Where the Passport Is Accepted

A Vanuatu passport once offered impressive mobility. Now? It provides visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 88 countries, mostly in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Its real value has been hammered by losing visa-free access to the UK (since July 2023) and the entire EU Schengen Area (suspended since May 2022). Having guided hundreds of high-net-worth clients through these exact citizenship applications, we’ve seen the landscape of global mobility shift under our feet, and we bring that clarity to the table.

Vanuatu Development Support Programme (DSP) - Vanuatu's main legal pathway to citizenship by investment, created under the Citizenship Act [Cap 112]. Applicants make a substantial, non-refundable contribution to a government fund and, once due diligence is passed, receive citizenship and a passport.

Visa-Waiver Agreement - A reciprocal arrangement between two countries that allows their citizens to travel to each other's territory for short stays (typically up to 90 days in any 180-day period) without needing to obtain a visa beforehand. The suspension of such an agreement re-imposes visa requirements.

The Shifting Landscape of Vanuatu's Visa-Free Access: What Investors Must Know First

The worth of a passport is measured by one thing: access. Real-world access. For Vanuatu, this has changed dramatically, and understanding these shifts is the most critical first step for any potential investor. The passport simply isn't what it was before 2022. Your decision must be based on the current, more restrictive reality.

The problem comes from international scrutiny of Vanuatu's fast-track citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programmes. This scrutiny led to direct action from key jurisdictions, altering the travel freedom for every single Vanuatu passport holder.

• United Kingdom Access Withdrawn: As of 19 July 2023, the UK government cut Vanuatu from its list of visa-free countries. All Vanuatu citizens, including investors, now need a Standard Visitor Visa to enter the UK. This decision was explicitly based on concerns about the due diligence process within Vanuatu's CBI programmes.
• European Union Access Suspended: The EU Council fully suspended its visa-waiver agreement with Vanuatu, effective 4 May 2022. This action, taken under Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, was meant to be temporary but has been extended. The legal grounds, detailed in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/693, cite "serious deficiencies and security risks." For you, this means travel to the 29-country Schengen Area now requires a pre-arranged visa, a process that can take weeks and adds significant uncertainty to any travel plans.
• Why? Security Concerns: Both the UK and EU were transparent, linking their decisions directly to the operational standards of Vanuatu's CBI schemes. They pointed to the speed of processing, the lack of a physical residency rule, and how applicants were vetted. This signals a clear trend toward stricter oversight of all CBI programmes. The lesson for investors is that choosing a programme with robust, transparent due diligence is no longer a "nice-to-have"—it's essential for long-term security.

How to Obtain Vanuatu Citizenship: The Legal Process and Your First Steps

Even with the visa-access changes, Vanuatu's citizenship programme remains short by the standards of citizenship programmes, with the caveat that the Commission publishes no service standard. Its legal foundation is the country's Citizenship Act [Cap 112], and the Development Support Programme (DSP) is the primary route for almost all investors. While an alternative called the Capital Investment Immigration Plan (CIIP) exists, mixing a contribution with a redeemable investment, the DSP is far more common.

The process is relatively short, but that doesn't mean it lacks rigour. Here is the step-by-step legal pathway:

1. Initial Consultation and Pre-Screening: Everything begins with engaging a firm like ours. We run a confidential pre-screening to spot potential red flags early. The biggest mistake clients make is underestimating this step; a simple undisclosed past business dispute or a minor civil issue can derail the entire application, costing you the non-refundable due diligence fee.
2. Document Collation and Application Submission: Next, we help you gather every required document—birth certificates, police clearance certificates from your country of origin and residence, and financial statements. We then submit the completed application for you.
3. Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Due Diligence: Upon

Reading the Number Correctly

Quoted totals for this passport range from the high eighties to a hundred and thirty, and the spread is not carelessness — it comes from three conventions that different publishers apply differently.

Walking in versus queuing on arrival. A destination where you present a passport and enter is not the same as one where you complete a form, pay and wait for an officer's decision. Most totals, including the figure of 88 used here, combine the two. Treating that as 88 places you simply walk into would overstate it.

Electronic authorisations. Several countries require an approved travel authorisation before boarding. Some publishers count that as visa-free because no consulate is involved; others exclude it. The same document therefore produces two honest and different totals.

The date the list was compiled. This is the decisive one. Figures above a hundred and twenty were accurate while European and British access existed. The European Union completed its suspension on 4 February 2023; the United Kingdom added Vanuatu to its visa national list on 19 July 2023. A list including European capitals is a list from before those dates, and a great many of them remain online unamended.

What the 2023 Withdrawals Actually Cost

For European travel, the practical effect is an ordinary visa application: appointment, supporting documents, fee, and a decision that may go against you. For anyone who acquired the passport expecting European mobility, the instrument no longer performs the function it was bought for, and no amount of reframing changes that.

What survives untouched is everything outside Europe. Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia remain open, as does Russia; so does much of the Caribbean, the Pacific and a broad set of African and Latin American destinations. Whether that constitutes a useful passport depends entirely on where you travel, which is a better question than the headline total and one almost nobody asks.

Where This Passport Genuinely Helps

The clearest case is someone whose existing passport is weak or politically encumbered and whose travel is regional rather than European. For them the Vanuatu document removes a meaningful amount of friction — Asian business hubs in particular become straightforward where they previously required applications weeks in advance.

The weakest case is someone holding an EU or similarly strong passport already. For them the addition is close to nil in travel terms, and the reasons for acquiring a second nationality lie elsewhere — in contingency planning rather than in mobility.

Verify before booking, not after

Entry requirements belong to each destination and change without notice, sometimes for reasons unrelated to Vanuatu. Anything on this page describes the position when it was written. The authority that will actually admit you is the destination's own immigration service, and for a trip already paid for it is the only source worth consulting.

Destinations Open Without a Prior Visa

The tables below cover every destination a Vanuatu passport reaches with no visa arranged in advance, split by the route to admission. The 88 appearing in rankings brings together 55 visa-free destinations, 26 granting a visa at the border and 7 partially recognised territories, listed separately at the end. Stay lengths are those published and are fixed by each destination.

Visa-free entry

Entry against the passport, with nothing filed in advance and nothing to pay.

Africa (11)

Destination	Permitted stay
Angola	30 days
Botswana	90 days
Eswatini	30 days
Gambia	90 days
Lesotho	90 days
Mauritius	90 days
Rwanda	30 days
Tanzania	90 days
Uganda	90 days
Zambia	90 days
Zimbabwe	90 days

The Americas and the Caribbean (17)

Destination	Permitted stay
Antigua and Barbuda	180 days
Bahamas	90 days
Barbados	180 days
Belize	—
Costa Rica	30 days
Dominican Republic	30 days
Ecuador	90 days
El Salvador	90 days
Grenada	90 days
Guatemala	90 days
Haiti	90 days
Honduras	90 days
Jamaica	—
Nicaragua	90 days
Panama	90 days
Peru	180 days
Trinidad and Tobago	—

Asia and the Pacific (7)

Destination	Permitted stay
Fiji	120 days
Hong Kong	90 days
Kiribati	90 days
Malaysia	30 days
Micronesia	30 days
Philippines	30 days
Singapore	30 days

Europe (5)

Destination	Permitted stay
Belarus	30 days
Bosnia and Herzegovina	90 days
Moldova	90 days / 180
Montenegro	90 days
Russia	90 days per calendar year

Territories (15)

Destination	Permitted stay
Anguilla	3 months
Bermuda	—
British Virgin Islands	—
Cayman Islands	—
Cook Islands	31 days
French Guiana	—
French Polynesia	—
Gibraltar	—
Montserrat	—
New Caledonia	—
Niue	30 days
Pitcairn Islands	14 days, landing fee
Réunion	—
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	—
Wallis and Futuna	3 months

Visa on arrival

A visa is issued on arrival once the passport is presented. A fee is usual and some destinations ask for onward travel or accommodation details. Convenient, certainly, but admission is still being decided at the border rather than before you leave.

Africa (6)

Destination	Permitted stay
Burundi	30 days
Cape Verde	30 days
Comoros	45 days
Egypt	30 days
Senegal	30 days
Seychelles	3 months

Asia and the Pacific (10)

Destination	Permitted stay
Macau	—
Maldives	30 days
Marshall Islands	90 days
Nauru	90 days
Palau	30 days
Samoa	60 days
Solomon Islands	45 days
Timor-Leste	30 days
Tonga	31 days
Tuvalu	30 days

Both eVisa and visa on arrival (10)

Destination	Permitted stay
Bolivia	90 days
Cambodia	30 days
Guinea-Bissau	90 days
Laos	30 days
Madagascar	90 days
Malawi	30 days
Mozambique	30 days
Nepal	90 days
Sierra Leone	30 days
Thailand	15–30 days

Partially recognised territories

They count towards the ranking figure, so they appear here. Conditions on several of them make the access look better on paper than it is in practice.

Territory	Access and conditions
Kosovo	visa free, 90 days
Northern Cyprus	visa free
Palestine	visa free
Akrotiri and Dhekelia	visa-free, though more than 28 days in any 12-month span calls for a permit
South Ossetia	exempt, but only with a multiple-entry Russian visa and three days' prior notice
Transnistria	visa free; registration required after 24 hours
Somaliland	visa on arrival, 30 days, US$30

Electronic visa — not visa-free

Another 40 destinations issue electronic visas to Vanuatu citizens. An eVisa involves an application, a payment and a decision, simply made online, so it falls outside the 88. Adding them in is how higher totals for this passport are generally assembled.

Africa (16)

Libya, Gabon, Benin, Kenya, Chad, Togo, Namibia, Guinea, Nigeria, Djibouti, Cameroon, Liberia, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

.

Asia (20)

Uzbekistan, Israel, Bhutan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Georgia, Pakistan, Qatar, Vietnam, Jordan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Iraq, Mongolia, Bahrain, India, Syria and Kazakhstan

.

Europe and the Americas (4)

Albania, Colombia, Cuba, Ukraine

.

Where a Visa Has to Be Applied For

The destinations absent from the list usually matter more than those present, and two of them left it recently.

Schengen Area. Visa-free travel stopped when the waiver was suspended in full on 4 February 2023. It was settled for good by Regulation (EU) 2025/11, signed 19 December 2024, under which Vanuatu has appeared in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 since 3 February 2025. A visa is needed.

The United Kingdom. Holders need a visa. Appendix Visitor to the Immigration Rules has listed Vanuatu among visa nationals since 19 July 2023.

China, Japan, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Visa needed for every one. Vanuatu passports have never had visa-free access to any of them.

Each destination sets and alters its own entry rules without notice. The above was correct at the time of writing; check with the immigration authority concerned before booking travel.