Visa requirements for citizens of the Holy See

Citizens of the Holy See can enter all 29 Schengen states without a visa, for up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole area.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, the Holy See and 81 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

12 countries ask holders of the passport of the Holy See for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter the Holy See without one: Barbados, Brunei, Japan, Kiribati, Mexico and 7 others.

The reverse holds for 54 countries: holders of the passport of the Holy See get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for the Holy See (Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus and 49 others).

33 countries ask holders of the passport of the Holy See for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 0 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in the Holy See.

33 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in the Holy See, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for the Holy See, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Italy (22), France (2), the United Kingdom (2) and Belgium (2).

The United States refused 0% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of the Holy See in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 0 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 194 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the passport of the Holy See

By continent, the passport of the Holy See is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 22 countries in the Americas, 14 countries in Asia, 10 countries in Africa and 3 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for citizens of the Holy See are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days), Peru (180 days) and El Salvador (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Citizens of the Holy See can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 27 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how citizens of the Holy See enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 23 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 3 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

The Holy See’s neighbours

Italy admits citizens of the Holy See without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Italian passport ranks 6th (161 destinations).