According to the latest rankings published by the Global Passport Index, the UAE passport is now the world's 9th most powerful, offering ease of international travel to its citizens.
UAE passport holders can now travel to 112 countries without obtaining a visa. Furthermore, they can get a visa on arrival in 45 additional countries, which makes a total of 157 countries where prior visas are not required for UAE nationals.
"The UAE passport has ranked at 9th position in the Global Passport Index, and now citizens can enter 157 countries without a prior visa," tweeted Dr. Anwar Gargash, the UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on Thursday.
In 2017, the UAE announced its ambition to see the country's passport rank among the top five most powerful passports in the world by 2021.
In line with the country's Vision 2021, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently said that it is actively extending its global diplomatic efforts in a bid to strengthen the UAE passport.
Full list of the world's top 10 most powerful passports:
- Singapore (Visa-free travel to 166 countries)
- Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, South Korea, United States (Visa-free travel to 165 countries)
- Italy, France Spain, Greece, Portugal, Japan, Ireland, Canada (Visa-free travel to 164 countries)
- Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, United Kingdom (Visa-free travel to 163 countries)
- Czech Republic, Malta, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia (Visa-free travel to 162 countries)
- Slovenia, Iceland, Lithuania, Slovakia (Visa-free travel to 161 countries)
- Estonia, Poland, Latvia (Visa-free travel to 160 countries)
- Romania, Bulgaria (Visa-free travel to 158 countries)
- Liechtenstein, United Arab Emirates (Visa-free travel to 157 countries)
- Cyprus, Croatia (Visa-free travel to 156 countries)