For many Vietnamese slaving away over visa applications, it quickly becomes clear that their passports are not as powerful as they would like.
Thanks to the Passport Index, an interactive tool that collects, displays and ranks the passports of the world, we can now see how a Vietnamese passport stacks up against its global peers when it comes to ease of visiting other countries.
Here’s the methodology used for the rankings, according to the website:
Passports accumulate points for each visa free country that their holders can visit without a visa, or they can obtain a visa on arrival.
Passport Power Rank - Passports are ranked based on their Visa Free Score. The higher the Visa Free Score, the better the Passport Power Rank.
Methodology - The country list is based on the 193 UN member countries and 6 territories (Macao, Kosovo, etc.) for a total of 199. Territories annexed to other countries such as Norfolk Island, French Polynesia, etc. are excluded. Data is based on IATA's Timaticweb platform as well as other sources.
Vietnam fell far short of the U.S. and the U.K. which took the top spot on the list. Just how far, you ask?
The country scored a 66 Passport Power Rank along with Algeria, Guinea-Bissau and Palau. Though ranking higher than geopolitical outcasts such as North Korea (73) and Iran (70), Vietnam somewhat surprisingly came in behind Congo (64) and Egypt (64).
Assuming it passes, it will be interesting to see if the Trans-Pacific Partnership will make it easier for Vietnamese to travel abroad as the country strengthens its economic ties with some of the world’s largest developed countries.
[Photo via Travip]
