
Visa requirements for German citizens

Visa requirements for German citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Germany. As of 13 April 2021, German citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 191 countries and territories, ranking the German passport 3rd in terms of travel freedom (tied with the passport of South Korea), and highest of all the European Union member states, according to the Henley Passport Index. Additionally, the World Tourism Organization also published a report on 15 January 2016 ranking the German passport 1st in the world (tied with Denmark, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Singapore and the United Kingdom) in terms of travel freedom, with the mobility index of 160 (out of 215 with no visa weighted by 1, visa on arrival weighted by 0.7, eVisa by 0.5 and traditional visa weighted by 0).
Recent.
Recently visa requirements for German citizens were lifted by Oman (9 December 2020, previously visa on arrival), Uzbekistan (15 January 2019), Cape Verde (1 January 2019), Belarus (February 2017),
Solomon Islands (October 2016), 
Tuvalu (July 2016), 
Marshall Islands (June 2016), 
Palau (December 2015), 
Tonga (November 2015), 
Sao Tome and Principe (August 2015), 
Vietnam (July 2015-June 30, 2021 at least),
Indonesia (June 2015), 
United Arab Emirates, 
Timor-Leste, 
Samoa (May 2015), 
Kazakhstan (July 2014), 
Mongolia (September 2013) and 
Kyrgyzstan (July 2012).
German citizens were made eligible for eVisas recently by Russia (January 2021, suspended during COVID-19 pandemic, previously only Kaliningrad and Far East),<ref name="https://evisa.kdmid.ru/"></ref> Guinea and Malawi (October 2019), Saudi Arabia (September 2019), Suriname and Pakistan (April 2019), Tanzania and Papua New Guinea (November 2018), Angola (March 2018), Djibouti (February 2018), Egypt (December 2017), Azerbaijan (January 2017), Tajikistan (June 2016), India (e-Tourist visa from November 2014) and Myanmar (September 2014).
2020 travel restrictions.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries have imposed temporary travel restrictions on German citizens or persons arriving from Germany.
Worldwide travel warning.
On April 17, 2020, the German "Auswärtiges Amt" (Federal Foreign Office) published a worldwide travel warning on its website and advised German citizens not to take unnecessary trips abroad.
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Meanwhile, (July 2020), the warning has been revoked for other EU countries, the EFTA countries, and the microstates (Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City). 
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The German Government advises its citizens against traveling to Ireland, Malta, and the United Kingdom because of their strict quarantine prescriptions.
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On its website, the "Auswärtiges Amt" will regularly update travel information.
Territories and disputed areas.
Visa requirements for German citizens for visits to various territories, disputed areas, partially recognized countries and restricted zones:
Vaccination.
Many African countries, including Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia require all incoming passengers to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination. Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area.
Passport validity.
Many countries require passport validity of no less than 6 months and one or two blank pages.
Countries requiring passport validity of at least 6 months on arrival include Afghanistan, Algeria, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Cambodia, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq (except when arriving at Basra, Erbil, or Sulaimaniyah: 3 months on arrival), Israel, Kenya, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, countries requiring passport validity of at least 4 months on arrival include Micronesia, Zambia, countries requiring passport validity of at least 3 months on arrival include Georgia, Honduras, Iceland, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Moldova, Nauru, Panama, United Arab Emirates and countries requiring passport validity of at least 1 month on arrival include Eritrea, Hong Kong, Macao, New Zealand, South Africa. Other countries require either a passport valid on arrival or passport valid throughout the period of intended stay.
Conflicts.
Israel, subject to the Arab League boycott, does not stamp passports anymore. Instead, it issues ID cards to visitors. Previously, it was possible to get the stamp on a separate piece of paper. Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen do not allow entry to people with evidence of travel to Israel, or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa.
However, similar conflicts exist between other countries. Visitors with passport stamp of such countries may have trouble to enter the other countries. Germany allows its citizens to hold several German passports (two or three, in extreme cases up to ten) to circumvent such travel restrictions. However, these additional passports are valid only for a maximum of six years, even if the "main passport" is valid for ten years. Holding a German passport and a foreign passport at the same time, that is, dual citizenship, is restricted under the current German nationality law. Germany allows dual citizenship with other EU countries and Switzerland; dual citizenship with other countries is possible with special permission or if obtained at birth. Dual citizenship is also routinely granted when the other citizenship cannot be renounced or renunciation would be practically impossible.
Fingerprinting.
Several countries including Afghanistan, Argentina, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United States demand all passengers to be fingerprinted on arrival.
Countries capturing other biometric data like iris pattern include Jordan, Oman and United Arab Emirates.
Right to consular protection in non-EU countries.
When in a non-EU country where there is no German embassy, German citizens as EU citizens have the right to get consular protection from the embassy of any other EU country present in that country.
Currently (2017), Germany manages 226 diplomatic missions worldwide. There are also 354 unpaid honorary consuls. See also List of diplomatic missions of Germany and List of diplomatic missions in Germany.
Currently, there are no German diplomatic missions (but in some cases honorary consuls) in
Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Cape Verde, 
Central African Republic, Cook Islands, Comores, Dominica, East Timor, Eswatini, Fiji, 
The Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liechtenstein,
Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Monaco, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Somalia,
St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, 
Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
German citizens can be extradited only to other EU countries or to international courts of justice, and only if a law allows this (German Basic Law, Art. 16). Before the introduction of the European Arrest Warrant, the extradition of German citizens was generally prohibited by the German Basic Law.
Germany regularly publishes travel warnings on the website of the Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office) to its citizens. The Office allows German citizens to register online in a special list, the Krisenvorsorgeliste ("Crisis-Prevention List") before they travel abroad ("Elektronische Erfassung von Deutschen im Ausland [ELEFAND]" Electronic Registration of Germans Being Abroad). With a password, the registered persons can change or update their data. The registration is voluntary and free of charge. It can be used for longer stays (longer than 6 months), but also for a vacation of only two weeks. The earliest date of registration is 10 days before the planned trip.
See also the section "2020 travel restrictions."
Non-ordinary passports.
Holders of various categories of official German passports have additional visa-free access to the following countries: Algeria , Ghana , India , Kazakhstan , Pakistan , Russia and Vietnam . Holders of diplomatic or service passports of any country have visa-free access to Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe.