Where the passport genuinely takes you, what the EU decision changed, and why most published numbers are out of date.
Visa-free access is the single most quoted figure in citizenship marketing, and the one most often out of date. For Vanuatu it matters more than usual, because the two most significant changes of recent years both went against the passport.
This page sets out what the document actually delivers today, where the commonly quoted numbers come from, and how to check the routes that matter to you.
Current passport indices place Vanuatu at roughly 87 to 88 destinations reachable without a visa obtained in advance. That figure combines three different things: true visa-free entry, visa on arrival, and electronic travel authorisations. A list counting only the first is shorter.
Figures above 90 still circulate widely. They pre-date the loss of Schengen access and should be treated as marketing rather than data.
Two consequences follow. First, any number that still includes the Schengen Area is out of date. Second, the count says nothing about how long you may stay or what you may do — see how passport rankings are built.
The European Union withdrew visa-free access for Vanuatu passport holders permanently. Regulation (EU) 2025/11 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2024, published in the Official Journal on 14 January 2025, moved Vanuatu from Annex II to Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 — the list of countries whose nationals require a visa. The requirement applies from 3 February 2025. A Vanuatu passport now needs a Schengen visa, applied for in the ordinary way.
This was not a technicality: it followed EU concerns about the due diligence applied under the citizenship programme. Any adviser still presenting Schengen access as a benefit of the Vanuatu passport is either working from old material or is not being straight with you.
The United Kingdom also requires a visa from Vanuatu passport holders.
These are the destinations a Vanuatu passport enters with no visa applied for beforehand. Stated stays are the maximum normally granted to a tourist; entry is always at the discretion of the border officer. Checked September 2026.
Hong Kong (90 days) · Singapore (30) · Malaysia (30) · Philippines (30) · Fiji (120) · Kiribati (90) · Micronesia (30) · Cook Islands (31) · Niue (30)
Antigua and Barbuda (180 days) · Bahamas (90) · Barbados (180) · Dominica (6 months) · Dominican Republic (30) · Grenada (90) · Haiti (90) · Jamaica · Saint Lucia (6 weeks) · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1 month) · Trinidad and Tobago
Belize · Costa Rica (30 days) · Ecuador (90) · El Salvador (90) · Guatemala (90) · Honduras (90) · Nicaragua (90) · Panama (90) · Peru (180)
Angola (30 days) · Botswana (90) · Eswatini (30) · Gambia (90) · Lesotho (90) · Mauritius (90) · Rwanda (30) · Tanzania (90) · Uganda (90) · Zambia (90) · Zimbabwe (90)
Russia (90 days) · Belarus (30) · Moldova (90) · Montenegro (90) · Bosnia and Herzegovina (90)
No EU or Schengen state appears on this list, and none has since 4 February 2023 — that is the date Council Decision (EU) 2022/2198 fully suspended the visa-waiver agreement, having been preceded by a partial suspension in March 2022. Regulation (EU) 2025/11 then made the visa requirement permanent from 3 February 2025. Lists still showing Schengen access for this passport are three years out of date, not one.
Here a visa is required, but it is issued at the airport against a fee. Carry the fee in cash and the usual supporting documents — a return ticket and an address — because the visa can be refused at the counter.
Cape Verde (30 days) · Burundi (30) · Comoros (45) · Egypt (30) · Guinea-Bissau (90) · Maldives (30) · Marshall Islands (90) · Nauru (90) · Palau (30) · Samoa (60) · Senegal (30) · Seychelles (3 months) · Solomon Islands (45) · Timor-Leste (30) · Tonga (31) · Tuvalu (30)
A large further group of countries issues Vanuatu passport holders an electronic visa. These are routinely folded into "visa-free" totals, and they should not be. An eVisa is a visa: it is applied for in advance, it is paid for, it can be refused, and it is decided by the same authorities that decide any other visa.
The group includes several destinations people most often ask about — India, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Jordan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Colombia and Bolivia. Useful access, but not the kind you can rely on at short notice.
Between the two sits the travel authorisation: no visa, but an online registration and a fee before departure. Israel (ETA-IL, 90 days), Kenya (which replaced visas with an authorisation in 2024), Sri Lanka and Saint Kitts and Nevis (90 days) work this way. Cheap and quick, but it is still something you must do before boarding.
The French Pacific collectivities — New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna — admit Vanuatu passport holders without a visa for short stays and are among the most relevant destinations for anyone based in the region. They run their own entry rules and are not part of the Schengen area, so the EU change did not close them. The EU outermost regions that use the Schengen list — Réunion, Mayotte, French Guiana — are a different case and should be checked directly.
And the United Kingdom requires an ordinary visa from Vanuatu passport holders, as does Japan. Neither belongs in any visa-free count.
For someone whose travel is concentrated in the Pacific, the Caribbean and parts of Africa, this is a genuinely useful document, and Hong Kong and Singapore make it workable for regional business and banking. For someone whose business is in Europe, North America or the Gulf, it is not, and we say so before any fee is discussed.
The lists above are a starting point and carry a date for a reason. Before you book:
We maintain the working list for clients and check the specific routes that matter to them as part of the consultation. The programme detail is on programs and pricing.
Send us the destinations you actually travel to. We will check each against the current rules and tell you honestly whether this passport helps.