The most valuable passport in 2023

To the traveler, the passport is like the sun to the flower – like air to our lungs, or iron to our blood; it is an indispensable document that allows a regular person to identify oneself as a national of a country and to freely cross the border of a sovereign state into another. Some countries’ passports, however, are better at letting their citizens travel without hassle or worries, while some will completely close the doors off to certain parts of the world.

Certainly, the power of a passport is a measure of a country’s overall well-being. Because people who live in a prosperous nation find less reasons to migrate to another country – especially by overextending their legal stay through their passport – foreign countries feel more comfortable allowing tourists coming from such places to cross into their territory. The opposite is also true for countries that are less developed, unstable, or at war; the Henley Passport Index, which ranks countries by their citizens’ mobility with respect to visa-free travel, usually places countries ravaged by war in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East low in their lists because people holding passports from countries such as Afghanistan, for instance, encounter increased scrutiny when arriving at a new destination.

The power of a passport is not only a result of economic and political stability, but of the diplomatic relations and agreements made between two or more countries. Encompassing almost every member-state in the European Union, the Schengen Area represents an agreement that abolished all passport and border control measures within their mutual borders. This policy allows tourists, businesses, and companies to travel and operate flawlessly in an area of more than 1.6 million square miles. Back in the other side of the pond, the United States typically allows Canadian citizens to visit without requiring an entry visa.

This year, the Henley Passport Index put Singapore at the top of its list of most valuable passports worldwide. Singaporeans enjoy visa-free travel to 194 destinations around the world, whereas Americans and Mexican nationals have access to 188 and 161 countries respectively. Singapore is followed by Japan (193 destinations) and European countries like Germany, Spain, Italy, and the exception being South Korea, all at 192 destinations.

Written by Carlos Laphond Moreno (carlos@newsazb.com) for Arizona Bilingual Newspaper