The Vietnamese passport has fallen two notchs to rank 92th with 55 points on the list of the world’s most powerful passports, according to Henley Passport Index.
Vietnam shared its rank with Guinea, Mali and Togo in the third quarter listing. The index covered 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.
Vietnamese citizens holding ordinary passports currently enjoy free access to 55 countries and territories.
Southeast Asian countries that scored lower than Vietnam are Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, ranking 93rd, 95th, and 99th, respectively.
Japan has held on to the number one position with the most powerful passport in the world, with citizens able to visit 193 countries and territories without a visa.
In contrast, the world’s weakest passports are those from poor countries mired in conflict, including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Passport holders from these nations can only visit 27-30 countries and territories without visas.
Vietnam’s visa-free destinations include Cook Islands, Micronesia, Niue, Barbados, Haiti, Oman, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Dominica, Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Chile, Ecuador and Panama.
Henley Passport Index is an original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) - the largest, most accurate travel information database - and enhanced by Henley & Partners’ research team.
The Vietnamese government on March 15 restored pre-pandemic immigration procedures for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese. March 15 is the day when Vietnam fully reopened its tourism market to international tourists.
Specifically, visa exemption is applied to citizens of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Belarus. Citizens of these countries are allowed to enter Vietnam for a period of 15 days, regardless of passport type and entry purpose. This policy will be effective from March 15, 2022 to March 14, 2025, with extension to be considered.
Vietnam unilaterally exempted these countries from visas from the end of 2019 to the time the pandemic broke out over two years ago.
Before the Covid-19 outbreaks, it exempted visas unilaterally for 13 countries and bilaterally for 88 countries and territories. In 2020, the country put a halt to this mechanism as an anti-pandemic measure.
Vietnam also removed its health declaration requirement on April 27 and dropped Covid-19 testing requirement for people entering the country from May 15 onwards.
Vietnam welcomed 1.87 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of the year, up 16.4 times year-on-year, with South Korea and the U.S. leading the pack.
However, the number of foreign arrivals was 85.4% less than the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.
Most of the foreigners - 88.6% or 1.66 million - chose to fly in; while 11.3% or 212,477 entered by road and 0.03% or 494, took the sea route.