June Visa Updates

The past month has seen some very interesting visa agreement updates around the world. Below, we highlight the most interesting ones.

Effective June 1, 2017, citizens of China and Barbados may travel visa-free to each other’s countries. Barbados is only the 10th country worldwide to have a reciprocal visa agreement with China. The move is meant to boost tourism to Barbados and also increases China’s visa-free score to 57 from 56, and Barbados’ visa-free score to 135 from 134.

In addition, North Korea has ceased its visa-free agreement with Ecuador, meaning North Koreans will now need a visa to travel there. This decreases the country’s visa-free core to 38 from 39.

And as seen in the table below, Mauritius and Uruguay are opening up their borders to more countries. See the Passport Index Openness Ranking to learn more. One-way visa waivers are typically a show of goodwill. Of course, easier traveling opportunities can increase tourism to a country, which is perhaps what Mauritius and Uruguay are hoping for.

The Passport Index is the only real-time resource for visa-free scores and rankings.

*The above arrows indicate which way the visa waiver works. For example, North Koreans can no longer visit Ecuador visa-free. Citizens of China and Barbados can visit each other’s countries visa-free. And citizens of the UAE can now visit Argentina visa-free.