United Arab Emirates now has the most powerful passport in the world

The United Arab Emirates now has the most powerful passport in the world, according to a new study.

Nomadic capitalista tax and immigration consultancy, ranked the value of the passports of nearly 200 countries based on five factors: the availability of visa-free travel, the burden on residents living abroad, perception, the availability of dual citizenship and personal freedom.

It found that the UAE’s new visa-free travel privileges, as well as the burgeoning economy and the fact that there is no income tax, have made their passports the most valuable.

Meanwhile, the United States ranked 43rd largely because it taxes citizens living abroad. The United Kingdom also ranks 30th and Australia 39th.

Previous studies have ranked both the UK and the US higher, but they only took into account how many countries a passport holder can enter without a prior visa.

Nomad Capitalists’ analysis placed the most importance on the availability of visa-free travel, but it also emphasized how much citizens are taxed, the perception of the country, the availability of dual citizenship and personal freedoms enjoyed by residents.

It awarded the lowest scores to counties that tax citizens regardless of where they live — such as the United States, and gave countries that allow citizens to move to avoid tax scores of 20 to 30, countries that don’t tax foreign nationals. income scores of 40 and countries with zero taxes scores of 50.

Those that strictly prohibit dual nationality, such as China, were given a score of 10, while those that allowed naturalization were given a score of 50.

Nomad Capitalist also relied on World Happiness Report and Human Development Index data to determine how each country was perceived, but Jovana Vojinovac, its director of operations and sales, said the bottom line is, “Will someone harass you at the airport?” as a citizen of that country?’

And the company relied on data and news reports on mandatory military service, government surveillance and freedom of the press to determine the availability of personal freedoms.

In the end, it turned out that the United States scored lowest for its tax policy, getting 30s for both perception and personal freedom.

“You can theoretically live on the moon if you are a US citizen and you pay taxes to the US,” Vojinovac explained to CNBC.

The United Kingdom also scored a 30 for its tax policy, a 20 for its public perception and 30 for personal freedom; while Australia scored 20 for taxation and 30 for perception.

But the United Arab Emirates came in as the “winner of the decade,” Vojinovac said, because it “added 106 new visa-free countries in the past decade” and is a “zero tax country.”

The global perception has also improved due to an influx of the rich and famous who have moved to the Middle Eastern country.

That’s a notable change from just a few years ago, Vojinovac said, when its customers said, “I’m not sure how safe it is,” or “We’ve heard some things about their laws,” referring to the fact that it’s a predominantly Muslim country.’

Others would also confuse the UAE with Saudi Arabia, she said, “putting it all together.”

But slowly people started to realize that it “has a very liberal visa policy and is very welcoming to foreigners, welcome to investment… {it has]pretty much become a destination for most of the people who have crypto-based businesses.”

The UAE also gained 10 points in Nomad’s personal freedom category from the 2022 ranking, thanks to a series of reforms in the country – although personal freedom remains the UAE’s weakest category.

In 2021, the government announced that Emerati citizenship is achievable for foreigners such as investors, doctors, scientists and intellectuals who met a certain set of requirements.

Still, Vojinovac said, the UAE passport is widely regarded as one of the most difficult passports to obtain.

“Because the law is relatively new, we have yet to see its practical implications as the number of requests increases.”

Meanwhile, the survey also found that “more and more people” are moving to other countries than ever before.

According to Vojinovac, more retirees are trying to move to countries with better healthcare systems and personal freedom. see massive waves of immigration from certain countries.’

So far, she said, the largest number of people are departing from Canada, which used to top the passport rankings.

However, over the past year, Vojinovac said, the rankings fell in the perception and personal freedom categories due to incidents such as the government jailing Freedom Convoy protesters.

Now many Canadians are moving to Costa Rica, Vojinovac said, while more Americans are moving to Portugal — which is also popular among wealthy people looking to live in the European Union, digital nomads, retirees and families.

But the influx of immigrants to Portugal has created a housing crisis in the country with rents and house prices rising. In February, the government had to announce that it was closing its Golden Visa program to help stabilize costs.

The same thing happened in Costa Rica, Vojinovac said.

“Most people think it’s kind of dirt cheap, okay, we save a ton of money going there,” she explained. “But many foreigners came to the country. Rents started to rise.’

Mexico also proved popular among foreigners during the pandemic because it “had no COVID mandates.”

And crypto fans are moving more to El Salvador, where Bitcoin is legal tender.