The United Arab Emirates is issuing the best passports in the world in 2023, according to new research.
United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg and Swiss passports are the most powerful in the world, according to a new ranking from Nomad Capitalist, a company with offices in the United States and five other countries that helps clients relocate to the stranger.
The company analyzed data from 199 passport-issuing countries and territories to produce the ranking.
The Emirati passport jumped 31 places from last year’s ranking, which named Luxembourg passports as the most powerful in the world.
The passports of the small, landlocked European nation, which sits between Belgium, France and Germany and is, by some measures, considered the richest nation in the worldfell to second place in the 2023 rankings.
The United States came in 43rd place, with US passports named less powerful than those issued by Romania, Canada and Malaysia.
Most of Nomad Capitalist’s ranking comes down to visa-free travel – that is, how many countries a passport will allow its holder to enter without a visa.
This meant that the top of the ranking was dominated by European countries, with citizens of the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland being able to work and travel freely in each other’s countries.
However, other factors – including taxes levied on citizens of each passport-issuing country, how a country is viewed around the world, and the personal freedom of citizens in each country – also weighed in Nomad’s ranking. Capitalist.
The ability of passport holders to hold dual nationality was also taken into account.
Although the UAE’s score in the Nomad Capitalist measure of freedom fell slightly between 2022 and 2023, its lack of citizen income tax, coupled with a large increase in the number of countries that passport holders can visit without a visa, helped him climb to the top of the rankings.
The United Arab Emirates has also been named the world’s most powerful passport in a separate ranking published in January by Arton Capital.
According to Nomad Capitalist’s index, UAE passport holders can visit 181 countries without a visa, more than any other country in the ranking. Last year, Nomad Capitalist discovered that a United Arab Emirates passport could only enter 175 visa-free countries.
While US passport holders can visit an impressive 173 countries without a visa, the US has lost points thanks to strict rules that mean citizens are required to pay US taxes even if they live abroad.
It’s a problem that has prompted a quarter of American expats to consider renouncing their U.S. citizenshipaccording to a 2022 poll.
The United States also received average scores in Nomad Capitalist’s 2023 rankings for how it is perceived around the world, as well as for the personal freedom given to its citizens as well as travelers and expats in the country.
The United States fell two places in 2023 compared to the previous year.
At the very bottom of the scale, Afghanistan was named the least powerful passport, a position it also held last year thanks to the limited number of countries its holders can visit without a visa and low personal freedom. in the country.
Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan and Eritrea complete the bottom five.
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