Visa requirements for British citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of the United Kingdom. As of 13 February 2018, British citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 177 countries and territories, ranking the British passport 4th in terms of travel freedom (tied with Austrian, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Norwegian and Portuguese passports) according to the Henley Passport Index. Additionally, the World Tourism Organization also published a report on 15 January 2016 ranking the British passport 1st in the world (tied with Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Singapore) in terms of travel freedom, with a mobility index of 160 (out of 215 with no visa weighted by 1, visa on arrival weighted by 0.7, eVisa by 0.5, and traditional visa weighted by 0).
Visa requirements for other classes of British nationals such as British Nationals (Overseas), British Overseas Citizens, British Overseas Territories Citizens, British Protected Persons or British Subjects are different.
Video Visa requirements for British citizens
History
Visa requirements for British citizens were lifted by some European nations following World War II. The following list shows when countries abolished visa restrictions for British citizens: France (1 January 1947), Belgium (15 February 1947), Luxembourg (15 February 1947), Norway (1 March 1947), Denmark (22 March 1947), Sweden (1 April 1947), Netherlands (15 April 1947), Switzerland (24 June 1947), Liechtenstein (24 June 1947), Iceland (1 July 1947), Italy (1 January 1948), Monaco (8 November 1948), Austria (15 May 1955), Paraguay (27 November 1966), United States (1 July 1988), Poland (1 July 1992), Bulgaria (March 1997), Romania (1 January 2001), Serbia and Montenegro (31 May 2003), Ukraine (1 May 2005), Georgia (1 June 2006), Moldova (1 January 2007), Kyrgyzstan (27 July 2012), Armenia (10 January 2013), Kazakhstan (15 July 2014), Indonesia (13 June 2015), Vietnam (1 July 2015) and Belarus (12 February 2017).
Electronic visas for British citizens were introduced: India (15 August 2015) and Djibouti (18 February 2018).
Visas on arrival were discontinued for British citizens by Mali (March 2015) and Malawi (1 October 2015).
Maps Visa requirements for British citizens
Visa requirements map
Visa requirements
British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories
Territories and disputed areas
Non-ordinary passports
Holders of various categories of official British passports have additional visa-free access to the following countries - China (diplomatic passports), Kuwait (diplomatic or official passports), Mongolia (diplomatic or official passports), Qatar (diplomatic or official passports and British Diplomatic Messenger or Queen's Messenger Passports) and the United Arab Emirates (diplomatic or official passports). Holders of diplomatic or service passports of any country have visa-free access to Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe. Holders of British official and diplomatic passports require a visa for South Africa.
Non-visa restrictions
Passport validity length
Many countries require passports to be valid for at least 6 months upon arrival. Note that some nations have bilateral agreements with other countries to shorten the passport validity cut-off period for each other's citizens.
Countries requiring passports to be valid at least 6 months on arrival include Afghanistan, Algeria, Anguilla, Bahrain, Bhutan, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq (except when arriving at Basra and Erbil or Sulaimaniyah), Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Somaliland, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
Countries requiring passports valid for at least 4 months on arrival include Micronesia and Zambia.
Countries requiring passports valid for at least 3 months on arrival include European Union countries (except Denmark, Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and except for EU/EEA/Swiss citizens), Albania, Belarus, Georgia, Honduras, Iceland, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Nauru, Panama, Saint Barthélemy, San Marino, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
Bermuda requires passports to be valid for at least 45 days upon entry.
Countries that require a passport validity of at least 1 month on arrival include Eritrea, Hong Kong, Macao, New Zealand and South Africa.
Other countries require either a passport valid on arrival or a passport valid throughout the period of the intended stay.
Blank passport pages
Many countries require a minimum number of blank pages in the passport being presented, generally one or two pages. Endorsement pages which oftentimes appear after the visa pages are not counted.
Vaccination
Many African countries, including Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia require all incoming passengers to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination.
Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area.
Israeli stamps
Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen do not allow entry to people with passport stamps from Israel or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa, or where there is evidence of previous travel to Israel such as entry or exit stamps from neighbouring border posts in transit countries such as Jordan and Egypt.
To circumvent this Arab League boycott of Israel, the Israeli immigration services have now mostly ceased to stamp foreign nationals' passports on either entry to or exit from Israel. Since 15 January 2013, Israel no longer stamps foreign passports at Ben Gurion Airport, giving passengers a card instead: "Since January 2013 a pilot scheme has been introduced whereby visitors are given an entry card instead of an entry stamp on arrival. You should keep this card with your passport until you leave. This is evidence of your legal entry into Israel and may be required, particularly at any crossing points into the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Passports are still (as of 22 June 2017) stamped at Erez when travelling into and out of Gaza. Also, passports are still stamped (as of 22 June 2017) at the Jordan Valley/Sheikh Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin/Arava land borders with Jordan.
- Iran: Admission is refused for holders of passports containing an Israeli visa/stamp in the last 12 months
Armenian ethnicity
Due to a state of war existing between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the government of Azerbaijan not only bans entry of citizens from Armenia, but also all citizens and nationals of any other country who are of Armenian descent, to the Republic of Azerbaijan (although there have been exceptions, notably for Armenia's participation at the 2015 European Games held in Azerbaijan).
Azerbaijan also strictly bans any visit by foreign citizens to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh (the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh), its surrounding territories and the Azerbaijani exclaves of Karki, Yuxar? ?skipara, Barxudarl? and Sofulu which are de jure part of Azerbaijan but under control of Armenia, without the prior consent of the government of Azerbaijan. Foreign citizens who enter these occupied territories will be permanently banned from entering the Republic of Azerbaijan and will be included in their "list of personae non gratae". As of late 2017 the list contains 699 persons.
Upon request, the Republic of Artsakh authorities may attach their visa and/or stamps to a separate piece of paper in order to avoid detection of travel to their country.
Persona non grata
The government of a country can declare a diplomat persona non grata, banning their entry into that country. In non-diplomatic use, the authorities of a country may also declare a foreigner persona non grata permanently or temporarily, usually because of unlawful activity. Attempts to enter the Gaza strip by sea may attract a 10-year ban on entering Israel.
Fingerprinting
Several countries including Argentina, Brunei, Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States demand all travellers, or all foreign travellers, to be fingerprinted on arrival.
Criminal record
Some countries (for example, Canada and the United States) routinely deny entry to non-citizens who have a criminal record.
Right to consular protection in non-EU countries
When in a non-EU country where there is no British embassy, British citizens, like all other EU citizens, have the right to get consular protection from the embassy of any other EU country present in that country.
See also List of diplomatic missions of the United Kingdom.
Travel impact of Brexit
On 23 June 2016, the British electorate voted to leave the European Union in a nationwide referendum in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar. The UK sent notification of their intention to leave the EU to the European Council through Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. After notifying the European Council, the UK has two years to negotiate with other member states until it leaves, and British citizens will only then cease to be citizens of the European Union. British citizens will still have the right of freedom of movement until the UK formally leaves. It has since been suggested that British citizens wishing to travel to EU countries may have to apply for a visa or apply online for an American style ESTA visa waiver and pay a fee in order to enter the country of destination.
This issue will be a major topic of discussions taking place between the British government and all leaders of the 27 European Union countries during the two-year-long Brexit negotiations.
Fingerprinting
Several countries including Argentina, Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United States demand all adult passengers (age varies by country) to be fingerprinted on arrival.
Foreign travel statistics
According to the Foreign travel advice provided by the British Government (unless otherwise noted) these are the numbers of British visitors to various countries per annum in 2015 (unless otherwise noted):
See also
- Visa requirements for the European Union citizens
- British passport
- British National (Overseas) passport
- British nationality law
- Visa requirements for British Nationals (Overseas)
- Visa requirements for British Overseas Citizens
- Visa requirements for British Overseas Territories Citizens
- Visa policy of the United Kingdom
References and Notes
- References
- Notes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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