I never heard about passport index rankings until I actually started traveling.
When I was in Mongolia, I shared a breakfast table with two girls from Croatia and Italy and began sharing our visa experiences. I told them that my visa application had just been rejected by the United States and said how frustrating it feels sometimes to have a weak passport. Both of them are surprised because they simply need to file an electronic travel authorization to enter the US, and are allowed to enter without any document in many countries.
I did not know that’s the reality for some countries. Welcome to the world of weak passport holders, folks.
What Does it Mean to Have a Weak Passport?
Although my visa rejection hit me hard initially, I am grateful it happened because it also gave birth to my social media and blog content: “the girl who travels to one visa-free country at a time.” I now share my visa and travel experiences, frustrations, and wins, with hopes of making people realize that:
Having a weak passport is a challenge, but it should never be a reason not to travel.
Traveling with a weak passport means you have to prepare documents such as payslips, income tax returns, bank statements, business permits, land titles, and other supporting documents when applying for a visa. This is the default when visiting Schengen countries, Australia, New Zealand, and others.
You could easily sum to hundreds of pages of documents just for a single visa application to prove your ties to the home country. And, if you’re not “in luck,” or, if I were to phrase is more correctly, that the visa officer saw a fault in your application such as a potential to overstay or not having enough cash to fund the entire duration of the trip, your hundred-page document will not amount to anything but a visa rejection slip a.k.a the famous “blue paper” of the United States.
Weak Passport, Economy, and Diplomatic Ties
While writing this blog, I managed to take note of a few of my personal observations with the Passport Mobility Index. For example, Oman is considered an economically wealthy country, thanks to its oil and gas reserves, but an Omani passport’s mobility score is not very high compared to the Philippines. Whereas its neighboring country, the United Arab Emirates passport, is high up there, brushing elbows with strong passports like Singapore and Japan.
With this, a passport mobility score is not just about how wealthy the country is, but a whole lot of different factors such as diplomatic influence, bilateral relations, and illegal migration rates, among other things.
How to Travel with a Weak Passport?
So, how do you travel with a weak passport? Before I share the top four strategies that worked for me, I want to be upfront: I’ve only visited 20 countries. This means my insights may not cover everything, but I’ll be sure to update as I gain more experience.
- Travel to Visa Free Destinations
If you’re new to traveling, the best way to travel with a weak passport is to build your credibility slowly – but surely. One thing I did is traveling to countries near the Philippines that do not require us for a visa. Some of the neighboring countries that Philippine passports can visit visa-free are Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Indonesia.
I was initially upset that my US visa application got denied. But I realized that the world is HUGE and there are more than 30 countries that I can visit as a Filipino citizen that do not require a visa. In fact, this is why I visited Mongolia and Kazakhstan. These countries are visa-free for Philippine passport holders and are absolutely worth discovering. If you’re planning to visit Mongolia in the future, make sure to check out my full travel guide for this beautiful country.
A key reminder is to check the maximum stay allowed in your destination without a visa and strictly follow the regulations. Your travel history serves as a record of your credibility. This means that overstaying, even once, can remain on your record for a long time and may affect future travel opportunities.
- Apply for Countries with Visa But with High Approval Rate
Having a weak passport does require quite some work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t travel to countries with a visa. For example, Japan is known to be generous in awarding tourist visas to Filipino travelers as of the moment. This is a good opportunity to visit the country while rules are relaxed because things can change very fast.
After visiting quite a number of visa-free destinations, I applied for my Japan visa and had been granted a single-entry visa with a 15-day validity. One good thing about securing an approval from a visa country is that it significantly steps up your credibility score. From there, you can shoot for bigger stars.
After the approval of my Japanese visa, I applied for a Schengen visa. One thing I like about Schengen visa application is transparency. Requirements are clearly indicated on every country’s website, including the daily budget required for the visit. They also have quite a high approval rate for tourist visas.
- Shoot for the Stars: Get that US Visa
I might have been too delusional to attempt to apply for a US visa, but when Canada released a statement of allowing Filipinos holding a US non-immigrant visa to visit the country with only an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), the idea of getting a US visa completely felt like a sweet deal.
This is not only because I can visit the United States and Canada with only one mighty visa but I can also visit a good number of South and Central American countries which I’ve been longing to see. Here are some of the countries you can visit with a United States visa as a Philippine passport holder.
So, shoot for the biggest star I tell you. I might have been rejected, but who knows your luck if you haven’t tried, right?
- Maximize e-Visa and Visa on Arrival (VOA) Destinations
Aside from visa-free destinations, countries that require only electronic visas (e-visa) or those that give out Visa on Arrivals (VoA) are a hidden gem. Aside from the fact that they have lesser requirements, there’s a high approval rate.
For example, when I applied for an electronic visa for Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, I was surprised at how straightforward the entire process was. There are a good number of countries that require only electronic visas for Filipinos, so make sure to keep your eye on those.
Keep Exploring!
Traveling with a weak passport may come with a share of hurdles, rejections, and triumphs, but it should never stop you from seeing more of the world. After all, a Filipina has recently traveled to all the countries in the world! This says a lot, right?
So keep exploring, keep applying, and keep finding ways to make your travel dreams a reality. After all, the world is far too big to let a single rejection or a long list of visa requirements hold you back.
Safe travels!
