[OC]
I created a different method of calculating passport mobility scores that takes into account not only visa-free access, but also length of stay and type of visa required, unlike traditional indices which assign categorically zeros and ones for each destination.
The METHODOLOGY is the following:
- For each passport, for each visa jurisdiction with separate immigration systems, a score is calculated.
1b. This essentially means blocs like the Schengen are treated as one single cell, while oversea territories of States that maintain separate policies different from the systems for their mainlands are included individually (which are traditionally missing from a lot of these indices).
- If a visa is required, and no e-visa option is available, a score of -1 is assigned for a given destination. The idea here is to factor in the extra burden of paperwork and uncertainty, hence the penalty.
2b. If e-visa is required and is an option, a score of 1 is assigned.
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Visa-free, visa waived, visa on arrival, ETA, visitor cards and the like are lumped into a single category, and the maximum number of days per stay is the raw score for a given destination.
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A “duration score” for each visa jurisdiction is calculated for each passport by dividing the raw score by 365.
4b. For jurisdictions with rules like 90/rolling 180-day-period, I still used 365 as the denominator while keeping the numerator 90 as a way to penalize the inconvenience of having to depart and wait months to reset the clock.
- A composite score for each passport is calculated by adding up the individual duration scores for all destinations.
RESULTS:
So far I’ve only done it for the 5 passports I selected to examine.
Passport: Composite score
Germany: 47.8
US: 43.6
Canada: 38.4
Singapore: 37.5
China: 11.8
Interestingly, this method of calculating the passport index yields a ranking that’s very different from most traditional passport indices. The Singaporean one turns out to be significantly less powerful. Surprisingly, the US one did much better, even surpassing the Canadian and Singaporean ones which are almost always ranked above in indices that only look at categorical number of visa-free destinations.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and feel free to critique or suggest improvements for the methodology.
by jl808212