Visa requirements for Icelandic citizens

Iceland belongs to the European free movement area, so Icelandic citizens need no visa anywhere in the Schengen area and can use a national ID card.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Iceland and 93 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).

No country asks holders of the Icelandic passport for a visa beforehand while its own citizens enter Iceland without one.

The reverse holds for 62 countries: holders of the Icelandic passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Iceland (Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus and 57 others).

14 countries ask holders of the Icelandic passport 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 Iceland.

14 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Iceland, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Iceland, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in the United Kingdom (6) and Norway (2).

The United States refused 5.4% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Iceland in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 10 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 186 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Icelandic passport

By continent, the Icelandic passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 29 countries in the Americas, 21 countries in Asia, 12 countries in Africa and 7 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Icelandic citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), the Bahamas (240 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days) and Mexico (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Icelandic citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 26 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Icelandic citizens enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 22 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 4 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

How the passport compares

Of the 198 passports in the data, 93 can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Iceland.