Brent Pin­heiro 

Brent.pin­heiro@guardian.co.tt 

The Hen­ley Pass­port In­dex has been up­dat­ed and T&T pass­port hold­ers can now vis­it 151 coun­tries. The newest des­ti­na­tion? Bu­run­di, a small land­locked coun­try bor­dered by Rwan­da, Tan­za­nia, and the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Re­pub­lic of the Con­go. Ear­li­er this year, the in­dex list­ed on­ly 150 des­ti­na­tions with visa-free or visa-on-ar­rival ac­cess for T&T na­tion­als.

Image courtesy: Henley & Partners Holdings Ltd

The Hen­ley Pass­port In­dex ranks 199 dif­fer­ent pass­ports based on how eas­i­ly a per­son can trav­el to 227 des­ti­na­tions. Lon­don-based firm, Hen­ley & Part­ners, has been com­pil­ing da­ta on the world’s pass­ports since 2006, based on da­ta from the In­ter­na­tion­al Air Trans­port As­so­ci­a­tion (IA­TA). Re­main­ing in the num­ber one spot is Japan. Japan­ese pass­port hold­ers can vis­it 193 des­ti­na­tions with­out re­quir­ing a pri­or visa. South Ko­rea and Sin­ga­pore come in joint-2nd place, with ac­cess to 192 des­ti­na­tions. Al­so in the top ten spots are Ger­many, Spain, Fin­land, Italy, Lux­em­bourg, Den­mark, the Nether­lands, and Swe­den. The UK and US have dropped to 6th and 7th place, re­spec­tive­ly. Afghanistan re­mains at the bot­tom of the rank­ings - its na­tion­als can on­ly ac­cess 27 des­ti­na­tions world­wide visa-free. 

List of visa-free destinations for T&T passport holders. Image courtesy: Henley & Partners Holdings Ltd

De­spite the ad­di­tion of Bu­run­di, the T&T pass­port re­mains the 5th strongest in the Caribbean, shar­ing the #30 spot with An­tigua & Bar­bu­da. Bar­ba­dos re­tains the strongest pass­port in the Caribbean ti­tle - Ba­jans have ac­cess to 163 des­ti­na­tions visa-free. Be­hind Bar­ba­dos is St. Kitts and Nevis ranked at #25 (157), The Ba­hamas #26 (155), and St Vin­cent & the Grenadines #29 (152). 

Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Dr Amery Browne, is pleased with the ac­cess the T&T pass­port af­fords its hold­ers with ‘min­i­mal bu­reau­cra­cy’ but told Guardian Me­dia that the work con­tin­ues. He said, “We have no in­ten­tions of rest­ing on our lau­rels, and our diplo­mat­ic ef­forts con­tin­ue to­ward open­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties to of­fer our na­tion­als visa-free ac­cess to even more coun­tries. We have been work­ing very hard to main­tain and im­prove re­la­tions with all our key part­ners in the in­ter­na­tion­al sphere, and we are con­fi­dent that the strength of our pass­port will con­tin­ue to im­prove.” 

But be­fore you pack your suit­cas­es, re­mem­ber there is a dif­fer­ence be­tween visa-free and visa on ar­rival (VOA). Visa-free means you show up at the coun­try’s bor­der and you will be let in grant­ed you sat­is­fy all oth­er en­try re­quire­ments. For T&T na­tion­als, this pol­i­cy ap­plies to places like the Unit­ed King­dom, The Nether­lands, Ja­maica, Sin­ga­pore, etc. A Visa on Ar­rival re­quires you to have all the doc­u­ments you would reg­u­lar­ly need for a visa but, you ap­ply on ar­rival at the coun­try’s bor­ders. Usu­al­ly, there is a fee for this and it may be re­strict­ed to on­ly cer­tain bor­der en­try points. T&T na­tion­als can get a VOA in coun­tries such as Is­rael, Jor­dan, Bo­livia, and Egypt.