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No visa required
- tfh 16y agoIt's almost impossible for someone with a decent job in Afghanistan (or a similar country) to get a tourist visa to the US or to Europe. The first problem is to afford the flight ticket. The second an more important problem is to get a tourist visa. They always assume you want to stay and work.
- sivers 16y agoSingapore is not shown, but is near the top, (150 countries vs Denmark's 157) and deserves special mention as the only passport that's visa-free for both US and China. http://www.henleyglobal.com/citizenship/visa-restrictions/ http://www.henleyglobal.com/citizenship/visa-restrictions/
- elai 16y agoIf only it wasn't a single citizenship country :(
- garply 16y agoAs an American in China, you have no idea how many times I've envied the Singaporeans. China goes out of its way to gouge Americans for visas - a visa costs about $150 for us, maybe $30 for a Canadian or European. I'm told visas are about equally expensive for Chinese entering the US (although the US does a much more thorough background check to ensure the Chinese person has consistently had a good job with regular income), so I guess the feeling between the 2 governments is mutual. The visas for foreigners here are also of relatively low quality - they have a short duration. And the rules about what a person can obtain are constantly changing. I've spent so much time, effort, and money dealing with visa issues, I've really contemplated marrying my Chinese girlfriend. We're not really ready to get married from a relationship perspective, but we're both pragmatists and it would save us money and headaches.
- xiaoma 16y agoYeah, tell me about it. I spent a small fortune on my multiple entry L visa in HK, and it was only good for a month at a time-- not quite enough time to get my long term residence visa. Worse yet, getting a simple extension while the paperwork goes through is more expensive than just hopping on a train and leaving the country only to re-enter it again. What a waste of my time, of space on the train and of fuel. And for what?
- petercooper 16y agoThis is a rare occasion - Britain at the top of a chart that's measuring something good! I suspect the scope and influence of the empire might be what just pushes us over the top, though I guess that doesn't explain Denmark too well.
- DrJokepu 16y agoI'd also suspect that another reason is that immigration from Britain was never really an issue anywhere at any point in the history, so there was no reason to limit travel rights of British persons. After all, it was always a modern, industrialized country with English-speaking population, and mostly white (which unfortunately mattered in less enlightened times, not even too long ago).
- chris_l 16y agoThey had some problems of that nature, as an example in India starting in the 17th century and ending 1947. Other examples can be found readily :)
- sprout 16y agoYeah, India never really did get over illegal immigration from Britain.
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- sdurkin 16y agoOverpopulation was actually a major problem for Britain for most of its history, (hence the continent-sized penal colony in Australia.) It was just that British immigrants had the nasty habit of overthrowing the government in their new homes.
- mambodog 16y agoIt was just that British immigrants had the nasty habit of overthrowing the government in their new homes. How many countries did that happen in?
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- scrrr 16y agoI remember when I first crossed German-French border without even a passport check. There was just a flag post. That was a great moment. Anyway, I wonder how Switzerland would rate on this list!
- cl3m 16y agoSwitzerland has 156 countries (rank 10) The full list is at http://www.henleyglobal.com/citizenship/visa-restrictions/ http://www.henleyglobal.com/citizenship/visa-restrictions/
- gaius 16y agoSwitzerland is fairly obnoxious towards immigrants tho' (e.g. it is pretty much impossible to naturalize as Swiss). It should be rights be difficult for Swiss to travel anywhere. I expect their private banking industry is what opens the doors...
- ciupicri 16y agoI fail to see what traveling has to do with immigration. They're different things.
- whyenot 16y agoExactly what about the swiss naturalization process makes it "pretty much impossible" and what is obnoxious about it? There is a residency requirement, a language fluency requirement, and you have to show that you have integrated in swiss society. It's not an easy process compared to many other countries, but also not impossible.
- _delirium 16y agoIt depends greatly on the area, but some parts of Switzerland have a requirement that all new citizenships must be approved by a local referendum. I'm not aware of many other countries where to get citizenship, the municipality you live in has to approve it in a popular vote.
- davidw 16y agoI think if I ever tried to get Italian citizenship in addition to US, it might be to get a passport that would let me go some places more unobtrusively. Not that I'm much of a traveler though... so it's not high on my list.
- escoz 16y agoI received my italian citizenship a few weeks ago, still need to go tet the passport :)
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- nanairo 16y agoThere's a couple of things that surprise me. First, all the countries in the Schengen treaty I think end up with the same score. Indeed France, Germany and Italy do. I would imagine many more do too (e.g. Spain). It seemed like it would have been a better label. On the other hand I am surprised that Denmark got more.. .and it is kind of a counterexample to my first point. Isn't Denmark in the Schengen treaty too? Where else can they go than Germany/French/Italians can't?
- pmjordan 16y agoI don't think there's anything stopping Schengen countries negotiating better travel conditions for their citizens. It's the Visa situation for travelling to visit the entire Schengen area that's homogenised. Working visas etc. are yet another matter.
- tomjen3 16y agoDenmark is a member of Schengen, but we also have deals with Sweden and Norway that doesn't even require passports to get there, and I don't imagine I would need a passport to go visit Iceland either.
- maneesh 16y agodenmark, sweden, norway, and iceland are all members of the schengen...
- nerfhammer 16y agoDon't forget Greenland or the Faroe Islands
- tomjen3 16y agoBoth of which are actually parts of Denmark, having some level of autonomy.
- henrikschroder 16y agoIt's a measurement of how likely it is that a citizen in a country want to become an illegal immigrant elsewhere. The small, "nice", western european welfare states have always scored very high on this for a long time.
- will_critchlow 16y agoI wish we could go further than this. During the UK elections, I hated hearing the anti-immigration rhetoric from all sides. Where is the party offering more free movement of people? We employ people from all corners of the globe here in the UK and hate the visa hurdles. We opened our US subsidiary in February and had to jump through all kinds of hurdles and pay lots of legal fees to set up a company that already employs 6 Americans. I think if there was a way of limiting social benefits until you had proved you planned to contribute then unlimited economic migration would greatly help entrepreneurship.
- gaius 16y agoPeople throughout the political spectrum conflate legal and illegal immigrants for their own agendas. But they are two entirely disparate groups. I think if there was a way of limiting social benefits until you had proved you planned to contribute That should apply to "locals" as well!
- Sukotto 16y agoDoes anyone know where I can get the raw data they used to generate this? (Preferably in a format I can slice and dice programmaticly)
- pwim 16y agoI'd be interested to see the converse as well - the countries that let the most other countries' citizens in without passports.
- subbu 16y agoIt'd be even more interesting to see these 2 plotted next to each other. Countries you can go to without a visa V/s Citizens of countries that you let in without a visa.
- johnndege 16y agoIts great that Britons can travel the world hassle free - must be the remnants of the empire. However, what really matters to people is the opportunity to work and live in a foreign country. I am a Briton living in the US and the difficulty it takes to come to the US is astounding. I had a relatively easy ride but for some the road is long.
- mortenjorck 16y agoAs a US citizen, it's wonderful getting into other countries with so little hassle. The only annoying part is getting back into the US.
- noodle 16y agoreally? i haven't had much of a problem (edit: or rather, not much more of a problem than the process required to enter in the other country). but i've also never had much to declare, either.
- mortenjorck 16y agoI haven't traveled that extensively, but every time I've entered a Schengen country with nothing to declare, I've been able to walk right in after getting my passport stamped. Every time I've returned to the US, however, I've had to go through an exhaustive baggage screening and pat-down before I could even board the plane, and then stand in line for half an hour in Immigration once I got back, filling out an entire form to declare that I have nothing to declare, and answering random identity-verifying questions from an immigration officer. I feel tired and uncomfortable just thinking about it.
- noodle 16y agoi haven't either, but my experiences were actually the opposite. i usually get searched when entering a foreign country because i have snacks on me or something. i usually have very little hassle when returning to the US, never been searched (knock on wood).
- nerfhammer 16y agoI'm one of those lucky people that is apparently innocent-looking enough that I never get messed with by customs. And I've been through lots of weird customs checkpoints. Returning to the US you have to fill out that annoying form on the plane but other than that it's just a rubber stamp
- prototype56 16y ago
- ramki 16y agodamn, why Denmark?? quite surprising...
- jrockway 16y agoYou're surprised that people from a rich European country can travel with relatively little hassle? I'm surprised that you're surprised.
- subbu 16y agoThey are white and they are rich as with most other top ranked countries on that list.
- henrikschroder 16y agoIf you check the actual tables you'll see that a lot of countries share the same spots, that graph was just a selection of countries.
- blizkreeg 16y agoAs an Indian, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at India's place in that chart.
- seldo 16y agoI was hoping this was going to be a measure of how easy it was to obtain a work visa in these countries, in which case I would expect the US to rank near the bottom...
- c4urself 16y agoit's not only the countries you travel visa-free to, it's also how they treat you once you're there... i once traveled through italy with an american friend and was surprised at the hassle they made of the border crossing of a nighttrain simply due to his passport... i was able to sleep on and he had to answer questions this was back in 2000. at the same time consider countries like syria where an american passport might not be as nice as an EU one.
- rizal 16y agoMalaysia is right up there! I am Malaysian and I am surprised. In 1993 I had to apply for a visa to visit France, which gave me the impression that it's difficult for Malaysians to travel. (I've only been to China since then.)