Most powerful passports in the world are of Singapore and Japan

The most powerful passports in the world are of Singapore and Japan. The U.K and the U.S. rank a joint No. 6 on the Henley Passport Index Q3 Update July 2019. While India ranks No. 86, Afghanistan, with a score of 25, has the weakest passport of them all.

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With a score of 58, India ranks at No. 86 on the Henley Passport Index Q3 Update July 2019.

India shares the No. 86 spot with 2 others –

• Sao Tome and Principe
• Mauritania

The most powerful passport of them all is that of Singapore and Japan, with 189 as their identical individual score. At the other end of the spectrum, with a score of 25 lies Afghanistan at No. 109.

What is the Henley Passport Index?

An index that ranks all the passports of the world.

The ranking is based on the number of destinations that the holders of a particular passport can travel to without a visa.

Statistics got from the International Air Transport Association, or IATA as it is better known, is collated with the findings from research conducted by the Henley & Partners Research Department.

How many countries are ranked?

The Henley Passport Index includes 199 passports as well as 227 travel destinations globally. Territories and micro-states are also included in the index.

How is the ranking done?

Corresponding to a specific travel destination, scores are given to a passport as follows –

Situation	Points given in Index
No visa needed*	1
Visa on arrival*	1
Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) on entry*	1
Visitor’s permit*	1
Visa needed	0
Government-approved electronic visa (e-visa) needed	0
Pre-departure approval for a visa-on-arrival	0

*No pre-departure approval by the government needed for such visa types.

Each of the passports is then scored based on the total number of destinations that the holder of that passport can visit without a visa.

What are the Top 10 most powerful passports in the world?

According to the Henley Passport Index Q3 Update July 2019, the Top 10 most powerful passports in the world include –

Rank	Passport	Score
No. 1	Japan	189
No. 1	Singapore	189
No. 2	Finland	187
No. 2	Germany	187
No. 2	South Korea	187
No. 3	Denmark	186
No. 3	Italy	186
No. 3	Luxembourg	186
No. 4	France	185
No. 4	Spain	185
No. 4	Sweden	185
No. 5	Austria	184
No. 5	Netherlands	184
No. 5	Portugal	184
No. 5	Switzerland	184
No. 6	Belgium	183
No. 6	Canada	183
No. 6	Greece	183
No. 6	Ireland	183
No. 6	Norway	183
No. 6	U.K.	183
No. 6	U.S.	183
No. 7	Malta	182
No. 8	Czech Republic	181
No. 9	Australia	180
No. 9	Iceland	180
No. 9	Lithuania	180
No. 9	New Zealand	180
No. 10	Latvia	179
No. 10	Slovakia	179
No. 10	Slovenia	179

With similar scores, many countries are tied and share the same spot on the ranking.

Asian countries dominate while U.S and U.K. passports lose power

Moving into the third quarter of 2019, Singapore and Japan jointly held the top spot, dethroning Germany from its long-held position at the top.

South Korea, despite sharing the top spot with Singapore and Japan in the previous quarter, now sits on No. 2 in Q3 of 2019, tied with Germany and Finland.

Currently, the U.K. and the U.S. jointly sit at No. 6. This is the lowest position that either of the countries has held ever since 2010. The U.S. and the U.K. were at the top spot in 2014.

Incidentally, Afghanistan is at the bottom of the spectrum denoting least global mobility. With a score of 25, an Afghan citizen can only travel to 25 global destinations without the requirement of a prior visa.

According to Dr Juerg Steffen, CEO of Henley & Partners, citizenship and residence-by-investment programs are increasingly gaining in popularity. For a wealthy investor, an additional passport expanding his global mobility can be life-transforming. On the other hand, the host country stands to gain by the foreign direct investment made by these investors.

Y-Axis offers a wide range of visa and immigration services as well as products to the aspiring overseas immigrants including Australia Evaluation, Germany Immigration Evaluation, and Hong Kong Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS) Evaluation.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate Overseas, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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