
Passport Index – How much power does your passport have? - stees
http://www.passportindex.org/
======
bluerobotcat
The number of countries that you can enter without a visa might not be the
best metric.

For example, if you have a US or Signapore passport, you might be able to
enter a lot of countries without a visa, but Brazil is not one of them. Brazil
is obviously a hugely important country, so that seems like a notable
disadvantage. EU citizens can enter Brazil without a visa.

Additionally, there are several countries that have special (higher) visa fees
for processing US passports.

Having a Schengen passport is also pretty sweet if you want to _move_ to a
different Schengen country.

Finally, if you get kidnapped for a random, you don't want to have to rely on
a US passport! (Then again, if you get kidnapped by North Korea, Bill Clinton
might personally fly over to negotiate your release.)

~~~
seanmcdirmid
China, Russia, India, Indonesia (With VOA) also require visas for Americans,
often with retaliatory fees for the visa (they charge us what we charge them).
I was surprised that I need a visa to go to austrailia, out of all places,
though at least we can do it online...

~~~
_p6fl
In case you were unaware, nobody (other than US citizens and Canadians) can
get into the United States without a 'visa' of some kind. Even if you're from
the United Kingdom for example, you still need an ESTA, which although it
isn't called a 'visa', is required prior to travel like a visa and costs a fee
like a visa.

~~~
wodenokoto
Esta is only for flying.

------
kudu
There are some important considerations here that haven't been taken into
account. For example, the United States is the only major country in the world
that taxes non-resident citizens on their worldwide income, which makes it one
of the most inconvenient passports to hold. Additionally, holding an EU
passport allows one to work, study, etc. in any EU country, rather than simply
visit it.

~~~
maxerickson
Once you factor in the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and Foreign Tax Credit,
it is the filing requirement that is onerous, not the taxation.

The first $100,000 of income can be excluded. On income above that, the US
demands the difference if the taxes in the foreign country are less than US
taxes. I think you acknowledge all this quite well when you call it
inconvenient, but I think people don't need to be horribly outraged about it
(I think the policy likely does close a path of tax avoidance that would be
well used, but I'm pretty ambivalent about whether it is reasonable).

~~~
siberianbear
The Earned Income Exclusion, as its name applies, only applies to "earned"
income. It doesn't apply to capital gains or dividends. Having reviewed the
form in detail, I also believe that self-employed US citizens working abroad
with US-sourced self-employment income (i.e., digital nomads) also need to
play the ~15% self-employment tax, even if you're able to get out of the
"normal" income tax with the Foreign Income Exclusion.

~~~
maxerickson
I think it is much more likely that digital nomads are operating unlicensed
businesses in foreign countries than it is that they are earning "US sourced
self-employment income".

It could well be easy to import the earnings into some country while
characterizing it as US sourced self employment income. That doesn't mean it
is actually compliant with the regulations of that country.

------
vowelless
I prefer this web site:
[http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/](http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/)

It also gives you information about which passports a country allows:

Where can a US passport take you:
[http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/passport/United%20States](http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/passport/United%20States)

Citizens of which countries are allowed to enter the US without a visa:
[http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/border/United%20States](http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/border/United%20States)

It's also fascinating to see the cultural divides like 'Western world',
'Muslim world', etc based on the passport and border information.

Another interesting thing is where the Israeli passport can take you:
[http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/passport/israel](http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/passport/israel)

The border of India is surprisingly restricted:
[http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/border/india](http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/border/india)
looks like only citizens of Nepal and Bhutan are allowed without a visa.

~~~
nzp
At least some of the info there is stale or incorrect (just judging by metrics
for only one country I'm familiar with).

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joosters
Is there a way to get any information beyond the magic numbers on that site?
e.g. a US passport allows entry to 147 countries, but can I list which ones?
Or which ones it doesn't allow access to? Or what the difference is between
two passports?

Another possible index would be a reverse lookup per-country, showing how many
other countries can visit it without a visa. Something like a 'country freedom
index' or somesuch.

~~~
q_revert
As an Irish citizen I was wondering which countries our British counterparts
could get to that we couldn't :)

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Visa_req...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Visa_requirements_for_Irish_citizens.png)

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Visa_req...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Visa_requirements_for_British_citizens.png)

    
    
        compare -metric AE -fuzz 5% Visa_requirements_for_British_citizens.png Visa_requirements_for_Irish_citizens.png comparison.png
    

[http://i.imgur.com/QdCdb8r.png](http://i.imgur.com/QdCdb8r.png)

~~~
k-mcgrady
Thanks for doing that comparison. It's particularly interesting for those of
us up north who can carry both and Irish and British passport.

------
dklsf
Doesn't look like the information on that site is correct. Or at least, it
disagrees with [https://www.henleyglobal.com/international-visa-
restrictions...](https://www.henleyglobal.com/international-visa-
restrictions/) The differences are quite striking, the US isn't even in the
top 10.

~~~
maxerickson
I just downloaded the pdf (yay mailinator).

It lists the US as a number 1 country there (with 174 visa free countries), I
guess they omit it on the free list to gather email addresses.

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kiiski
This seems to only consider the number of countries one can travel to without
a visa as a tourist. So it doesn't consider the ability to move to or
work/study at another country.

~~~
ptaipale
It's really an exception if you can work/study at another country without a
visa/residence permit. A more relevant question is whether you can make a
business trip, or act as a journalist, without a visa. For instance, ESTA for
a tourist in the USA is an easy thing, but if the same person wants to come
for a few weeks and work as a journalist, e.g. make interviews, then the visa
process is very very different. The USA does not offer that much freedom for
foreign press, really.

A zone of visa-free exceptions has been created in the Schengen area, but even
there you'll need to apply for a work permit for longer stints (and the host
country is obliged to give it to citizens of other Schengen countries, with
some exceptions).

~~~
kiiski
While the whole Schengen area may not allow you to work everywhere, the core
EU area pretty much does[1]. Of course you may have to do some paper work,
but, generally, if you have a job offer from another EU country, you will be
able to take it without having to worry about getting a visa.

Nordic countries also have their own passport union, so a Finnish passport,
for example, will let you go and work in Iceland or Norway pretty freely.

I would imagine there are be some other regions that have similiar agreements.
I think that the Commonwealth at least used to have some benefits for its
citizens, but I'm not sure how much of those remain.

[1]
[http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/moving_a...](http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/moving_abroad/working_abroad/working_in_the_eu.html)

~~~
ptaipale
Yes, the work permit is practically automatic within Schengen, and not even
needed between Nordic countries, but it is not an absolute right: persons from
another Schengen country may legally be barred from entering (typically, this
is outcome of repeated/aggravated criminal convictions).

This is possible even between Nordic countries (consider Juha Valjakkala /
Nikita Fouganthine who we get to keep in Finland as Sweden understandably does
not wish him to enter).

------
Geee
These numbers seem to be incorrect, comparing to
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_(document)#Visa_Restrictio...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_\(document\)#Visa_Restrictions_Index)

------
wolfgke
What I'd be interested in is a table of countries that I cannot/(can) enter
with the country's passport. I couldn't find such a table.

~~~
sososoko
Which country are you from? For me( a Zimbabwean) i rely on these:

    
    
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Zimbabwean_citizens
      http://www.doyouneedvisa.com/passport/Zimbabwe

------
madamepsychosis
More interesting would be to rank citizenship by price. For example, you can
directly get Maltese citizenship for $150k. Indirectly you can get a green
card for $500k. Maybe someone could sort through all these direct and indirect
rules to classify citizenships by value.

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slazaro
Unsurprisingly, the Swiss passport is the one with the most interesting and
visually pleasing design.

~~~
biftek
I thought the same thing, didn't even have to click on it to know that was
swiss. The Vatican passport is pretty nice too, with only the gold emblem on
black.

~~~
joosters
I like the Vatican passport design too. I wonder if the inside is written in
Latin?

~~~
ptaipale
No, it seems to be Italian (with French and English to support).

[http://www.quora.com/What-does-the-inside-of-todays-
Vatican-...](http://www.quora.com/What-does-the-inside-of-todays-Vatican-
passport-look-like)

------
golergka
What if you have two passports, what's your cumulative passport power? Or a
passport from one country and lassiez passer from another?

~~~
gervase
Additionally, it would be helpful if you could select your passports, and then
it would suggest on a per-country which passport to use for entry, based on
visa restrictions, costs, etc. There are a number of websites that offer the
information listed in the post, but nothing that provides the details I just
described.

------
pinaceae
does it take it into consideration that the US and Israeli passport make you
active targets in certain parts of the world?

~~~
joosters
No. But thanks for asking, always happy to help!

Other things not taken into account:

* Passport weight index (how hefty is your passport? is it any good as a baton? Page count and binding are important here)

* Passport prettiness index (how dull or interesting are the blank pages in your passport)?

* Passport value index (what's the black market price for each country's passport?)

* etc etc

1/10 site woefully incomplete.

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grecy
Can we get the data behind this?

I need to start investigating the entrance requirements for myself into pretty
much every country in Africa, and I have not found a convenient way to do so
yet.

I have two passports, so I need to figure out which one is best in each
country.

~~~
maxerickson
They are pulling data from IATA, which offers an information site:

[http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/](http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/)

It isn't really very convenient for the use you propose (it returns info based
on one passport-destination pair at a time).

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allendoerfer
Compare that to this table:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_%28document%29#Visa_polici...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_%28document%29#Visa_policies)

States that get the most give the least.

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the_mitsuhiko
The information onthat site seems wrong. Austria's passport has visa free
access to more than 170 countries and there are passports that have more than
that. Yet it shows the UK with less than 150.

~~~
maxerickson
Something is wrong with the site. I'm fairly certain that when I first viewed
the US and UK it said 174 (only fairly certain because I am prone to flipping
digits and the second time it said 147). Now it doesn't show any number for
the US.

Edit: and now it does show 147 again. If I remember correctly, other entries
also lost ~30 from their totals.

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mythealias
Would be nice if it also listed the countries that you could travel to.

~~~
equil
there's always wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Visa_requirements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Visa_requirements)

~~~
mythealias
yes of course :)

------
bane
I've always thought this kind of comparison wasn't as meaningful as "how many
square km of the planet does your passport grant you access to? Countries vary
in size too much.

~~~
joosters
How is that more meaningful, unless you value every square kilometer of
Siberia, for instance?

Or you could argue that having access to all of the seas without a passport
means that the per-km2 value of a passport is actually relatively small? :)

~~~
bane
Suppose your passport only granted you access to 4 countries.

Mine gets me to Russia, Canada, the U.S. and China.

Yours gets you to Grenada, Malta, Maldives and Saint Kitts and Nevis (ignoring
the EU for a moment).

Which one is "more powerful"? Obviously mine is since I get to enjoy most of
the landmass of the Northern Hemisphere while yours gets you access to a
handful of minor island nations.

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davidw
Not particularly interesting, but now I'm curious what one country makes the
difference between South Korea, Germany and France, at 145, and Italy and
Sweden at 144.

~~~
darrhiggs
It's not one country. Differences between France and South Korea include - not
exclusively - Russia, Mongolia, and Namibia.[0][1]

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_French_c...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_French_citizens#Visa_requirements_map)
[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_South_Ko...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_South_Korean_citizens#Visa_requirements_map)

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yzh
I'm interested in doing some graph analytics for each country's VISA policy.
Where can I find the full list of each country's visa free countries list?

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subliminalpanda
Oman. Not to great, but not too bad either. On the plus side I always joke
that we're the friendly Arabs because no one has ever heard of us.

~~~
616c
As someone who meanders around the Gulf, I think you are expensive for
tourists and you are just trying to reel us in.

~~~
616c
I see I got downvoted. I just wanted to clarify that was a joke.

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bjelkeman-again
I think it is interesting that this is essentially an somewhat subtle ad for
investment banking for high net worth individuals.

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azinman2
Wow North Korea has more rank than a good 15/20 countries!

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mavdi
Swiss passport cover is lovely. Looks like a medical card.

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ta41q
wasn't this on front of HN like just a week ago?

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snitko
It is an absolute disgrace that people are limited in their ability to travel
where they want to simply because they happened to be born in a certain place.
If you look at that and don't see how this is basically a prison system, you
are just endlessly ignorant.

~~~
pinaceae
visa restrictions into the US and EU exist to protect their own population, as
voted and decided upon by their democratic systems.

the world is a bit more complicated than your comment implies.

~~~
snitko
Yes. Many things in the world exist because the majority thinks it's a good
idea. Doesn't mean it is. 200 years ago the majority thought slavery was ok.
I'm still yet to see anyone who'd convince me why is it that I need to get a
permission from a bureaucrat just to see my friend, when my friend doesn't
approve of that policy and never voted for anything like that to be
instituted.

Me not visiting my friend more often doesn't protect a single soul. All the
while, criminals with legalized money buy residencies and citizenship left and
right. Tell me more about how that protects anyone even remotely.

~~~
pinaceae
laws exist to cover for the majority of use cases, not individual, well
reasoned exceptions. start with hammurabi and read on, the worl of bureaucracy
has a lot more background and sense than you imagine.

~~~
snitko
I do not approve of collectivism, not even in law and order. When you say
"laws exist" who are you to decide why they exist? I for one think they exist
(in the current, monopolized form) to control the general population while
elites are practically exempt. Prove me wrong and please use logic and
evidence, not some theory that justifies bureaucracy.

~~~
ptaipale
Who are we, as voters in democratic countries, to decide why they exist? We
are to decide, by the very definition of democracy.

The visa requirements are not so much for the elites in rich countries; it's
more for the general population - particularly in welfare states, the
situation is that you can have open borders, or you can have universal welfare
benefits for population, but you cannot have both.

Often it seems that it is actually the political and economical elite that
wants to do away with immigration controls (to get cheap labor, for instance).

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philtar
Doesn't take much into consideration. E.G, look at where the UAE passport is
ranked. A _fresh_ graduate working in Abu Dhabi earns 60k+ a year, gets a free
piece of land and a $400,000 loan interest free to build a house on that piece
of land.

~~~
CaveTech
That has nothing to do with having a passport.

