Visa overview – If you have this passport, the world is your oyster

When it comes to travel, we Swiss are pretty spoiled. While it is hardly possible to travel to certain countries with another nationality, we usually do not even need a visa. It matters a lot which passport you have – it gives you huge privileges depending on what type of passport you have.

The consulting firm Arton Capital compared 199 countries and their visa requirements and used this to create the Global Passport Power Rank 2022. The ranking shows which passport is the easiest to travel the world with.

Arton Capital used a three-stage method to determine the individual rank of each passport: The decisive factors in the assessment are how many countries one can travel to without a visa with one passport, how many countries one receives a “visa on arrival” for and for how many countries you can get an entry permit within three days (eTA and eVisa).

The so-called best passport is the one that allows you to travel to as many countries as possible with the least effort – ideally without a visa.

The best ranking country comes from a country that you wouldn’t necessarily count on: the passport of the United Arab Emirates. Whoever has this passport needs a visa in just 38 countries around the world. 105 countries do not require a visa with the United Arab Emirates passport and 55 countries receive a visa on arrival.

Sweden, Finland and Italy share second place in the ranking. And Switzerland? This follows with several countries, including our neighboring countries Germany, Austria and France, in third place. With a Swiss passport you need a visa in just 43 countries.

At the bottom of the ranking are the war-torn countries of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. If you have a passport from one of these countries, you need a visa in 164 out of 199 countries and can only enter four countries without one.