Passport Index – How much power does your passport have? • Hacker News Board

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#11

Post by CaveTech » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

philtar wrote: post #7

Doesn't take much into consideration. E.G, look at where the UAE passport is ranked. A fresh graduate working in Abu Dhabi earns 60k+ a year, gets a free piece of land and a $400,000 loan interest free to build a house on that piece of land.

That has nothing to do with having a passport.

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#12

Post by kudu » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

There are some important considerations here that haven't been taken into account. For example, the United States is the only major country in the world that taxes non-resident citizens on their worldwide income, which makes it one of the most inconvenient passports to hold. Additionally, holding an EU passport allows one to work, study, etc. in any EU country, rather than simply visit it.

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#13

Post by snitko » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:23 PM UTC

It is an absolute disgrace that people are limited in their ability to travel where they want to simply because they happened to be born in a certain place. If you look at that and don't see how this is basically a prison system, you are just endlessly ignorant.

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#14

Post by the_mitsuhiko » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:27 PM UTC

The information onthat site seems wrong. Austria's passport has visa free access to more than 170 countries and there are passports that have more than that. Yet it shows the UK with less than 150.

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#15

Post by maxerickson » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:29 PM UTC

dklsf wrote: post #4

Doesn't look like the information on that site is correct. Or at least, it disagrees with https://www.henleyglobal.com/international-visa-restrictions... The differences are quite striking, the US isn't even in the top 10.

I just downloaded the pdf (yay mailinator).

It lists the US as a number 1 country there (with 174 visa free countries), I guess they omit it on the free list to gather email addresses.

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#16

Post by pinaceae » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:30 PM UTC

does it take it into consideration that the US and Israeli passport make you active targets in certain parts of the world?

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#17

Post by pinaceae » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:34 PM UTC

snitko wrote: post #13

It is an absolute disgrace that people are limited in their ability to travel where they want to simply because they happened to be born in a certain place. If you look at that and don't see how this is basically a prison system, you are just endlessly ignorant.

visa restrictions into the US and EU exist to protect their own population, as voted and decided upon by their democratic systems.

the world is a bit more complicated than your comment implies.

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#18

Post by biftek » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:37 PM UTC

slazaro wrote: post #2

Unsurprisingly, the Swiss passport is the one with the most interesting and visually pleasing design.

I thought the same thing, didn't even have to click on it to know that was swiss. The Vatican passport is pretty nice too, with only the gold emblem on black.

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#19

Post by darrhiggs » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

davidw wrote: post #10

Not particularly interesting, but now I'm curious what one country makes the difference between South Korea, Germany and France, at 145, and Italy and Sweden at 144.

It's not one country. Differences between France and South Korea include - not exclusively - Russia, Mongolia, and Namibia.[0][1]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_French_c... [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_South_Ko...

Re: Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

#20

Post by bluerobotcat » Sun, May 03, 2015, 2:41 PM UTC

The number of countries that you can enter without a visa might not be the best metric.

For example, if you have a US or Signapore passport, you might be able to enter a lot of countries without a visa, but Brazil is not one of them. Brazil is obviously a hugely important country, so that seems like a notable disadvantage. EU citizens can enter Brazil without a visa.

Additionally, there are several countries that have special (higher) visa fees for processing US passports.

Having a Schengen passport is also pretty sweet if you want to move to a different Schengen country.

Finally, if you get kidnapped for a random, you don't want to have to rely on a US passport! (Then again, if you get kidnapped by North Korea, Bill Clinton might personally fly over to negotiate your release.)