Sri Lanka’s Department of Immigration and Emigration sets conditions every visitor must meet before entry. Some are easy to miss until you are at the counter.
Passport: six months from arrival
“You hold a passport valid for a minimum period of six months from the date you arrive in Sri Lanka.” A passport that expires in four months fails this, even if it covers your whole trip. Count from your arrival date, not your departure date.
Restricted nationals
Sri Lanka runs an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system. “Restricted nationals will not be able to apply tourist visa on arrival at the port of entry.” The Department does not say who counts as a restricted national. If you are one, the ETA has to be sorted before you fly.
The conditions page does not define the term, and the free-visa announcement below does not use it. Ask the ETA portal or a Sri Lankan mission before you book.
If a third party applies for you, payment goes through the official site: “When applying ETA by third parties payments are to be made through the arrangement made in website https://eta.gov.lk”.
What you must be able to prove
- A way out. If you hold a visit visa, you need “a written assurance (ticket) to return to the country of domicile or a visa to the next country of destination”.
- Money. You must satisfy the Department “that you have adequate funds for your maintenance whilst in Sri Lanka and for the payment of your return passage to the country which issued your passport.” No figure is published, and the officer has discretion.
No work
“You should not engage in any form of employment, paid or unpaid, or in any trade or business other than that specified in the visa during the period of your stay in Sri Lanka.” Unpaid work counts, which catches volunteers.
Transit
“If you are staying more than 24 hours to get your connecting flight, you have to apply for a transit visa at the port of entry on your arrival or from Sri Lankan Missions Abroad before your arrival. It is valid only for 48 hours.” Under 24 hours the condition does not apply. Over 24, get the transit visa and do not leave it to the gate.
The head office
Most applications are online. The head office in Battaramulla still takes in-person applications: “8.30 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. (Token numbers are issued till 2.00 p.m. only)”. The text we can quote does not say whether it closes at weekends and public holidays, so go on a weekday and confirm first.
The tourist ETA is free for 40 nationalities, for 30 days
The conditions page links to this rather than carrying it. The Department announced on 24 May 2026 that “with effect from 25.05.2026, nationals of the following 40 countries are eligible to obtain tourist visa (ETA) free-of-charge for a period of 30 days.”
The list covers most of this site’s readers. From Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, South Korea and Thailand. Also Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, the Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Iran, Israel, Russia, Belarus, Turkey and thirteen European countries.
- Double entry within 30 days. The 30 days are counted “from the date of first arrival in Sri Lanka within the 30-day validity period.” A side trip to the Maldives and back fits in one free authorisation.
- Every passport type. “Diplomatic, Official, Service, or Ordinary passports are eligible”.
- Longer stays cost money. Applicants who take the free visa and “wish to remain in Sri Lanka beyond 30 days may apply for a visa extension upon payment of the applicable visa fee.”
Maldives, Seychelles and Singapore are free under bilateral reciprocal agreements, not this scheme. Maldivian nationals get a longer stay: “Maldivian nationals will receive 90 days tourist visa through ETA system.”
Free still means apply before you fly
The announcement says: “all foreign nationals, including nationals of the above-mentioned 40 countries and nationals with the bilateral reciprocal agreements with Sri Lanka… are required to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) prior to their arrival in Sri Lanka.”
Anyone outside the 40 and the three agreement countries “shall continue to be subject to the general rules and regulations governing the Sri Lanka ETA system,” so check the fee on the ETA portal. For anyone who applied early: “ETA fee paid by the applicants prior to 25.05.2026 are non-refundable.”
Corrections
18 September 2026. This page carried a section headed ""Restricted national” isn’t defined, nor is ETA cost”, saying the department “does not publish how long a standard ETA permits you to stay or what it costs.”
The Department publishes both, in an announcement linked from the page cited here. Since 25 May 2026 the tourist ETA is free of charge for nationals of 40 countries, valid 30 days with double entry, and free as well for Maldives, Seychelles and Singapore under separate agreements. The cost claim was unsourced and pointed readers the wrong way: it would have had them budget for a fee most of this site’s audience no longer pays.
The “restricted national” half was correct and is kept as its own section above.