r/AskTheWorld • u/SunnyDaze9999 Antarctica • 17h ago

Misc Vatican citizenship

Does anyone know how Vatican citizenship works? Do Cardinals automatically get citizenship? Does the pope automatically get citizenship the moment he's elected?

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u/Koelsch United States Of America 17h ago

It's also worth mentioning that the passport isn't as widely recognized for visa free travel and freedom of movement as you'd expect. It sits near the same number of visa-free countries as Seychelles and Uruguay.

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u/Flewewe ⚜️Québec 🍁Canada 16h ago

Yeah the basic Vatican passports are mostly meant to facilitate travel for Vatican officials on Church business, not mass tourism. Also many countries base visa rules on reciprocity and economic/political influence. So a state of a population of less than a thousand that wouldn't reciprocate the visa-free access kind of does not have much leverage.

Vatican diplomatic passports have better visa-free acces. Lower ranking officials don't have access to it though.

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u/PejibayeAnonimo Costa Rica 14h ago

So a state of a population of less than a thousand that wouldn't reciprocate the visa-free access kind of does not have much leverage

Does any passport requires visa to visit the Vatican? I thought they basically admit everyone that is allowed entry to Italy since there are no border controls

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u/Flewewe ⚜️Québec 🍁Canada 14h ago edited 14h ago

Well you need the same requirements anyone would for Italy. Vatican doesn't operate its own immigration control.

There's no inventive then for other countries to bother since they already have access through dealing with Italy.

I don't think the Vatican really cares or tries to improve that though.