Muscat – The Sultante of Oman Passport has improved its rankings within the Henley Passport Index 2026 to 57 from 59 in 2025. Oman’s residents can journey visa-free to 85 international locations, together with Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Bermuda, Botswana, Brunei, China, Colombia, Prepare dinner Islands, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, Georgia, Haiti, Hong Kong (SAR China), Iran, Jordan, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Macao, Malayasia, Mauritius, Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, The Bahamas, Tunisia, Türkiye, Turks and Caicos Islands, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu and Zambia.
Within the GCC, the UAE passport is ranked 5(184 visa-free international locations), Saudi Arabia (88 visa-free international locations), 55 (87 visa-free international locations), Qatar (111 international locations), and Kuwait 50 (96 visa-free international locations).
The index ranks all of the world’s passports in response to the variety of locations their holders can entry with out a prior visa. Whereas a document variety of passports now cluster on the prime of the rating, these on the backside stay more and more remoted, underscoring a widening international mobility hole, in response to the report.
The ensuing 168-destination hole starkly illustrates the size of world mobility inequality in 2026 — a dramatic widening of the divide since 2006, when the distinction between the then top-ranking US passport and Afghanistan was solely 118 locations.
“A document variety of individuals are anticipated to journey in 2026. The unequivocal financial and social advantages generated by this journey develop because it turns into extra accessible. However whereas extra individuals have the financial freedom to journey, many nationalities are seeing {that a} passport alone is now not adequate to cross borders”, says IATA Director Basic Willie Walsh. “As many governments look to extra tightly safe their borders, technological advances equivalent to digital ID and digital passports shouldn’t be ignored by policymakers. Handy journey and safe borders are attainable.”
Japan and South Korea rank joint 2nd in 2026, every providing visa-free entry to 188 locations, reinforcing Asia’s long-standing management on the prime of the worldwide mobility rankings. Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland observe in third place with entry to 186 locations, forward of an unprecedented group of 10 European international locations tied for 4th.
The rest of the upper-tier passports proceed to underscore Europe’s dominance, with notable exceptions together with the UAE (fifth), New Zealand (sixth), Australia (seventh), Canada (eighth), and Malaysia (ninth).
