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Passport Index 2016

passportindex.org

191–200 of 247 posts

Re: Passport Index 2016

#191

I had citizenship of one most repressive and poor countries in the world - Uzbekistan. Later I obtained Russian citizenship. Now, I'm living in the Netherlands and plan to obtain citizenship of some first world country (NL, SG etc). So I have first hand experience to live with Uzbek passport and being practically completely isolated from the first world (nobody give you EU tourist visa if you have Uzbek passport and…

I cant agree anymore. I posses literally the worst passport in the world: Afghanistan. Not only you are required to have a Visa basically for every country, getting a visa is also near impossible. And having a visa doesnt mean you wont get lengthy checkups and fishy looks at the airports :( Citizenship is discrimination.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#192
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They can work and live in any country in the EU Brexit might well see to that one though. And working in Australia visa free isn't all sunshine and roses, you have to pay full Australian taxes, but get none of the benefits of being an Australian resident or citizen.

Well, a US passport isn't all sunshine and roses either. The only country I know that taxes its citizens living abroad.

Denmark does as well, to a high degree

Re: Passport Index 2016

#193

Let's comment on the visual design of passports. These are all basically the same, except two that stand out: Switzerland, and The Vatican. The latter is very typically Swiss, with an attractive, simple, and modern design. The former is sinister and mysterious, but also quite distinctive. Honorable mention to Brazil and Bosnia for having passports without a coat of arms type of thing on the front.

One other cute side note. It looks like all passports seem to span the colors of the rainbow!...save yellow. Gold seems to be the standard color of the type/designs, so I suppose yellow or orange[0] as backgrounds are out. Most have dignified, darker tones. Singapore and Switzerland have the brightest backgrounds of brilliant red while a few have pale but not over-saturated greens (Niger, Guinea, Saudi Arabia). Actua…

For what it's worth, I know that the British emergency passport is pretty close to yellow - It seems to look more beige on the internet than I remember it though.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#195

Is there a guide to multiple citizenship power leveling anywhere? Edit: A bit of munging from the web page later... For Americans and British/Western Europe, the passports you want are Burkina Faso, Benin and Senegal. They will bring your passport power level up by 13 points to 168 (American) and 170 (UK) and give you visa free access to Cote Divoire (Ivory Coast), Mali, Iran, Congo, Niger, Benin, Nigeria, Liberia, C…

Singapore doesn't allow double citizenship though, except for children under the age of 18. So in your example the power level would drop at that age.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#196
Australia is such an unwelcoming country it's embarrassing. I suspect it's island mentality. At the airport we treat all arriving passengers as criminals - guilty of some terrible crime until cleared with a fully cavity search. To all our visitors - past, present and future - I apologise for our stupid bureaucracy and politicians. Once you get out of the airport things do get a little better.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#197

Australia is such an unwelcoming country it's embarrassing. I suspect it's island mentality. At the airport we treat all arriving passengers as criminals - guilty of some terrible crime until cleared with a fully cavity search. To all our visitors - past, present and future - I apologise for our stupid bureaucracy and politicians. Once you get out of the airport things do get a little better.

Honestly most countries are like this if you have to speak with customs. The US has been my worst experience and I use to cross into it frequently. At least with epassports these days I generally don't even have to talk to anyone when I arrive in Sydney except the guy that checks if you need to have the dogs sniff your bags.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#198
post #192
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, a US passport isn't all sunshine and roses either. The only country I know that taxes its citizens living abroad.

Denmark does as well, to a high degree

As opposed to the US, Denmark does not impose global tax on citizen who are not considered residents or have a home available to them there.

Re: Passport Index 2016

#199
post #41

I wonder how countries choose which colour to use for their passports. Black and purple seem to be the rarest colours, with generally no light colour (other than bright red) being used.

The general trend that is visible is that Islamic states tend to prefer green, Communist or former Communist countries prefer red, European nations prefer burgundy and the rest have mostly gone with shades of blue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport

> European nations prefer burgundy

Minor bit of trivia: European Union countries[0], with a few exceptions, all use a standardized passport format[1]. The burgundy red color is specified. (This was one of the reasons given by the "Leave" campaign in the run up to the Brexit vote, that the United Kingdom would be able to return to a blue cover color.)

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passports_of_the_European_Unio...

1 - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:...

Re: Passport Index 2016

#200

I had citizenship of one most repressive and poor countries in the world - Uzbekistan. Later I obtained Russian citizenship. Now, I'm living in the Netherlands and plan to obtain citizenship of some first world country (NL, SG etc). So I have first hand experience to live with Uzbek passport and being practically completely isolated from the first world (nobody give you EU tourist visa if you have Uzbek passport and…

The Netherlands doesn't allow for dual citizenship, so you'll have to give up one of your other two :(. But if you're an NL resident, there are plenty of other EU nations that do allow multi-citizenship. Also, there are not "first world" or "third world" countries. Those terms are throwbacks to an era where everything was separated out by communists vs capitalist states. The correct terms today are high income, mid-i…

Germany doesn't allow dual citizenship either, unless you acquire dual citizenship at birth (perhaps you were born in the US but your mother is German). In all other cases one either loses their German citizenship (or surrenders their foreign citizenship) immediately upon acquiring the other citizenship. If you are under 18, you get to wait until you turn 18 to make your choice (in some cases until 23).

After some research it turns out that Germany allows people to acquire a foreign citizenship without losing their German citizenship in special circumstances. You need their explicit permission before beginning the citizenship process of another country. The application is free form.

I just went through this a few months ago and Germany approved my request with no issues. Soon I'll be a German and US citizen.

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