How do I apply for a Sri Lanka ETA visa?

Apply only on the official site (eta.gov.lk — currently $50 USD for 30 days, double-entry). Approval is normally instant by email; allow 24-48 hours. Don't use third-party 'visa.com' sites that charge $80-150 — they're real applications but with fees added on top. Print the approval and bring it to immigration; you'll get a passport stamp on arrival.

Sri Lanka ETA visa: how to apply (and avoid the scam sites)

What is the Sri Lanka ETA and who needs one

The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is the standard entry permit for most nationalities visiting Sri Lanka as tourists. It replaced the old on-arrival sticker visa system and is now mandatory before boarding your flight — airlines check at check-in and may refuse boarding without one.

The ETA covers:

Tourism/leisure (the standard category): 30 days, double-entry, extendable once to 90 days in-country
Business: 30 days, single-entry, requires invitation letter
Transit: required for layovers over 24 hours

Who is exempt: a small number of nationalities receive visa-free access or different arrangements (as of 2026, Maldives, Seychelles, Singapore). Check the official list at eta.gov.lk — this changes periodically.

Who must apply: virtually all European, North American, Australian, and most Asian passport holders need an ETA.

At a glance


Where to apply	Only the official portal, eta.gov.lk — no in-person application needed before travel
Cost	Around $50 USD per adult for the standard 30-day tourist ETA; roughly half that for children under 12
Time needed	10-15 minutes to complete the form; approval is usually near-instant to a few hours, occasionally up to 72 hours
What you need	Passport valid 6+ months beyond departure, flight details, first night’s accommodation address, a credit card
Best time to apply	As soon as your flights are booked — there’s no downside to applying early, and it removes uncertainty before departure

The official website and what it costs

The only official Sri Lanka ETA portal is eta.gov.lk — operated by the Department of Immigration and Emigration, Government of Sri Lanka.

Current fees (2026, USD):

Tourist ETA (30 days, double-entry): $50 USD per person
Business ETA (30 days, single-entry): $50 USD per person
Children under 12: $25 USD (some categories free — check the current schedule)

Payment is by Visa, Mastercard, or American Express. The site occasionally rejects certain international cards — if yours fails, try a different card or contact your bank to pre-authorise a foreign government transaction.

Important: the $50 fee is non-refundable. If your application is rejected (rare for standard tourist applications from Western countries), you do not get a refund.

How the scam sites work

This is the section most guides skip, and it matters: there are dozens of websites designed to appear when you search “Sri Lanka visa online” or “Sri Lanka ETA apply.” They have professional designs, official-looking Sri Lanka imagery, and domain names like srilanka-visa.com, srilanka-eta-visa.org, or evisasrilanka.net.

These sites are not scams in the strict sense — they do submit your application to the real eta.gov.lk system. But they charge $80-150 instead of $50, keeping the difference as a processing fee. You get the same approval you would have received for $50 directly.

How to identify the real site:

URL is exactly eta.gov.lk — not .com, not .org, not with “apply” or “official” appended
No credit card processing fee on top of the application fee
Government of Sri Lanka branding (not just the Sri Lanka flag and lion)
Direct payment to the government, not to a private company

What to do if you accidentally used a third-party site: your ETA is valid — you’ll get the approval and it will work at the border. But you overpaid by $30-100. There’s no refund mechanism; consider it an expensive lesson.

Official site vs third-party sites vs doing nothing

	Official (eta.gov.lk)	Third-party visa sites	No ETA before boarding
Cost	~$50 USD	~$80-150 USD (same ETA, marked up)	Not permitted for most nationalities — airline can refuse boarding
Speed	Usually instant to a few hours	Usually instant to a few hours (same backend)	N/A
Risk	Low — direct government transaction	Low for validity, high for overpaying	High — boarding denial or a separate, slower on-arrival process for eligible nationalities only
When it makes sense	Always the default choice	Only if you can’t access eta.gov.lk directly and are willing to pay the premium	Not recommended — check the on-arrival exceptions in the final section below first

Step-by-step application on eta.gov.lk

The process takes 10-15 minutes if you have your documents ready:

Step 1: gather your documents

Before starting the application, have on hand:

Passport: must be valid for at least 6 months beyond your planned departure from Sri Lanka
Passport bio page: you’ll need to enter exactly the details shown (name, number, expiry)
Return or onward flight: you’ll need to enter your flight details — the system may ask for flight number and dates
Hotel or accommodation address: have your first night’s accommodation address ready
Credit card: for the $50 fee payment

Step 2: complete the application form

On eta.gov.lk:

Select “Individual Tourist” (or appropriate category)
Enter personal details exactly as shown in your passport — no abbreviations, exactly matching punctuation
Enter passport details: number, issue date, expiry date, issuing country
Enter travel details: intended arrival date, first accommodation address, return flight details
Emergency contact: a family member or friend at home
Review — check every field before proceeding

Common errors that delay or reject applications:

Name mismatch (middle name in passport but not in form)
Passport number with spaces or hyphens
Expiry date entered in wrong format (MM/DD/YYYY vs DD/MM/YYYY — read the field label)

Step 3: pay and submit

Pay by credit card on the government payment portal. You’ll receive an instant receipt email confirming the application was submitted. The ETA approval comes separately, usually within minutes to a few hours.

In unusual cases (e.g., dual nationality, past travel to restricted countries), approval can take 24-72 hours. If you haven’t received it 48 hours before your flight, contact the Department of Immigration directly: +94-11-5329000.

Step 4: receive and save your approval

The ETA approval is an email with a PDF attachment. Save it:

Print a copy — immigration officers at CMB may ask to see it
Save to your phone offline — the airport Wi-Fi is not reliable at immigration
Email it to yourself and a travel companion in case one copy is lost

If your approval is delayed or rejected

Most standard tourist applications from Western passport holders are approved within minutes. If yours isn’t, here’s what typically causes it and what to do:

Still pending after a few hours: this is common and usually not a problem — refresh your email (check spam) and wait. Only escalate if you’re within 48 hours of your flight with no response.

Rejected outright: rare for standard tourist applications. Common causes are a data-entry mismatch against your passport, a passport with under 6 months’ validity remaining, or an issue with the payment authorization. Re-check every field and reapply — the $50 fee for a rejected application is not refunded, so a second, corrected application means paying again.

Flying within 48 hours and nothing has arrived: contact the Department of Immigration directly at +94-11-5329000, or, if you’re not yet at the airport, consider whether a same-day reapplication with corrected details is faster than waiting on a support line. Airlines will not board you without either an approved ETA or documented proof you’re in an exempt category.

If you’re genuinely stuck at check-in: ask the airline check-in desk what evidence they’ll accept — a submission receipt is sometimes enough to hold your seat while approval catches up, but this is airline-dependent and not guaranteed.

At the airport: what to expect

On departure from your home country

Check-in staff will ask for your ETA approval at the desk. Show the email or printed copy. They may scan a QR code or manually verify the ETA number. This is routine — it takes 30 seconds.

Arrival at Bandaranaike International (CMB)

The immigration queue at CMB can be long (30-60 minutes) at peak times — particularly midnight and 1am when most long-haul flights arrive simultaneously.

What to have ready:

Passport
ETA approval printout or phone copy
Landing card — filled in on the plane (pen available from cabin crew) or at the airport kiosk
Departure date — you’ll be asked how long you’re staying

The immigration officer will stamp your passport and write the ETA duration (usually 30 days from arrival). Check the date stamped — if it looks wrong, query it at the counter.

Extending your ETA inside Sri Lanka

The 30-day tourist ETA can be extended for a further 60 days (total 90 days) without leaving the country. The process:

Visit the Department of Immigration and Emigration, Colombo (41 Ananda Rajakaruna Mawatha, Colombo 10) — open Monday to Friday, 8:30am-4pm
Bring: passport, current ETA approval, two passport photos, proof of accommodation for extended stay, proof of onward flight after the 90 days
Fee: approximately LKR 15,000-25,000 (varies by category)
Processing: same-day or next-day in most cases

For a short overstay (1-2 days beyond the ETA): fines apply. Intentional overstay beyond this incurs larger fines and potential blacklisting. The Sri Lanka immigration system tracks this electronically — don’t assume short overstays go unnoticed.

Regional offices: extensions can also be processed at regional immigration offices in Kandy and Galle — less queue pressure than Colombo but verify opening days in advance.

If you’re deciding whether a longer stay is worth the extension fee and paperwork, it helps to know what you’d actually do with the extra time — our best time to visit and daily travel budget guides are useful for costing out an extra month on the ground.

Special situations

Dual nationality

If you hold two passports, apply using the passport you intend to use at Sri Lanka immigration. Ensure the ETA and the passport you present match exactly — presenting a different passport than the ETA was issued for will cause problems.

Previous India travel and visa complications

Sri Lanka immigration does not typically penalise India travel. However, if your passport shows evidence of travel to countries with diplomatic complications relative to Sri Lanka (rare), questions may arise. This is not a practical concern for the vast majority of Western visitors.

Travelling with children

Children need their own ETA, even infants. Apply with the child’s passport details. The “family” application option on eta.gov.lk allows multiple applicants in one session — but each pays the individual fee.

Medical or volunteering travel

The tourist ETA is not valid for work or extended volunteering. If you intend to volunteer through an organisation for more than a brief period, check whether you need a different visa category — the rules on this are applied inconsistently but do exist.

The paper on-arrival visa: is it still possible?

As of 2026, the on-arrival paper visa at CMB for most nationalities is no longer the standard process — the ETA is required before boarding. Some nationalities can apply on arrival but it creates a separate, slower queue and costs more.

For the current list of which nationalities can apply on arrival vs must hold a prior ETA, check the official page at eta.gov.lk — this policy has changed multiple times since 2020 and will likely change again.

The consistent advice: apply online before you travel, regardless of your nationality. It is faster, cheaper, and removes all uncertainty at the airport.

For what to do after you land: Colombo airport arrival guide and getting from the airport to Kandy or Galle. For the big-picture trip plan: best time to visit Sri Lanka.

Pairing the ETA with the rest of your pre-trip prep

The ETA is one of a handful of things worth locking down before you fly. Once it’s approved, the other pre-trip essentials are: getting connected on arrival (see our eSIM and data guide), knowing how cash and cards actually work day to day (our LKR money guide), and packing appropriately for a country that spans beach heat and cold hill-country mornings (our packing guide).

None of these are urgent the way the ETA is — an incomplete ETA can stop you boarding, the others just smooth the first few days — but doing all of them before departure means your first day in Sri Lanka isn’t spent solving logistics. If safety questions are part of your pre-trip planning, our honest safety guide covers what’s actually worth worrying about.

If you’re arriving into a private, pre-arranged transfer straight from the airport, having your ETA approval and landing card ready before you reach immigration keeps that first leg on schedule:

Colombo airport to city private taxi transfer

Our honest verdict

Worth doing yourself, directly on eta.gov.lk, for essentially every traveler — it takes 10-15 minutes, costs the base $50 fee, and removes a real risk (boarding denial) for a trivial amount of effort. There’s no legitimate reason to pay a third-party site $30-100 extra unless the official site is genuinely inaccessible to you.

Skip the stress, not the step: the ETA is mandatory for virtually all visitors, so “should I bother” isn’t really the question — “how early should I apply” is. Apply as soon as flights are booked; there’s no cost or downside to applying months ahead, and if a field-entry error causes a rejection, you have time to fix it and reapply.

The best alternative to a rushed last-minute application is simply doing it early. If you’re weighing whether a visa agent or travel agent handling it for you is worth the markup: for a single traveler or family applying together, it almost never is — the form is short and the “family” option on eta.gov.lk covers multiple applicants in one session.

Book your ETA well before departure — same-day or last-minute applications usually work, but they remove your safety margin if anything (a data entry error, an unusual review) causes a delay.

Mistakes to avoid

Applying on a third-party site by accident — search results for “Sri Lanka visa” are full of them; confirm the URL is exactly eta.gov.lk before entering payment details.
Entering your name or passport number slightly wrong — even a missing middle name or a stray space can cause delays or rejection; copy details directly from your passport’s bio page.
Applying too close to departure — most approvals are fast, but the rare 24-72 hour cases leave no margin if you apply the day before your flight.
Losing your only copy of the approval — save it offline on your phone and print a paper copy; don’t rely on airport Wi-Fi to pull up an email at immigration.
Overstaying without applying for an extension — the 30-day ETA can be extended to 90 days at the Department of Immigration in Colombo (see the extension section above), but an unregistered overstay brings fines and is tracked electronically; don’t assume a short overstay goes unnoticed.

FAQ

Can I apply for the ETA on my phone?

Yes — eta.gov.lk works on mobile browsers, though some travelers find the form easier to complete on a laptop or tablet where photo details and long passport numbers are easier to check for typos before submitting.

Do I need a return or onward flight booked before I apply?

Yes, the application asks for your travel and accommodation details, including onward or return flight information. If you’re not yet fully booked, use your best current plan — airlines and immigration generally accept a reasonable onward itinerary, and the ETA itself doesn’t lock you into specific flight dates.