Malta’s passport gets you to 169 countries hassle-free
The Maltese passport ranks 9 in the world for visa-free access, according to the global Henley Passport Index
11 January 2018, 7:00am
Kurt Sansone
Kurt Sansone
1 min read
A Maltese passport takes you far and wide but Germany holds the most powerful passport in the world
Possessing a Maltese passport opens up the doors to 169 countries without the need of a travel visa, according to an annual index compiled by Henley & Partners.
The global citizenship and planning firm’s rankings for 2018 put Malta in 9 place, one better than last year when it was joint 10 with Hungary.
The Henley Passport Index is based on IATA data and enhanced by extensive in-house research, the firm says on its website.
The index ranks 199 passports and takes into account 219 travel destinations.
A German passport is the most powerful in the world, giving visa-free access to 177 countries, followed by the Singaporean passport that gives access to 176 countries.
The worst off are passport holders in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Henley & Partners was given a concession to operate Malta's controversial citizenship-by-investment programme, popularly known as the cash-for-passport scheme. Fellow EU countries, Austria and Cyprus, which also have similar passport schemes, ranked fourth and 17 respectively in the 2018 index.
Read also: Russian nationals dominate list of global rich who are now ‘Maltese’
Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday.
He was formerly deputy editor of MaltaTod...
