The rankings show which passport holders have the most access to visa-free travel. And again, Japan has World’s Most Powerful Passport.
According to the Henley Passport Index’s third quarter 2022 report, which was issued on Tuesday, Japan’s passport is once again the most potent, granting entry without a visa to 193 nations.
Henley & Partners, a worldwide investment company that specializes in residency and citizenship, calculates the index using information from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The 17-year-old research examines 199 passports and their ability to travel to 227 locations.
According to the paper, “the index’s rating methodology was created to provide consumers a nuanced, realistic, and trustworthy assessment of the strength of their passport.” Each passport is graded according to how many different places its owner may visit without a visa.
So, now you can get a wonderful experience is viewing snow monkeys soaking in an onsen in Jigokudani, Nagano Prefecture.
Another pair of Asian nations, Singapore and South Korea tied for the second position in terms of passport power only behind Japan and had hassle-free admission into 192 different countries. Germany and Spain tie for third place with 190 nationalities, followed by Finland, Italy, and Luxembourg in fourth place with 189, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden in fifth place with 188, and France, Ireland, Portugal, and the UK in sixth place with 187.
According to Henley & Partners CEO Dr. Juerg Steffen’s analysis of the report, “World’s Most Powerful Passport have bounced back almost to pre-pandemic levels in terms of access,” noting that at the height of the pandemic, holders of Japanese passports had access to 76 countries, British passport holders to 74, and Americans to 56.
In a tie for the seventh position with Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland, who all have passports that grant them entry to 186 nations, is the United States.
Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Malta round out the top 10 in eighth place with 185; Hungary comes in ninth with 183; and Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia come in at number ten with 182.
The United Arab Emirates, which is currently in 15th rank with 176 nations after being in 64th place with 106 countries a decade earlier, is one significant development.
Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, the company’s chairman and inventor of the index, said that the most recent findings of the Henley Passport Index “are a comforting reminder of the very human urge for global connectedness even as certain governments move toward isolationism and autarky.” The pandemic’s shock was unlike anything we have ever experienced, and it will take time for us to regain our travel freedoms and our need to move about and migrate.
