Belgium still issues one of the world’s most powerful passports, but the latest **Passport Reports** index published on 23 September 2026 shows the kingdom dropping two positions—from fourth to sixth—over the past year. The Belgian travel document now carries a global mobility score of 173, giving its holders visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 87.4 % of the 199 destinations surveyed. The fall is largely statistical rather than political: other countries, notably Malaysia and Luxembourg, added new visa-waiver agreements in 2026, nudging Belgium down the table even though its own access rights remained unchanged. Within Europe, Belgium now ranks third behind Spain and Luxembourg. For internationally active companies headquartered in Brussels, Antwerp or Ghent, the shift has little immediate operational impact—Belgian employees can still enter all 46 European states without advance visas and have 100 % access to North and South America and the Gulf. However, the index flags pockets of reduced convenience in Africa (72.2 % visa-free coverage) and Central Asia (80 %), regions where Belgian multinationals in mining, logistics and pharmaceuticals are expanding. Mobility teams should continue to schedule blank-visa lead times—typically 15 to 20 working days—for markets such as Nigeria, Angola and Uzbekistan. The report also foreshadows the start of the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) and ETIAS travel authorisation in late-2026. Once operational, Belgians travelling to non-EU states such as the United Kingdom, Canada or Qatar will require electronic travel authorisations, a procedural change that companies should build into pre-trip checklists and traveller-training modules. Finally, the publicity around the ranking has rekindled domestic debate about **dual nationality**. The federation currently allows dual citizenship, and the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed this week that there are no plans to tighten naturalisation pathways. That assurance is significant for foreign executives who obtain Belgian nationality for EU-wide mobility but wish to keep their original passports.
Source: The Brussels Times
