Passport plummets: NZ drops out of 'power ranking' top 10

Author: Thomas Bywater, NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2023, 2:55pm

A new passport survey indexing the ‘power’ of different travel documents has shown New Zealand to have suffered a dramatic fall.

The Global Passport Index is an independent ranking of passports, scoring the appeal of different travel documents and investment nationalities. Rating each passport for factors, including the ease of travel and investment opportunities in host nations, the new index has shown a shake-up in the league tables.

The Index is overseen by Global Citizen Solutions, a company offering assistance for investment passport applications.

Germany was crowned as the world’s most valuable passport, overtaking last year’s top passport, belonging to The United States. Sweden climbed into third place, up three places on last year, thanks to increased performance in visa-free travel.

New Zealand however has suffered a colossal fall in passport appeal.

Previously ranked top 10 by the Passport index, it has fallen seven places to 17th. This is largely due to the investment opportunities within New Zealand and high cost of living.

While New Zealand scored highly for mobility and was ranked 10th overall for quality of life index, it was let down by the investment appeal. New Zealand placed 34th for Investment Index, which the was described as a “general assessment of a country’s economy” based on personal income, business opportunities and GNI per capita.

The ranking showed that market size and labour were shown as limiting factors for the passport’s investment score and cost of living was “very high”.

Germany, meanwhile, scored highly across the board.

The United States, the previous year’s top passport, scored poorly in quality of life (39th) but overall passport “power” was improved by its value on the investment index, placing third.

There are a number of different passport rankings such as the Henley Passport Index, which rates passports by the number of countries offering reciprocal visa-free travel. The Henley Index scored New Zealand more favourably, placing the document sixth overall.

However the Global Passport Index says it differs from others by creating a score based on multiple factors that contribute to a citizenship’s overall appeal.

“Our Global Passport Index is a valuable tool for anyone looking to make an informed decision about a second citizenship or simply considering relocation temporarily or permanently to another country,” said Patricia Casaburi, chief executive of Global Citizen Solutions.

The score aims to reflect nationalities’ access to travel, investment opportunities and quality of life indicators.