The Henley Passport Index is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – the largest, most accurate travel information database – and enhanced by Henley & Partners’ research team. Expert insights regarding the latest ranking are available in the Global Mobility Report 2024.
The Henley Passport Index is the original and most authoritative passport index, with historical data spanning 18 years.
The index and its contents are based on data provided by the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) and supplemented, enhanced, and updated using extensive in-house research and open-source online data. The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations. Updated monthly, the Henley Passport Index is the most robust and reliable index of its kind.
Henley & Partners receives exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA), which forms the basis of the Henley Passport Index. In order to maintain the accuracy of the data provided by IATA in the face of constant updates to visa policy, and in order to create detailed visa lists for all 199 passports in our database, the Henley & Partners research team cross-checks each passport against all 227 possible travel destinations. This is done using reliable publicly available information, including but not limited to, government resources and major news outlets. This research process is ongoing throughout the year. It is coupled with a rigorous monitoring system to pick up relevant visa-policy shifts.
For each travel destination, if no visa is required for passport holders from a country or territory, then a score with value = 1 is created for that passport. A score with value = 1 is also applied if passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination. These visa-types require no pre-departure government approval, because of the specific visa-waiver programs in place.
Where a visa is required, or where a passport holder has to obtain a government-approved electronic visa (e-Visa) before departure, a score with value = 0 is assigned. A score with value = 0 is also assigned if passport holders need pre-departure government approval for a visa on arrival, a scenario we do not consider ‘visa-free’.
The total score for each passport is equal to the number of destinations for which no visa is required (value = 1), under the conditions defined above.
The index assumes the following:
The visa policy of Greenland and the Faroe Islands is taken to be the same as that of Denmark.
With the European Union and the UK both introducing new electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) soon, there has been some uncertainty about whether they constitute visa requirements.
The Henley Passport Index treats ETAs as visa-free, as opposed to electronic visas (e-Visas), which it considers as a form of visa requirement.
The first level on which this distinction can be understood is with
respect to how various leading ETA programs define themselves. The
European Union’s ETIAS and the UK’s
ETA, like the USA’s
ESTA and Canada’s
ETA, explicitly
clarify that their ETAs are not visas and are only for visitors who
are visa exempt. By this logic, it is clear that an ETA is not a
visa requirement.
However, some countries do use the language interchangeably. For
example, Australia describes its ETA program as a type of visa. Therefore, to
substantively distinguish between ETAs and e-Visas, the Henley
Passport Index additionally takes the following criteria into
consideration:
Fundamentally, the Henley Passport Index considers how much effort a traveler must make prior to departure in order to be authorized to travel. While both ETAs and e-Visas do require action prior to departure, ETAs are fairly straightforward, quick and easy to complete, they are processed in a short time and almost always approved, whereas e-Visas tend to be similarly onerous to ordinary visa applications at embassies, taking longer to process and having a greater chance of being denied.
As there is no guarantee of uniformity in the language used by different countries to define their programs, the Henley Passport Index will rely on the above criteria when determining whether a requirement is considered to be an ETA or an e-Visa, and correspondingly, whether it is scored as visa-free or visa required.
For each passport, the visa lists were broken down into regions, for ease of reference. These regional groupings were created using a combination of official United Nations geographic categories and Henley & Partners business categories.
The information provided in the index is not intended to be binding, and visa information must be verified with a travel agent or embassy representative before travel arrangements are made.
Full disclaimer and important legal information: www.henleyglobal.com/disclaimer
Henley & Partners assists international clients in obtaining residence and citizenship under the respective programs. Contact us to arrange an initial private consultation.
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