Jordanians can travel to 49 countries without visas — Passport Index

AMMAN — Jordanians can only travel to only 49 countries without visas, according to a recent global passport index. 

Arton Capital’s 2015 Passport Index, an interactive tool that collects, displays and ranks the passports of the world, showed that Jordanian passports rank 68th globally, along with passports from the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

The US and the UK came in first place in the Passport Power Rank, as holders of their passports can enter 147 countries without visas.

France, Germany and South Korea came second, in the index, which uses data from the International Air Transport Association as well as individual travellers.

Passports accumulate points for each country that their holders can visit without a visa, or where they can obtain a visa on arrival, according to the index website (http://www.passportindex.org), and are ranked based on their Visa Free Score. 

“The country list is based on the 193 UN member countries and six territories for a total of 199,” the website said. 

The Palestinian passport was ranked at the bottom of the index along with the passports of South Sudan, Solomon Islands, Myanmar and Sao Tome and Principe.

Holders of Palestinian passports can enter only 28 countries without a visa.

At the Arab level, the United Arab Emirates came first, ranking 47th internationally, with Emirati passport holders able to enter 75 countries without a visa. 

Qatar followed, with passport holders entitled to visa-free travel to 66 countries, followed by Kuwait (64 countries), and Saudi Arabia and Tunisia (61 countries).

As for citizens of unrest-hit Syria, they can still travel to 48 countries without a visa, and the Syrian passport is ranked 69th in the index.

Earlier this year, the 2014 Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index ranked the Jordanian passport as 83rd in the world out of 94 passports, indicating that its holders enjoy free-visa access to 45 countries.

The index ranked Finland, Germany, Sweden, the UK, and the US jointly in first place as citizens of these nations can enter 174 countries without a visa.

It also ranked Afghanistan’s passport at the bottom of the list (94th place) for granting its holders access to 28 countries without visas.

According to Interior Ministry instructions, citizens of 16 Asian countries, with Iraq being the only Arab state, cannot enter Jordan without a visa. The list includes 38 African, four European and four Central and South American countries.

According to the ministry’s website, nationals from at least 145 countries can visit the Kingdom without obtaining a visa.