United Arab Emirates Continues to Have World’s Most Powerful Passport

 As the last few coronavirus-related border closures are lifted, the world has become more accessible to many passport holders. Meanwhile, since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, many nations have dropped visa requirements for Ukrainian passport holders. In turn, many countries have stopped issuing visas to Russian citizens and banned Russian airlines from using their airspace.

After taking all of that into account, the United Arab Emirates passport is currently the most powerful passport in the world, with visa-free or visa-upon-arrival access to 180 destinations. This makes it the strongest in the world, according to Arton Capital’s Passport Index, a ranking of the world’s passports in order of the number of destinations their holders can access without obtaining a visa before arrival. 

Unlike the Henley Passport Index, which has Singapore at the top of its 2023 rankings, Arton Capital’s Passport Index updates its rankings in real time as new visa waivers and changes are implemented, showing the effects that current travel bans have on global mobility right now.

After slipping down the rankings in recent years, the UAE made an impressive comeback in 2022, thanks to subsidizing country pavilions at the Expo 2020 Dubai for lower-income nations in exchange for visa-free agreements.