Kosovo Makes Japan the Country With the Most Powerful Passport in the World.
Japan is now the only country with the most powerful passport in the world, the latest updates on the Henley Passport Index show. After sharing the first position with Singapore in February, with the citizens of both capable of visiting 180 other countries visa-free or by obtaining a visa-on-arrival, Singapore now shares the second position with Germany.
These changes in the Henley Passport Index have occurred after eight countries applied for a visa-free regime for Japan, Singapore, and Germany, while Kosovo has brought back a visa regime for citizens of Singapore.
The ten-year-old country, which sits in the 91st position out of 101 European countries with the least powerful passports, decided to lift the visa-free regime for Singapore, thus being the main cause of Singapore’s drop in the second position.
Kosovo itself, now has visa-free access to six more countries compared to February, when its citizens could visit only 38 countries visa-free or visa-on-arrival.
The countries with the most powerful passports and the number of countries they can visit are as follows:
- Japan – 189
- Germany, Singapore – 188
- France, Italy, Sweden, Spain, South Korea – 187
- Norway, United Kingdom, Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, USA, – 186
- Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada – 185
On the other hand, the biggest climbers on the 2018 Henley Passport Index have been marked Ukraine, which is now ranked 38th, Georgia in the 49th position and China in the 68th.
Henley Passport Index, which ranks world passports is published by Henley & Partners, a firm focused on residence and citizenship planning. The firm ranks passports of 199 countries based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Data shows that Afghanistan and Iraq remain the countries with the weakest passports in the world, since their holders are entitled to enter only 30 countries visa-free.
