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Comment by kiiski | Hacker News Reader

This seems to only consider the number of countries one can travel to without a visa as a tourist. So it doesn't consider the ability to move to or work/study at another country.

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Or indeed the countries that flat out ban you from visiting them if you travel on certain passports, which is going to be much more of a problem for Israelis than, say, Brazilians, even if this index indicates other countries are less strict on visa terms for Israelis than Brazilians.

It's really an exception if you can work/study at another country without a visa/residence permit. A more relevant question is whether you can make a business trip, or act as a journalist, without a visa. For instance, ESTA for a tourist in the USA is an easy thing, but if the same person wants to come for a few weeks and work as a journalist, e.g. make interviews, then the visa process is very very different. The USA does not offer that much freedom for foreign press, really.

A zone of visa-free exceptions has been created in the Schengen area, but even there you'll need to apply for a work permit for longer stints (and the host country is obliged to give it to citizens of other Schengen countries, with some exceptions).

While the whole Schengen area may not allow you to work everywhere, the core EU area pretty much does[1]. Of course you may have to do some paper work, but, generally, if you have a job offer from another EU country, you will be able to take it without having to worry about getting a visa.

Nordic countries also have their own passport union, so a Finnish passport, for example, will let you go and work in Iceland or Norway pretty freely.

I would imagine there are be some other regions that have similiar agreements. I think that the Commonwealth at least used to have some benefits for its citizens, but I'm not sure how much of those remain.

[1] http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/moving_a...

Yes, the work permit is practically automatic within Schengen, and not even needed between Nordic countries, but it is not an absolute right: persons from another Schengen country may legally be barred from entering (typically, this is outcome of repeated/aggravated criminal convictions).

This is possible even between Nordic countries (consider Juha Valjakkala / Nikita Fouganthine who we get to keep in Finland as Sweden understandably does not wish him to enter).

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