According to a latest index, the UAE has the strongest passport in the world.
According to a latest index by a tax and immigration consulting firm, the country jumped from thirty second place in last 12 months’s ranking to first place Nomad Capitalist.
The Emirati passport jumped on the list since it offers visa-free travel privileges to most destinations (181 in total), no income taxes and an ever-growing international presence, making it attractive to aspiring residents of the world, the company said.
How the ranking works
Unlike other rankings that focus solely on visa-free privileges, the “Nomad Passport Index 2023” evaluates five aspects, each with different weights:
Apart from visa-free travel, categories are graded on points that range from 10 to 50, said Jovana Vojinovic, director of operations and sales for Nomad Capitalist.
She said, for instance, that taxation relies on the long-term scope of a rustic’s tax rules, in addition to the country’s tax rates:
- Citizen’s Tax: Where Passport Holders Pay No matter Where They Live – Rating 10
- Resident Tax: where residents are taxed on worldwide income – rating 20 (if rates are above 50%) or 30 (if not)
- Territorial Tax: where domestically earned income is taxed – 40 points
- No income tax – rating 50
Countries scoring 10 points for taxation include the United States and Eritrea, which use worldwide “citizen-based” tax rules, Vojinovic said.
“Theoretically, you possibly can live to tell the tale the moon when you are a US citizen and pay taxes to the US,” she said.
South Africa is “flirting” with adopting the system but is unlikely to have the option to impose it since it lacks the leverage that the United States has over the global banking system, which requires them to comply with federal IRS rules as a condition of working with US residents, Vojinovic said .
She said one other factor – dual nationality – applies in two ways – first, whether a rustic allows its residents to obtain a second nationality, and secondly, whether it allows foreigners to naturalize as well.
Perception relies on each subjective views and objective data, reminiscent of World Happiness Report and Human Development IndexVojinovic said. But the most vital for this category is: “Will you be disturbed at the airport as a citizen of this country?”
Full list
Here is the full list, from 1 to 199:
The outcomes of this 12 months’s ranking are generally lower than last 12 months, due to a change in the way Nomad Capitalist rated visa-free travel.
Visas on arrival and eVisas should not included this 12 months, causing many countries to lose ground on this regard, Vojinovic said. For instance, last 12 months’s passport number 1, Luxembourgish, scored 189 points on this category; this 12 months it fell to 174.
Why the United Arab Emirates took 1st place
Vojinovic called the UAE passport the “winner of the decade”.
The UAE “added 106 latest visa-free countries in the last decade, which is an incredible number,” she said. “Besides, they seem to be a zero-tax country.”
Perception of the place has improved in the last 12 months due to the influx of wealthy and famous individuals who have moved there, she said. She said a number of years ago that customers said, “I’m undecided if it’s protected,” or “we have heard something about their regulations,” referring to it being a Muslim-dominated country.
Others would mix the UAE with Saudi Arabia, “grouping all of it together,” she said.
But slowly people began to realize that it has “a really liberal visa policy and may be very welcome to foreigners, welcome to investments … [it’s] it has almost turn into the go-to destination for most individuals who have cryptocurrency-based businesses.”
More individuals are on the move
Vojinovic said “an increasing number of people” are moving, and it isn’t just “exotic digital nomads”.
She said more retirees wanted to move to countries with higher healthcare and “freedom”.
“Freedom … will likely be highlighted in the next few years, especially on this industry, as we see massive, massive waves of immigration from certain countries,” she said. “I believe Canada … leads this whole movement.”
Canada often tops the passport rankings, but its ranking has fallen this 12 months due to the lack of points in two categories: perception and private freedoms brought on by incidents reminiscent of the imprisonment of protesters involved in the “Freedom Convoy” protests, Vojinovic said.
“Canadians are very big in Costa Rica,” she said, “Americans especially like Portugal.”
But Portugal was also popular with many others, Vojinovic said, including wealthy individuals who wanted a residence permit in the European Union and digital nomads, retirees and families.
Portugal’s loose entry policy shouldn’t be so welcome by the locals. The influx of foreigners has caused a housing crisis in the country, with rent and buy prices skyrocketing. Amongst other things, the government announced in February that it did (*1*)accomplished the “Golden Visa” program. to stabilize real estate costs.
“The identical thing happened” in Costa Rica, she said. “Most individuals think it is a bit dirt low-cost, okay, we save loads of money going there. But… many foreigners got here to the country. Rental prices have began to skyrocket.
Mexico is one other location that has proven popular, especially during the pandemic since it “didn’t have any Covid mandates,” while “crypto people” are drawn to El Salvador because Bitcoin is legal tender there, she said.