The most powerful passport of 2022 has been revealed
The most powerful passport in the world for 2022 has been revealed, and sadly it's not the British one.
If there's one thing you never want to lose it's your passport, as it can get you into wonderful countries all over the world and also serves as a handy form of ID if you need one.
On top of that they're pretty expensive to replace, and lots of Brits are wondering if they'll need to get a new one as current passports are issued in the name of the Queen.
Thankfully you won't, at least not until your current one expires, but some people like to apply for passports from other countries as well, if they can.
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After Brexit a lot of Brits went digging through their family trees to see if they'd be eligible for an Irish passport which would let them keep moving through the EU without having to sort out visas.
It's a testament to powerful passports being a pretty useful thing to have.
How powerful a passport is hinges on how many countries it can get you into without much difficulty.
The passport power rankings from Henley & Partners judge that a passport which can get you into a country without much trouble is worth one point, and you also get a point if you can secure a visa, visitor's permit or an electronic travel authority (ETA).
Basically, for each country where you can show up with just your passport and get in, even if it takes a bit of persuasion and sorting out some other documents when you get there, then it's worth a point.
If you absolutely have to have other paperwork sorted before you travel then the passport doesn't get a point.
When you tot up all the totals the winner in the powerful passport stakes is Japan, as the Japanese passport took top spot on the list with 193 points.
Japan has been solidly top of the leaderboard for the past five years, while the next best ones are Singapore and South Korea, which were narrowly beaten with 192 points.
As for the British passports, those missed out on making the top 10 countries in the list as they scored 187 points, finishing behind Germany, Spain, Italy, Finland, Austria, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark.
The UK tied with France, Ireland and Portugal for how powerful the passport is, which isn't bad considering it's higher than the vast majority of other nations.
Meanwhile, bottom of the list with just 27 points was Afghanistan, followed closely by Syria and Iraq.
Regardless of the rankings, it's a bad idea to rock up at a country with your passport without checking whether you need a visa or some other documents first.
While lots of passports earned points for being able to show up at a country without those things and sort out the details for a short visit there, it's always better to have this stuff ready and prepared.
Topics: Travel, World News, UK News, News
Joe Harker