The World’s Top Passports Suck.
What the rankings aren’t telling you.
Visa free travel is great, but there is more to a passport than the visa free access it allows you. What do you lose by maintaining your current citizenship and what are other countries’ citizens afforded that you are not?
While most passport rankings have slipped due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions, these are to be ignored. The pandemic is a major disruptor to travel and global mobility, however it is not a long-term inhibitor.
Anyone who believes that citizens of countries such as the UK, Canada and Japan will continue to be banned from visiting countries long after the pandemic subsides is foolish.
Even so, passport rankings tend to not be reflective of the usefulness of the passport. Even before the pandemic, the practicality of some of the world’s most highly ranked passports has not matched their status.
Below are examples of some of the most sought after passports in the world and why they are not all they are cracked up to be.
1. Japan: Most people want to live in a safe country that is highly developed. Natural disasters aside, Japan is one of the safest countries on earth. Suffice to say the nation is also highly developed. Japan is also a strong nation in terms of international diplomacy and as such the Japanese passport is often ranked as the world’s most powerful passport.
The issue is that aside from visa free travel and working holiday visas, the Japanese passport does not give you any other benefits outside of Japan. If you want to reside permanently in Japan, the government has made gaining PR status easier. Japanese citizens are banned from holding any other citizenship. This might be minor loss for people with less valuable citizenships, but a huge pain for citizens of more developed countries. Why go through this hassle when PR is much easier to attain anyway? So if you have an Iranian passport, Sudanese passport or even an American passport, Japanese citizenship is a good option. If your present citizenship gives you any special benefits outside of your home country, reconsider renouncing it to take up Japanese citizenship. The passport is just not worth it to many.
2. United States of America: Looking past debates about the country’s perceived slide in reputation, the USA passport is still one of the worst of any developed nation. US legislation such as FACTA and FBAR require extensive reporting of all overseas bank accounts, taxation on worldwide income and other responsibilities. As a result, many banks around the world avoid dealing with American clients, so unless they have another passport they are often turned away from opening an account.
America, so far, is the only country in the developed world with such a harsh policy. Canada, Australia and most other countries take a “tax resident” approach, where citizens only pay taxes on their overseas income if they maintain a certain amount of ties to their country of citizenship. Conversely, Americans are stuck filing and paying taxes to the IRS no matter where they live. Ouch.
Americans also do not have freedom of movement with any country. Adding in the costs associated with renouncing US citizenship, this passport is a burden. There are even people called “accidental Americans” who are beholden to the IRS despite never living in the USA. All in all, this makes the US passport one of the least useful passports in the developed world. A person would be much better off with a visa opposed to US citizenship.
At least like the next passport, Americans can get PR in Switzerland in 5 years as opposed to the 10 years required by most other nations.
3. Canada: A much weaker passport than people give it credit for is the Canadian passport. Aside from visa free travel and working holiday visas, the premier feature of this passport is access to the TN visa subclass to work in the USA. Working in the USA is a great option for highly skilled Canadians, but there are two major issues. Many highly skilled professionals in areas such as technology lack a formal degree, which makes it harder to get the TN visa. Additionally, TN visa rejection rates have increased quite a bit over the past few years. TN visas are unlike green cards and are meant to be temporary. This means Canadians will not gain any sort of permanent residency while working on a TN visa. This is why many still prefer visas such as the H-1B, which allows a transition to permanent residence in the USA.
Canada does not have freedom of movement with any country, whereas the Australian and New Zealand passports have freedom of movement between the two nations. Even Australian PR’s can work and reside in New Zealand. Australians also have access to the E-3 visa which lets them work and reside in the USA. Canadians are being left in the cold.
4. United Kingdom: Despite the whining of many uninformed Brits, holders of a UK passport will not need a visa to visit the EU even after Brexit. So while citizens of the UK cannot live and work in the EU visa free, they can still take their annual trips to Ibiza and Lisbon without panic. There is even an agreement between Switzerland (not in the EU) and the UK, that will allow UK citizens to work in Switzerland without a visa for 90 days a year.
Despite all of these assurances, the UK passport undoubtedly is a weaker option than of other nearby nations. UK citizens do not have freedom of movement between any EU nation other than Ireland.
For example, citizens of Ireland get to enjoy the benefits of EU membership, while retaining the right to live and work in the UK visa free, even post-Brexit. This means that an Irish citizen can live and work in Germany without a visa, has easy access to the Swiss job market and also visa free access to the UK job market. The Irish passport is actually the best passport for those who want to live in the UK or the EU, as it comes with the aforementioned unique benefits. While there are proponents of a free movement between the UK and its most similar, most prosperous colonies (Canada, Australia and New Zealand), nothing has been formalised.
UK citizens can still live and work in Ireland without a visa and may apply for Irish citizenship once they qualify. This will restore their access to the EU.
5. Singapore: The Singaporean passport has been lauded as one of the best in the world for quite some time now, given its many visa free travel destinations. This is a case of the strength of Singapore as a brand and its diplomatic success.
As with the Japanese passport, the Singaporean passport is a one shot deal. Dual citizenship is not allowed for Singaporean citizens. The Singapore passport does not allow for any free movement with another nation.
This makes the Singaporean passport unattractive to those whose passports afford them benefits outside their country.
Singapore has a plethora of work visas and the county does offer Permanent Residences to approved applicants. Deciding between the two will come down to your personal needs, as PR has a requirement of military service for boys. Some parents will not want their son to go through Singapore’s National Service conscription and elect to stick to work visas.
So while keen expats will notice that many jobs and activities are reserved for Singaporeans, this also includes PR’s. Even though gaining PR has become a tumultuous exercise, even for people who would easily be given PR in another developed nation, it is still a better option than the even-harder-to-achieve citizenship.
6. United Arab Emirates: The UAE passport has become a thing of infamy as attaining one has been next to impossible for most and it ranked highly as the most powerful in the world previously. The reality is that the UAE passport is not all it’s cracked up to be either.
Dual citizenship typically is not recognised in the UAE and the terms of visa free access to countries is not as painless as it would be with an American, Canadian or Singaporean passport.
While COVID-19 has shown us that governments are capable of controlling its citizens movement, the UAE takes this a step further.
Residents of the UAE are allowed travel under normal circumstances to Qatar, however UAE nationals are presently banned from travelling to Qatar. A country disallowing its citizens from travelling to a nation due to diplomatic disputes is a major impediment on freedoms.
The UAE passport allows for free movement with some GCC nations such as Kuwait and Oman. The reality is that most people will not care for this free movement, as many do not need a visa to visit these countries and getting a work permit in Gulf nations tends to be quite easy.
Terms of visa free travel with the UAE passport are not as great as other nations either. Stays of 30 days are permitted for both Japan and Korea, for people with a UAE passport. Conversely, Canadians are allowed to stay in Japan for 90 days without a visa and an insane six months in South Korea.
The UAE passport allows visa free travel to a bunch of nations most people will have no interest in visiting. Countries such as Japan require a visa waiver for UAE nationals. The UAE passport does not have visa free access to the USA or a visa waiver.
While a visa waiver program exists for travel to the UK, UAE nationals are not permitted to use ePassport gates at the border. Citizens of EU nations, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States can just scan their passports at the airport gates and walk right into the UK. People with a passport from the UAE may need to undergo questioning from a border officer.
The UAE passport is not exactly as luxurious as it sounds.
Many people are looking for second or third passport options. COVID, civil unrest, better travel options, access to work visas and free movement have people around the world looking at gaining another passport.
