Taiwan’s passport has been ranked the 33rd-most useful globally, as it allows visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 146 destinations around the world, a survey by the London-based citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners showed.
However, in the third quarter, Taiwan dropped one notch in the rankings from a quarter earlier, according to the Henley Passport Index, which ranks all passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without arranging a visa prior to arrival.
Japan’s passport remained No. 1 in the rankings, as its holders can travel visa-free to 191 countries, followed by the Singaporean passport, which allows visa-free entry to 190 destinations. South Korea and Germany tied for third with 189 destinations.
The ranking does not take into account temporary bans, Henley & Partners said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the EU last week listed 14 countries whose residents were again allowed entry into the bloc from July 1, after months of being locked out because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Japan and South Korea made the list, as they meet the EU coronavirus-related health and safety criteria, as did Australia and Canada, which are tied at ninth place on the index, Henley & Partners said.
Despite Singapore’s No. 2 ranking, its exclusion from the EU list means that its passport holders currently have much less freedom to travel than people from Japan, South Korea and Germany, the firm said.
Similarly, although the US ranks seventh on the index, its citizens currently have the same freedom of travel in the EU as Mexico and Uruguay passport holders, two countries that are ranked 25th and 28th respectively, it said.
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