The Sri Lanka ETA, explained properly

With effect from 25 May 2026, nationals of forty listed countries can obtain the tourist ETA free of charge for thirty days, with double entry. That is the change, and it is a real one — for a British, Indian, German or Australian passport holder, entry to Sri Lanka now costs nothing.

Three things people get wrong about it. First, free does not mean waived: every foreign national, including all forty of those nationalities, still has to obtain an ETA before travelling. Second, the fee-free ETA is thirty days — if you want longer, you extend it in-country and you pay for that. Third, ETA fees paid before 25 May 2026 are not refundable, so if you paid in April you paid.

The scheme was approved by Cabinet on 30 March 2026 and endorsed by Parliament on 7 May 2026 under the Immigration and Emigration Act. As of 16 September 2026 the Department has published no end date or review date for it. That is not a promise it will last; it is simply the current position, and we will change this page the day it changes.

Reproduced from the Department of Immigration and Emigration notice of 24 May 2026. Diplomatic, official, service and ordinary passport holders of these countries all qualify.

Separately, Maldives, Seychelles and Singapore have bilateral reciprocal arrangements and also pay nothing. Maldivian nationals get ninety days rather than thirty.

Note the on-arrival premium. Turning up without an ETA costs you an extra ten dollars and a queue at two in the morning after a nine-hour flight. There is a second reason not to rely on it: the Department's 25 May 2026 notice says every foreign national must hold an ETA before arrival, while its fee table still lists an on-arrival visa, and as of 16 September 2026 neither has been withdrawn. Airlines read the first one. Apply online.

The ETA is valid for thirty days, whether you paid for it or not. Beyond that you extend it, and since 2026 there are two ways to do that. The Department of Immigration and Emigration now takes extension applications online at eservices.immigration.gov.lk, which is the route we would try first. The older route is in person at the head office — the building called Suhurupaya on Sri Subhuthipura Road in Battaramulla, on the eastern edge of Colombo — which is a morning rather than a five-minute job and considerably easier if you arrive when it opens. Either way, an extension is single entry: leave the country and it is cancelled.

Search for the Sri Lanka ETA and a good half of the first page will be commercial operators who take your details, submit the same free form on your behalf, and charge you forty to eighty dollars for it. They are not illegal and they are not scams in the criminal sense. They are simply selling you something the government now gives away.

• The only official application site is eta.gov.lk, run by the Department of Immigration and Emigration, whose own site is immigration.gov.lk. Type the address rather than clicking an advert, and apply one test: the domain must end in .gov.lk, not merely contain the letters gov.
• The official site never charges a service fee, a processing fee, or an expedite fee. The third-party sites we looked at in September 2026 were charging between US$79 and US$139 for an ETA that is free or US$50.
• If a site quotes a price in euros or pounds, it is not the government.
• A genuine ETA approval usually arrives by email within twenty-four to seventy-two hours. Sites promising an hour are selling urgency.
• You do not need a printed copy. Immigration looks you up by passport number. Having the approval on your phone is enough, and having nothing at all is usually fine too, because it is in the system.

• A passport valid for at least six months from your date of arrival.
• Proof of onward or return travel. It is a formal condition of the visa. Rarely checked at Colombo, occasionally checked at the airline desk before you board.
• An address for your first night. Any hotel booking does. They want a line on the form, not an itinerary.
• Money: the Department lists 'adequate funds for the stay and the return passage' as a condition, with no figure attached. In practice nobody at Katunayake has asked us or our travellers to show it. Have a card that works and do not worry about it.

Arrival at Katunayake is generally quick — twenty minutes through immigration on a normal night, longer if three wide-bodies land together, which between 01:00 and 03:00 they often do. There is a bank counter airside, and the rates there are better than the ones in the arrivals hall.