On 1 October, the Henley and Partners Passport Index for the visa-free regime of the countries in the fourth quarter of 2019 was published. The three countries of South Caucasus, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia all recorded an improvement on their passport rankings.

Armenia moved three spots up and is on the 81st place, Azerbaijan climbed two spots and is ranked 76th, while Georgia moved sixteen spots up and is now ranked 50th on the index. Armenian citizens can visit 60 countries visa-free, the citizens of Azerbaijan can visit 6 destinations, while the citizens of Georgia can travel without visas to 114 countries.

Amongst the neighboring countries, Russia sits on the 48th place, with its citizens being able to travel to 117 countries visa free, Turkey is ranked 52nd (112 countries) and Iran shares 99th place with Bangladesh and Eritrea, with  its citizens able to travel visa free to only 40 countries. Singapore and Japan are at the top of the ranking, allowing their citizens to travel to 190 countries visa free They are followed by Finland, Germany and South Korea (188) and Denmark, Italy, and Luxembourg (187). Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the ranking, in 107th place, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of just 25, followed by Iraq (27) and Syria (29).

The Henley Passport Index is compiled by residence and citizenship planning company Henley & Partners. It ranks all the world’s passports based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information.