{"id":380,"date":"2026-04-26T17:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/?p=380"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:42:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:42:02","slug":"sri-lankas-passport-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/2026\/04\/26\/sri-lankas-passport-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan Passport Ranked 93rd in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For many Sri Lankans, passport strength is not defined by rankings alone, but by real-life experiences\u2014long waits at embassies, rejected visa applications, and missed opportunities due to delays.<\/p>\n<p>In 2026, Sri Lanka\u2019s passport ranks <strong>93rd<\/strong> on the Henley Passport Index, offering visa-free or simplified access to <strong>39 destinations<\/strong>. While this marks an improvement compared to recent years, it still reflects a significant decline from earlier decades.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>What the Index Measures \ud83d\udcca<\/h3>\n<p>The Henley Passport Index is based on data from the International Air Transport Association and evaluates <strong>199 passports across 227 destinations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It essentially measures how freely citizens can travel without prior visa approvals. A lower ranking indicates greater difficulty\u2014more documentation, stricter scrutiny, and longer waiting periods.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Two Decades of Decline \ud83d\udcc9<\/h3>\n<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s current position is the result of a long-term downward trend:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>2006<\/strong> \u2013 Ranked 74th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2007<\/strong> \u2013 76th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2008\u20132009<\/strong> \u2013 79th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2010<\/strong> \u2013 84th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2011<\/strong> \u2013 92nd<\/li>\n<li><strong>2012<\/strong> \u2013 96th<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Despite the end of the civil war, the decline continued.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>2013\u20132014<\/strong> \u2013 Brief recovery to 88th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2015<\/strong> \u2013 Sharp drop to 101st<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the following years, rankings fluctuated without major improvement:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>2016\u20132017<\/strong> \u2013 95th\u201396th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2018<\/strong> \u2013 99th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2019<\/strong> \u2013 96th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2020<\/strong> \u2013 97th<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The lowest point came in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>2021<\/strong> \u2013 107th<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This coincided with Sri Lanka\u2019s economic crisis, foreign exchange shortages, and increased migration pressures.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Gradual Recovery \ud83d\udcc8<\/h3>\n<p>Since then, the country has seen a slow improvement:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>2022<\/strong> \u2013 102nd<\/li>\n<li><strong>2023<\/strong> \u2013 100th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2024\u20132025<\/strong> \u2013 96th<\/li>\n<li><strong>2026<\/strong> \u2013 93rd<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This marks the strongest position in nearly a decade\u2014but still well below earlier levels.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For many Sri Lankans, passport strength is not defined by rankings alone, but by real-life experiences\u2014long waits at embassies, rejected visa applications, and missed opportunities due to delays. In 2026, Sri Lanka\u2019s passport ranks 93rd on the Henley Passport Index, offering visa-free or simplified access to 39 destinations. While this marks an improvement compared to &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}