Officers check the passports of passengers leaving for Singapore at the immigration checkpoint at Bandar Bentan Telani ferry terminal in the resort area of Lagoi on Bintan Island, Indonesia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (CFP Photo)
VisaGuide.World, a global visa guide website, recently released its passport rankings for 2025. Singapore was put on the top of the world passport ranking, with a score of 91.27 as of January 2025, followed by Finland, Spain, Japan, and Denmark, with scores of 90.88, 90.87, 90.68, and 90.63, respectively.
The website scores based on visa exemption, Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA), e-visa, and visa on arrival, with a full score of 100.
The website shows that Singapore passport holders can enter 169 countries and regions without a visa, but 10 of them require an e-travel authorization to be applied for in advance and paid online before they can enter. These countries include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom (from January 8, 2025), Australia, and New Zealand.
There are 14 countries or regions where Singaporeans can enter with an e-visa, including India, Bhutan, Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, and Russia. Twenty-six countries/regions can be entered with a visa on arrival, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bulgaria, and Egypt.
Singaporeans need to apply for visas in 17 countries/regions, including Ukraine, Algeria, the Central African Republic, and Sudan in Africa; Nauru in Oceania; Venezuela and the Falkland Islands in South America; and Afghanistan, South Korea, Turkmenistan, and Yemen in Asia.
The website updates the passport rankings each month. Among 10 ASEAN member states, Malaysia ranks 45th and Brunei 49th.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ranks 46th, and the Macao Special Administrative Region ranks 59th.
As a passport ranking system that evaluates 199 countries and territories based on factors like visa-free access, visa on arrival, eVisas, and global mobility, the VisaGuide Passport Index uses the Destination Significance Score (DSS) to assign a unique value to each passport.
Reporter: Zhang Ruijun
Editor: Yuan Zixiang, James, Shen He
