India registered the 80th position in the Henley Passport Index. The ranking was released by London-based immigration consultancy Henley & Partners. Reportedly, the Indian passport strength improved by five places and Indian citizens can now travel to 57 countries without visa.
Indian citizens have visa-free access and visas-on-arrival in multiple destinations like Indonesia, Thailand, and Rwanda. However, the citizens require a visa to enter 177 countries across the world including China, Japan, Russia, the United States, and the European Union. Reports claim that this high visa requirement has resulted in poor performance of India in mobility.
According to reports, 57 abroad destination that an Indian citizen can travel without having a prior visas are namely Barbados, Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde Islands, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Dominica, El Salvador, Fiji, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Madagascar, Maldives, Kazakhstan, Laos, Macao, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niue, Oman, Palau Islands, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Trinidad, and Tobago, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe.
As per the latest rankings, Japan, after remaining at the top of the index for the last five years, has this time dropped to third place as the number of visa-free destinations with its passport fell. In addition, Singapore has surpassed Japan and successfully grabbed the top position as its citizens are now able to visit 192 destinations out of the total 227 without having a prior visa.
The US, which once topped the ranking almost a decade ago, witnessed a fall in its ranking and slid two places to reach the eighth place. The UK, having post Brexit-induced slump, jumped two places to fourth, a position it last held in 2017.
The Henley Passport Index (HPI) is a global ranking that ranks countries according to the travel freedom enjoyed by the country’s ordinary passport holders. It reportedly ranks countries according to the number of destinations that can be visited using a particular country’s ordinary passport without requiring a prior visa.
Declaring the results of the latest index, Henley and Partners Visa tweeted with the message that there are more countries than ever before in the top 10 ranking of the Henley Passport Index as the battle for grabbing first place is becoming increasingly competitive.