Travel documents
Visa-free regimes almost always depend on nationality and an ordinary national passport. With any other document the rules can be completely different.
Ordinary passport
The main travel document. 'Visa-free for citizens of X' almost always means a citizen of X with an ordinary passport of X. Validity matters: many countries require the passport to be valid 3–6 months beyond departure — the checker takes this into account.
Diplomatic and service passports
Separate agreements apply: sometimes visa-free where an ordinary passport needs a visa, sometimes the other way round. Usually meant for official travel only.
Emergency passport
Issued by a consulate to replace a lost passport, usually to get home. Many countries do not accept it for visa-free entry (e.g. Taiwan and Kuwait) — expect to need a visa.
Refugee travel document
Titre de voyage pour réfugié in France, the 'blue passport' (Reiseausweis für Flüchtlinge) in Germany, the Convention travel document in the UK. Issued by the country that granted asylum. Your nationality's visa-free access does not apply to it, and it cannot be used to travel to your country of nationality.
Details and list of countries →Stateless person's travel document
Issued to recognised stateless persons under the 1954 Convention (titre de voyage pour apatride in France). The rules resemble the refugee document: countries look at the issuing country and your residence permit, not at nationality.
Details and list of countries →Titre d'identité et de voyage (TIV)
A French document for foreigners who cannot obtain a passport from their own country — most often subsidiary protection holders. Germany's equivalent is the Reiseausweis für Ausländer ('grey passport'). It is not a passport: visa-free access by nationality usually does not apply.
Details and list of countries →Visa, residence permit and permanent residence — the difference
A visa is permission to enter and stay for a set period. Short-stay (Schengen type C) is for tourism and trips of up to 90 days; long-stay or national (Schengen type D) is for study, work or moving.
A residence permit (titre de séjour) is the right to live in a country. It is not a travel document: you travel with it together with your passport or titre de voyage.
Permanent residence — e.g. the carte de résident in France or the US green card. It usually gives everything a residence permit does, sometimes more.
A residence permit or national D visa of one Schengen country lets you travel across the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180 — with a passport or with a travel document issued by the same country.
Which residence permits and visas open other countries
Many countries waive or simplify visas for holders of a residence permit or visa from Schengen, the US, the UK and some other countries. Below is how many countries in our database give such a benefit; each page has the full list with conditions.
- Schengen area36 destinations with a benefit
- United Kingdom26 destinations with a benefit
- United States34 destinations with a benefit
- Canada23 destinations with a benefit
- Japan9 destinations with a benefit
- Australia11 destinations with a benefit
- New Zealand7 destinations with a benefit
- Ireland5 destinations with a benefit
- South Korea4 destinations with a benefit
- Singapore1 destination with a benefit
- Gulf states (GCC)5 destinations with a benefit
- Cyprus2 destinations with a benefit
Things to watch
- These benefits almost always have conditions: the visa must be multiple-entry, already used, or valid for some time after entry; the permit must be valid for the whole trip. We show each country's conditions in every answer.
- A permit- or visa-based benefit often applies only to some nationalities — for example, only to those who would otherwise need a visa. Check your own case in the checker.
- An e-visa or a permit renewal receipt (récépissé) is often not enough: many countries accept only a visa sticker or a residence permit card.
- Airlines check documents before boarding using their own databases. If their answer differs from ours, rely on the country's official site and written confirmation from the embassy.