Kiwis have access to 186 nations visa-free, putting our passport in sixth place on the latest Henley Passport Index. Photo / Alex Burton
Kiwis have access to 186 nations visa-free, putting our passport in sixth place on the latest Henley Passport Index. Photo / Alex Burton
New Zealand’s passport is billed as one of the world’s most powerful but risks losing its influence because of this country’s relatively strict visa rules.
Kiwis have access to 186 nations visa-free, putting our passport in sixth place on the latest Henley Passport Index.
The index analyses 199 different passportsand 227 destinations and ranks them by the number of countries the passport holder is granted visa-free access to.
Five other countries are joint with New Zealand in sixth place: Greece, Hungary, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. Henley ranks multiple countries with the same score together as a single spot.
Reciprocity plays a role in the rankings. That’s what could spell trouble for our passport, according to Henley.
New Zealand has one of the biggest gaps in the index between the number of countries that its citizens get visa-free access to versus the number of international visitors it allows to enter this country without a visa.
Kiwis have access to 186 nations visa-free, putting our passport in sixth place on the latest Henley Passport Index. Photo /123rf
Henley & Partners chairman and index creator Christian Kaelin said visa reciprocity matters.
“Nations that embrace openness and co-operation are surging ahead, while those resting on past privilege are being left behind.”
The drop coincides with the crackdown on US immigration and travel policies under the Trump administration. While American passport holders can currently access 180 destinations visa-free, the US itself allows only 46 other nationalities to enter without a visa.
Australia has the widest disparity between visa-free access and openness on the index, followed by the US, which is just ahead of Canada, New Zealand and Japan.
Singapore maintained its reputation for having the world’s “most powerful passport”, occupying the top spot, followed by South Korea in second and Japan in third.
This year New Zealand edged in front of Australia, which is tied for seventh alongside the Czech Republic, Malta and Poland.
In the 2024 index, released last January, New Zealand placed equal sixth alongside the Czech Republic, Poland and Australia.
New Zealand’s ranking peaked at number four in the index in 2015.
Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.
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