Vietnamese passport drops a notch on Henley index

The Vietnamese passport has fallen a notch to rank 90th on the list of the world’s most powerful passports, according to the latest report released by Henley Passport Index.

According to its Global Mobility Report 2022 Q2, Vietnam has dropped one place compared to the first quarter of this year, but jumped five places compared to the end of 2021.

Vietnam shares its rank with Guinea, Mali and Togo. The index covers 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.

Vietnamese citizens holding ordinary passports currently enjoy free access to 54 countries and territories.

Southeast Asian countries that score lower than Vietnam are Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, ranking 91, 94, and 98, respectively.

Japan and Singapore have held onto the position as the most powerful passports in the world in the second quarter, with their 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 26-29 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.

The 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.

Traveling to Vietnam has become relatively easy, partly because of an efficient online visa system that allows travelers to submit their applications, according to the e-Visa.co.uk website.

“One of the main reasons that the Vietnamese passport scores so poorly is that Vietnam itself offers visa-free travel to few countries,” the website stated.