"South Korea is Visa-Free" Changing Global Passport Power Rankings Background [News SeolCham]

(43) Passport Power in the Top Tier
But Rankings Vary Due to Different Selection Criteria by Survey Agencies

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'South Korea Passport Power 3rd Place', 'Republic of Korea Passport Ranking Plummets to 32nd'….

With the introduction of visa-free entry to China, interest in the power of the South Korean passport is rising. China including South Korea in the visa-free countries list is the first occurrence since the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China in 1992, and it is being evaluated that South Korea's passport power has risen to a top global level. However, the publicly released South Korean passport power rankings vary greatly?3rd, 6th, even 32nd?making it difficult to determine which figure is accurate. We looked into the different passport power criteria used by various research organizations.

Passport power indicates the influence of a passport based on the number of countries that can be visited without a visa. Generally, wealthy and strong countries tend to have more travel freedom, resulting in higher passport power rankings.

A passport placed in the Passport Civil Service Office in Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Yonhap News.

The three most commonly used indices to measure passport power are as follows. The first is the 'Henley Passport Index,' published annually by the international exchange company Henley & Partners. The Henley Passport Index ranks passports based solely on how many countries the passport holders can enter visa-free, using data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). As of this month, Singapore ranks first, allowing visa-free entry to 195 countries. Second place is shared by five countries?France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain?each with visa-free access to 192 countries.

South Korea ranks 3rd (visa-free access to 191 countries). Austria, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden also share the 3rd place. Recently, China announced a visa-free policy allowing citizens of nine countries, including South Korea, to enter China for business, tourism, or visiting relatives for up to 15 days without a visa until December 31 of next year; however, since this is a temporary policy valid only until the end of next year, it does not affect the passport power rankings.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, countries temporarily closed their borders, but these were temporary measures and were not reflected in the rankings. In the 2020 Henley Passport Index, the United States ranked 7th with visa-free access to 185 countries. At that time, CNN pointed out that "although the U.S. passport ranks 7th, the actual travel freedom of its holders is comparable to Mexico ranked 25th or Uruguay ranked 28th," because the European Union (EU) excluded the U.S. from its list of allowed entry countries, making entry to the 27 EU countries impossible for U.S. passport holders.

The Henley Passport Index also ranks ▲4th Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom (190 countries) ▲5th Australia, Portugal (189 countries) ▲6th Greece, Poland (188 countries) ▲7th Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta (187 countries) ▲8th United States (186 countries). The lowest rank is Afghanistan (105th), with visa-free access only to 26 countries including Angola and Argentina.

According to the Nomad Passport Index, South Korea ranks 32nd. The Nomad Passport Index considers not only visa-free access but also factors such as tax systems, national recognition, and individual freedoms to comprehensively rank passports. The top ranks are dominated by European countries such as ▲1st Switzerland ▲2nd Ireland ▲3rd Portugal ▲4th Luxembourg and Finland. Other major countries include Canada at 36th, Japan at 38th, and the United States at 44th.

The large discrepancy between the Henley Passport Index and the Nomad Passport Index rankings is partly due to different ranking criteria, but also because of how ties are handled.

The Henley Passport Index assigns sequential ranks even when multiple countries share the same rank. For example, five countries share 2nd place, but the next rank is 3rd. However, the Nomad Passport Index accounts for the number of countries sharing a rank when assigning subsequent ranks. So, if two countries share 4th place, the next rank is 6th, not 5th. Therefore, if the Nomad Passport Index applied Henley’s tie-handling method, South Korea’s 32nd place would correspond to 6th place.

The 'Global Passport Power Index' compiled by the global financial company Arton Capital is also frequently used to indicate passport influence. It compares visa exemptions and visa-on-arrival benefits across 193 UN member countries plus six regions: Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Kosovo, Palestinian territories, and Vatican City. The top rank is the United Arab Emirates, followed by Spain in second place.

Third place includes 11 countries: France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, and Ireland. Fourth place includes six countries: Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and Hungary. South Korea ranks 6th alongside Singapore, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia, Croatia, and New Zealand.