Our today’s blog is interesting and more tactical than most. Not because this coming week is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, but because we’ve been obsessed with second passports and citizenship by investment programs.
A passport isn’t just a travel document for a two-week break away; it’s as much about a person’s liberty, their right to live , study and work in other countries and in many instances, a better way of life.
Europe (EU), with Germany at the top, leads the list of the world’s most powerful passports in 2021 According to report and data provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). However, the German passport, letting travelers to visit a total of 190 destinations with no visa, is not the most powerful in the world.
Japan and Singapore stood at the top of this year’s list, with their passports holders allowed to travel visa-free to 192 countries.
The report ranks the passports of countries according to the number of destinations their holders can visit without a prior visa.
EUROPE RULES THE TOP 20 PASSPORTS IN 2021
EU countries dominate the top of the list as usual.
With 190, South Korea is sharing the second position with Germany, while Spain, Italy, Finland and Luxembourg are all in third place with a score of 189, Denmark and Austria in fourth with 188 countries worldwide visa-free and Portugal, France, Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland sharing fifth place with 187 countries.
Switzerland, Belgium and New Zealand, come sixth, with 186 free-to-enter countries.
Thus the domination by European countries of the 20 top passports.
CANADA PASSPORT IS RANKED EIGHTH
The United States of America (U.S.A) as well as the United Kingdom (UK) are now in seventh place with a total of 185 destinations and sharing that spot with Malta , Greece , Czech Republic, and Norway.
Canada passport and Australia are in eighth place with 184 countries while Hungary is ninth with 183 destinations.
Poland, Lithuania, and Slovakia, all with 182, are ranked tenth.
At the same time, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia have been ranked in eleventh place. According to the report, the passports of these three countries positioned in the same place give visa-free access to 181 destinations.
Iceland is ranked in the 12th position, while the passport of this country allows its citizens to travel to 180 countries worldwide without being obliged to acquire a visa in advance.
Malaysia’s passport that gives visa-free access to 179 territories has been ranked in the thirteenth position. Due to its visa-free-visa-on arrival score of 176, Cyprus’ passport has been placed in the fifteenth place.
Chile, Monaco, Romania and United Arab Emirates, all with 174, are ranked sixteenth.
At the same time, Bulgaria passport has been placed in the seventeenth position with visa-free access to 173 countries, while Croatia has been ranked in the eighteenth place, with its passport giving visa-free access to 172 countries.
The base of the ranking explains that travel restrictions imposed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic over past 18 months have caused the widest global mobility gap.
AT THE BOTTOM
At the bottom of the 227 travel destinations covered by the report appears North Korea with 39 destinations, Nepal and the Palestinian territories with 37, Somalia with 34, Yemen with 33, Pakistan 31, Syria 29, Iraq and Afghanistan with 28.
The report doesn't consider the Covid-19 temporary restrictions, although such restrictions have formed a deep gap in travel freedom even for travelers who have been fully vaccinated, coming from countries at the lower end of the ranking that remains locked out of most of the other countries.
For example, although Singapore and Japan passports are both ranked first with visa-free access to 192 destinations, both have kept in place stricter access bans compared to Afghanistan’s restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 — even though its passport gives visa-free access only to 26 countries.
In spite of the fact that Japan is ranked first, with a visa-free score of 192, right now it imposes entry bans for almost every single traveler from other countries as a precautionary measure to end the further spread of the Corona virus.
The report has stressed that Germany, ranked second with a score of 190, has bans from entering for travelers from almost 100 countries.
On the contrary, Egypt, although 97th, at present has no travel restrictions in place. Still, Egyptians are able to travel visa-free to just 51 destinations worldwide.
Kenya, which is ranked 77th, has no travel bans in place. Up till now, holders of the Kenyan passport are allowed to visit only 72 countries without acquiring a visa in advance.
CARIBBEAN MOST POWERFUL PASSPORTS 2021
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Barbados (Score:161)
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Saint Kitts and Nevis passport (Score:161)
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Antigua and Barbuda passport (Score:150)
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St. Lucia passport (Score:146)
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Grenada passport (Score:144)
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Dominica passport (Score:143)
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Vanuatu (Score:135)
WHAT ABOUT TURKEY AND MONTENEGRO?
Montenegro with 123, is ranked 48th . While Turkey is ranked in the 57th position, while the passport of this country allows its citizens to travel to 110 countries worldwide without being obliged to acquire a visa in advance.
TOP 11 ARAB ACOUNTRIES PASSPORTS
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United Arab Emirates (Score:174)
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Qatar (Score:97)
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Kuwait (Score:95)
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Bahrain (Score:84)
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Oman (Score:80)
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Saudi Arabia (Score:79)
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Tunisia (Score:71)
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Morocco (Score:63)
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Algeria (Score:52)
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Egypt (Score:51)
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Jordan passport (Score:50)
WHAT ARE THE BEST PASSPORTS TO HOLD IN 2021?
World’s 10 most powerful passports:
1. Japan, Singapore (Score: 192)
2. Germany, South Korea (Score: 190)
3. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain (Score: 189)
4. Austria passport, Denmark (Score: 188)
5. France, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden (Score: 187)
6. Belgium, New Zealand, Switzerland (Score: 186)
7. Czech Republic, Greece, Malta, Norway, United Kingdom, United States (Score: 185)
8. Australia, Canada passport (Score: 184)
9. Hungary passport (Score: 183)
10. Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia (Score: 182)
WHAT ARE THE WORST PASSPORTS TO HOLD IN 2021?
Several countries around the world have visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to fewer than 40 countries. These include:
World’s 10 least powerful passports:
1. Iran, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Sudan (Score:41)
2. Bangladesh, Kosovo, Libya (Score: 40)
3. North Korea (Score: 39)
4. Nepal, Palestinian Territory (Score: 37)
5. Somalia (Score: 34)
6. Yemen (Score: 33)
7. Pakistan (Score: 31)
8. Syria (Score: 29)
9. Iraq (Score: 28)
10. Afghanistan (Score: 26)
Weak passports are now a problem for everyone.
ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED WITH THE QUALITY OF YOUR PASSPORT?
As more people become able to work online, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that the opportunity of a second passport offers a way to continue to keep the travel freedoms once expected of a birth passport for many British and American people. Amusingly, the most powerful passport in the world in 2021 is Japanese; one of about 50 countries in the world that doesn’t permit a person to hold more than one nationality.
The major thing to become obvious from Coronavirus is that a passport’s richness isn’t connected just to the economic clout of a country; no one is protected. Whereas once, citizens of less developed countries with a lack of social mobility or poor economic development would have found themselves with a low-ranking passport.
Citizenship by investment programs (CIPs) offer you the opportunity to legally acquire a new citizenship and passport quickly and simply, without difficult, typical visa and passport application processes.
We at QICMS offer European Citizenship by Investment Programs , European Residency by Investment Programs as well as Non-European Citizenship/Residency by Investment Programs . That’s it. Nothing else. No Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program, no express entry program, no skilled worker program,
No distractions. Nothing to steal our focus away from our clients. No kidding ourselves that we can be good at every immigration program. No trying to conquer the whole world. We just do our best to conquer our bit of it. So each day we come in and provide our clients with the best citizenship and residency by investment program according to our client’s needs.
In a troubled, changing world, acquiring a second citizenship is a wise decision and an investment for the future. The Second Passport programs Start at USD $100,000.
For more information on the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment Program (Antigua and Barbuda CBI Program), please click here.
For more information on the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Program (St. Kitts and Nevis CBI Program), please click here.
For more information on the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Program (Grenada CBI Program), please click here.
For more information on the St. Lucia Citizenship by Investment Program (St. Lucia CBI Program), please click here.
For more information on the Dominica Citizenship by Investment Program (Dominica CBI Program), please click here
For the Citizenship by Investment Programs comparison table, please click here.
To compare St Kitts vs. Antigua vs. Grenada vs. St Lucia vs. Dominica, please click here .
Fill out our Free Assessment to see if you qualify for any of the immigration programs offered.
Contact us today if you are interested in finding out more about these programs or if you have any questions about the application procedure in general.