Abu Dhabi: With the UAE flying the flag for global mobility for its citizens, Saudi Arabia is also on the up. The kingdom was listed among the fastest-growing passports of 2019. In the last year, Saudi Arabia has secured visa waivers for nine countries around the world.
The strength of the Saudi passport increased globally during the year, according to the data of the Q2 Index Passport Henley for the second quarter, where it jumped two ranks in April 2020, maintaining the same position it achieved at the beginning of the year, and ranked 67th globally compared to the 69th position in 2019.
Taiwan
Ukraine
Albania
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Moldova and Georgia
Palau and the Marshall Islands (joint)
Micronesia
Timor Leste
Vanuatu
According to the index, the Saudi passport allows its holder to enter 77 countries without obtaining a prior visa.
According to the Global Passport Index, a platform that measures the global mobility score of nations, the UAE passport has packed the most powerful punch over the last ten years.
It tops both the overall Global Passport Power Rank for 2019, and is also the most improved passport of the decade. The rankings consider the passports of 199 destinations around the world. It scored the UAE as the world’s strongest passport of the decade, after the UAE added a total of 111 visa waivers for citizens in the last ten years.
In the ranking, each passport is scored for mobility, or the freedom that citizens have to visit other destinations around the world.
The UAE’s mobility score has increased by 161 per cent from 2010 to 2019, with Emiratis now able to enjoy visa-free or visa on arrival entry across 90 per cent of the world.
2019 saw the UAE capitalise on its decade of growth, and the country was awarded 179 mobility points, the highest-ever score in the global ranking system.
In the last year alone, an additional 12 countries were added to the list of destinations that Emiratis can visit via visa-waiver or visa on arrival policies.
