The best second passport depends on what “best” means.
For short-visit access alone, we can test every passport exactly. A useful second citizenship is a different question: it must be realistically obtainable and may matter more for where you can live, work, or study than for a handful of extra tourist entries.
United States + United Arab Emirates
This pair reaches the largest easy-access set in the current data, but the UAE is not a conventional second-passport option. Its government describes acquisition only for narrow exceptional categories through official nomination—not an open application route for US citizens.
- Combined access
- 204 / 227
- New destinations
- +19
- Combined score
- 203
Emirati nationality through exceptional government nomination · official UAE source
For many Americans, an eligible EU route is the strategic question.
An EU-country passport may add fewer short-visit destinations than the UAE benchmark, but EU citizenship includes rights to live, work, and study across the Union. Eligibility—not score—is the first filter.
Italy
+9 short-visit destinations with a US passport
Measure the gainSpain
+9 short-visit destinations with a US passport
Measure the gainGermany
+7 short-visit destinations with a US passport
Measure the gainFrance
+7 short-visit destinations with a US passport
Measure the gainIreland
+7 short-visit destinations with a US passport
Measure the gainPortugal
+6 short-visit destinations with a US passport
Measure the gainThe European Commission’s citizenship guide describes the cross-EU rights. This page does not assume that every US citizen has an EU ancestry or residence route.
Top ten complements to a US passport.
Easy access includes citizenship, visa-free entry, ETA, and visa on arrival. eVisa and advance visa routes do not increase this score.
- 1United Arab EmiratesExceptional nomination only+19new easy-access destinations204combined access
See gains
Azerbaijan · Belarus · Brazil · Burkina Faso · Central African Republic · Chad · China · Congo (Rep.) · Cuba · Equatorial Guinea · Iran · Mali · Niger · Pakistan · Papua New Guinea · Russian Federation · Sierra Leone · Sudan · Uganda
- 2MalaysiaAcquisition not yet reviewed+18new easy-access destinations203combined access
See gains
Algeria · Belarus · Benin · Brazil · Chad · China · Cuba · Iran · Iraq · Laos · Libya · Pakistan · Sierra Leone · Sudan · Togo · Uganda · Venezuela · Vietnam
- 3SingaporeGenerally restricted+17new easy-access destinations202combined access
See gains
Azerbaijan · Belarus · Benin · Brazil · Burkina Faso · Chad · China · Cuba · Ghana · Iran · Laos · Pakistan · Papua New Guinea · Sierra Leone · Togo · Uganda · Vietnam
- 4RwandaAcquisition not yet reviewed+15new easy-access destinations200combined access
See gains
Benin · Central African Republic · Chad · Congo (Dem. Rep.) · Congo (Rep.) · Ghana · Iran · Liberia · Mali · Niger · Pakistan · Sierra Leone · South Sudan · Togo · Uganda
- 5Burkina FasoAcquisition not yet reviewed+15new easy-access destinations200combined access
See gains
Benin · Burkina Faso · Central African Republic · Chad · Congo (Rep.) · Ghana · Iran · Liberia · Mali · Mauritania · Niger · Nigeria · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Togo
- 6BarbadosAcquisition not yet reviewed+14new easy-access destinations199combined access
See gains
Belarus · Benin · Brazil · Chad · China · Cuba · Equatorial Guinea · Ghana · Iran · Liberia · Pakistan · Sierra Leone · Uganda · Venezuela
- 7The GambiaAcquisition not yet reviewed+14new easy-access destinations199combined access
See gains
Belarus · Benin · Chad · Ghana · Iran · Liberia · Mali · Mauritania · Niger · Nigeria · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Togo · Uganda
- 8TunisiaAcquisition not yet reviewed+14new easy-access destinations199combined access
See gains
Algeria · Benin · Brazil · Equatorial Guinea · Ghana · Iran · Libya · Mali · Mauritania · Niger · Pakistan · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Togo
- 9BeninAcquisition not yet reviewed+14new easy-access destinations199combined access
See gains
Benin · Central African Republic · Chad · Congo (Rep.) · Ghana · Iran · Liberia · Libya · Mali · Niger · Nigeria · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Togo
- 10Côte d'IvoireAcquisition not yet reviewed+14new easy-access destinations199combined access
See gains
Benin · Central African Republic · Chad · Congo (Rep.) · Ghana · Iran · Liberia · Mali · Mauritania · Niger · Nigeria · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Togo
Is this the best dual citizenship for a US citizen?
Only if “best” means the largest marginal short-visit access set in this snapshot. A second high-ranking passport can add little when its visa exceptions mirror the US passport. A lower-ranked passport can add more when the two access profiles complement each other. That is the only optimization performed here.
Acquisition can depend on descent, legal residence, language, and current transition rules. Retention is separate again: review the official-source compatibility register before treating any pair as legally attainable.
It also misses rights outside tourism. Nationality of an EU member state automatically brings EU citizenship; the European Commission describes rights to live, work, and study in another EU country. That can be strategically more valuable than maximizing this travel score.
Marginal gain, destination by destination.
For each of the other 198 passports, the analysis forms a two-passport set with the United States. Each destination keeps the easier of the two current access categories. Candidates sort by combined easy-access count, then marginal gain, then the candidate's own easy-access total.