posted by
janrinok
on Wednesday August 13 2014, @09:56PM
from the perhaps-more-people-want-to-leave-the-UK? dept.
from the perhaps-more-people-want-to-leave-the-UK? dept.
The passport to have if you want to avoid complicated visa requirements is a British, Finnish or Swedish one. These passports gives the right to admission into 173 countries without visa or with a simplified visa at arrival according to the British consulting bureau Movehub. Second place is passports from Denmark, Luxembourg, Germany and USA with 172 countries. The passport that gives the least amount of freedom of movement is the Afghan, that gives the right to admission without visa or simplified visa into 28 countries.
However, the US passport is only marginally behind the top 3 - by 1 country!
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The Passport With Most Access to Have is a UK, SE, FI One
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday August 13 2014, @09:59PM
Reminds me I have to renew my almost decade old one. I've heard they've turned that into a PITA worse than getting a drivers license. True? False? Stories?
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:15PM
Not if you don't let it lapse.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:18PM
http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/renew.html [state.gov]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:52PM
I renewed both of mine a couple of months ago, at the height of the "scandal" (as I was down to 1 page in 1 and 2 pages in the other). Made an appointment for a day I was in London, walked in to the office at 11AM at Victoria, out before 12, £270 lighter. They were supposed to be ready for 4PM, but got a call at 3PM saying a system crash and they wouldn't be ready on time. They were eventually ready for collection at 1945.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday August 14 2014, @06:47AM
I cannot believe Canada is lumped in with France.
(Score: 2) by pbnjoe on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:05PM
Huh?
(Score: 2) by pbnjoe on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:07PM
Just as I posted that I understood. That last line is a bit confusing and seems out of place in my opinion. Saying the US passport is in second place by one country would be clearer I think :)
(Score: 1) by azrael on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:08PM
(Score: 2) by pbnjoe on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:18PM
*nod* I should've typed my "nevermind I get it" comment faster.
(Score: 4, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:38PM
If there are three countries in joint first place, wouldn't the next country/ies be in (joint) fourth place?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 14 2014, @01:10AM
Not if it's America !
(Score: 1) by azrael on Thursday August 14 2014, @10:54AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:08PM
That would be Cuba, I'm guessing.
(Score: 3, Funny) by BasilBrush on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:32PM
No. US citizens are welcome in Cuba. It's the US rules that ban you. But that counts for nothing so long as you go via another country first.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 14 2014, @12:00AM
Tis true. Fly to Mexico, Bahamas, ect. Or even be sneaky about it and fly to Canada, those flights usually they have a stop in the US, just be careful and not leave the plane. It's a pita, but way to stick it to the man!
(Score: 2) by jackb_guppy on Wednesday August 13 2014, @11:56PM
It is a three tie for #1, so #2 and #3 are also gone.
USA is in a four way tie for #4.
And so the next level down starts with #8.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday August 14 2014, @01:40AM
FYI: I didn't write the last comment in the posting asfair..
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday August 14 2014, @06:49AM
Sorry Kaszz - it was my mistake. I was editing 2 versions of the same story and got distracted. Unfortunately, I posted the incorrect version!
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:10PM
Everybody likes Canadians, how come they aren't in that top group?
And what country has Norway burned any bridges with? Somebody still mad at vikings?
I suspect this has more to do with who can be reasonably expected to GO HOME
(after spending their money) when they visit another country.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by BasilBrush on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:36PM
I'm sure Canadians are likely to go home too.
The UK appearance at the top of the list is probably a nice conjunction of EU membership and commonwealth membership (brought about by a history of widespread colonialism.)
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 13 2014, @11:01PM
It's about trade/diplomatic relations, lots of tit-for-tat treaties.
(Score: 1) by arslan on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:52PM
Obviously if you don't have a visa for a country that requires it you'll be having complications, but even if most people did you'd get hassled more in some countries compared to others. The U.S. is a good example.
Also some countries have different process for visa allocation depending on your source country. As an example, Japan used to be very strict depending on which Asian country you're applying from. They would require financial statements with minimum amount shown, employer's reference stating you're employed, etc. etc. However once, you have it the processing at the border is smooth. But if you're from that same Asian country but work and resides in another, i.e. Australia, your visa application is pretty much automatic - the travel agency just handles it for you.. no different that if you're travelling to another country which requires no visa.
So the number/ranking in on itself doesn't really say much..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by isostatic on Wednesday August 13 2014, @10:59PM
Many countries have different charges for visas. If you have an Irish passport and want to go to India as a tourist, you'll be charged £42. A UK passport you'll get charged £82.
Best thing to happen lately for us brits is the free transit visa for China. You can visit Beijing for 72 hours by flying LHR-PEK-HKG. You can then come back for another 72 hours. Far easier than arranging a visa up front. I've been to china twice this year using that method.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Popeidol on Thursday August 14 2014, @01:48AM
I'd be interested in a tool that expanded on this, and let you quickly diff between two countries - Say, to find out the apparent 5 countries that Australians need a visa for but the British don't, or whether the 170 countries that Spain and Japan can visit are actually the same 170.
Does anybody happen to have the dataset they used for this?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ramloss on Thursday August 14 2014, @02:53AM
The title of the article is "How powerful is your passport?" buth I think it needs to accout for the reciprocity policies of some countries, for example: Malasya appears among the top passports without visa requirements (167), but it might be due to the visa requirements (or lack therof) of the country itself, which according to wikipedia allows entry without visa to citizens of 161 countries. On the other hand, Australian citizens have visa-less access to the same number of countries, but only citizens of New Zealand are allowed entry without visa
It gets a little more interesting when considering both numbers and the ratio of countries that a passport has access to against the citizenships that are allowed entry visa-free to the same country (data from wikipedia):
This numbers better represent the "power" that a passport has
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 14 2014, @07:04AM
"This numbers better represent the "power" that a passport has"
No it doesn't. The passport of australia gets you in 167 countries without visa. It does not matter at all wether you can access australia with other passports. That's already taken into account from the point of view of the other passports.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 14 2014, @03:13AM
For the UK. it is helped by the fact it ruled so much of the Earth's surface
at the height of its rule ('The sun never sets on the British Empire'). Is
that still the case today?
Then World War II happened and one of the results was the USA, Canada, England,
Australia, and New Zeland banding together and sharing (top) secret intelligence
matters--thus forming Five Eyes (FVEY)
That has to be why a UK or US passport can get you into nearly 200 countries
on the face of the Earth without a lot of hassle.
I don't know why that is also the case for Sweeden or Finnland--they are not
a part of Five Eyes. Anybody know why these passports are 'so good'?
(Score: 1) by ingwa on Thursday August 14 2014, @10:07AM
It's because we are nice people. :)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday August 14 2014, @05:07PM
When was the last time Scandinavia attacked anyone?
(The Continuation War involving Finland was revenge (?) for getting invaded by Russia a couple years previously (and both happened during WWII anyway), and Norway and Denmark both *got* invaded by Germany)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Hawkwind on Thursday August 14 2014, @09:48PM
The ongoing invasion of Hans Island by the Danes (and then by the Canadians, repeat). The Danes and Canadians might even start fighting!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 14 2014, @10:57PM
"England"
Good luck finding that treaty, or how it relates to UK passports.