The United Arab Emirates has again emerged as the world’s most powerful passport , according to the Arnot Capital Global Passport Power Rankings 2024. This suggests that, for a fourth year in a row now, the UAE has ranked best – a reminder of the country’s upper hand in mobility.
According to the latest global ranking in 2018, the UAE passport provides its holder with greater mobility to travel and enter 133 countries without a visa, 47 countries with visa on arrival and only a pre-approval visa for 18 countries. Its privileges include a Schengen visa free, allowing visits to 26 European countries and the other, five member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The rankings assess global mobility, and it is clear that citizens of most European countries have great freedom of movement. Follow Spain are Finland and France occupying the fourth place respectively. Notably, South Korea comes out 21st on the list, Japan is 25, while New Zealand is 28. Currently, the position of the countries with large populations in Dubai as a Diaspora community can be ranked as follow: UK- 32, Philippines- 66, India- 70 and Pakistan- 91.
How to Obtain a UAE Passport
Obtaining the UAE passport is not very easy as it is only one of the few passports that belong to the UAE citizens. However, specific pathways are available for select non-nationals, including:
- Investors
- Doctors and specialists
- Inventors and scientists
- Intellektuals and artists
Further, women who are dependent on Emirati citizen husbands and children born to UAE nationals are allowed naturalized citizenship and thus a UAE passport.
This development is also emblematic of the UAE’s steadily rising stature on the international arena, providing its inhabitants with unlimited opportunities to engage with the rest of the world yet remaining very selective when it came to non-Emirati naturalization.
