SINGAPORE NOW THE WORLDS MOST POWERFUL PASSPORT

Facts

The power of a passport is effectively a measure of how many countries it's holders can travel to visa-free, which itself is a reflection of the security and immigration risk of that country’s citizens. Singapore is one of two Asian destinations to reach the top of the list. It offers visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 189 jurisdictions. Citizens of the tiny city-state of Singapore have the most powerful passports in the world, it has been revealed. A new ranking of world passports by the website Passport Index found that citizens of Singapore can travel to the highest number of countries visa-free. The 3.4m holders of Singaporean passports can now travel to 167 countries without a visa – or by obtaining a visa on arrival or by using electronic travel authorization. Singaporean passports can now travel Visa-free for 127 Countries and can get a visa on arrival for  38 Countries.

Singaporean passports include the following data on the plastic information page:

1. Photo of the passport bearer (left)
   
2. Type (PA – biometric passport)
3. Code of issuing state (SGP)
4. Passport number
5. Name
6. Sex (Gender)
7. Nationality (Singapore Citizen)
8. Date of birth
9. Place of birth
10. Date of issue
11. Date of expiry
12. Modifications
13. Authority
14. National ID number
15. The information page ends with the Machine Readable Zone.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) of Singapore introduced the Singapore biometric passport (BioPass) on 15 August 2006. With this, Singapore has met requirements under the US Visa Waiver Program which calls for countries to roll out their biometric passports before 26 October 2006. The pricing for a Singaporean passport is, 70 SGD if applied via online, mail or ICA deposit box and 80 SGD if applied via Singapore Overseas Mission and Singaporean passports are valid for 5 years.

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