden.
- The countries that have remained fourth in the list of visa-free destination score include the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, and the Switzerland all with the score of 190.
- Australia and Portugal are jointly in 5th place with access to 189 destinations.
Rounding up Top 10
- Now Greece and Poland have the same score 188 and occupy 6th place; the seventh place is for Canada, Czechia, Hungary, and Malta that allow visiting 187 countries and territories.
- The US on the other hand has been in a steady decline for the past decade now joining the lowly rankings at number eight and is allowed visa-free travel to sopping 186 countries. Having previously been among the leaders in terms of the Passport Index, which indicated the power of passports, the UK and the US shared the same rank 10 years ago in 2014.
- in the 9th place we have the triple tie. Next, citizens of Estonia and Lithuania can visit 185 countries without a visa to the UAE.
- There are four countries that are ranked 10th complete the score of 184. Such nations are Iceland, Latvia, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia.
- Holding the tenth position in the rank index are Iceland, Latvia, Slovakia, and Slovenia with the total score of 184.
The Henley Passport Index contains the data on 199 various passports and 227 various travel countries. Additional and complete listings of the rankings are, however, provided on the website of the publication.
Ranking of passports
Henley Passport Index is indexed on the basis of visa-free or visa on arrival access of 199 passports to 227 countries. If no visa is needed, then the score with value = 1 is generated for a respective passport.
The same rules apply if the entrance to the destination is allowed just by holding a visa on arrival; a visitor’s permit; or an electronic travel authority (ETA).
This score was assigned where a visa is needed, or when a passport holder has to get a government-approved e-Visa prior to arriving at the country. This is also important if you require a pre-arrival government approval for a Visa on Arrival. The sum of all component scores of each passport is actually the number of countries or regions, for which no visa is required, and each of this is valued at 1.