Arton Capital, a provider of residency and citizenship solutions, has launched the latest edition of its Passport Index – a ranking system that measures travel documents by the number of countries that can be visited without applying for a visa.

The index is timely because authorities in New Zealand announced earlier this month that South African visitors to New Zealand will have to apply for a visitor visa from the 21 November, due to incidents of counterfeit or fraudulent passports.

That would reduce the number of countries that SA citizens can travel to without a visa, to 90. Currently those people holding a green passport can access 60 countries visa-free, with an additional 31 countries operating a visa-on-arrival system.

Germany and Sweden top the global list of countries with the strongest passports – having access to 158 countries visa-free.

South Africa is ranked third in Africa, behind Seychelles (124 countries), and Mauritius (118 countries).

These are the countries South African passport holders can access without a visa:

Visa-free entry Antigua and Barbuda Fiji Lesotho Singapore Argentina Gabon Macao South Korea Bahamas Georgia Malawi St. Vincent and the Grenadines Barbados Grenada Malaysia Swaziland Belize Guatemala Mozambique Tanzania Benin Guyana Namibia Thailand Botswana Haiti New Zealand Trinidad and Tobago Brazil Honduras Nicaragua Tunisia Chile Hong Kong Palestinian Territories Uruguay Colombia Indonesia Panama Vanuatu Costa Rica Ireland Paraguay Venezuela Dominica Israel Peru Zambia Dominican Republic Jamaica Philippines Zimbabwe Ecuador Kenya Saint Kitts and Nevis El Salvador Kosovo Saint Lucia Visa on entry Armenia Guinea-Bissau Mauritania Seychelles Bolivia Iran Mauritius Tajikistan Burundi Jordan Micronesia Timor-Leste Cambodia Kyrgyzstan Nepal Togo Cape Verde Laos Oman Turkey Comoros Madagascar Palau Tuvalu Djibouti Maldives Rwanda Uganda Ethiopia Marshall Islands Samoa Electronic Travel Authority (eTA) entry India Sri Lanka

See the full list here

More on passports

The best countries to “buy” your way into dual citizenship

The world’s best and worst passports to own – including South Africa

The most powerful passports in the world