Visa policy of Sri Lanka

Visitors to Sri Lanka must obtain a visa, either on arrival to Sri Lanka or in advance, unless they are a citizen of one of the visa-exempt countries. Most visitors entering for tourism purposes are required to obtain a visa on arrival, unless they are exempt from obtaining one.^[1] However, citizens of some countries must obtain a visa in advance before being allowed to enter Sri Lanka. All visitors must hold a passport valid for 6 months.^[2]

Visa policy map

Visa policy of Sri Lanka

  Sri Lanka

  Visa not required (90 days)

  Visa not required (60 days, 90 days within any 1 year)

  Visa not required (30 days)

  Free ETA or VoA (30 days)

  Electronic Travel Authorization or visa on arrival (30 days)

  Visa required in advance

Visa exemption

Ordinary passports

Citizens of the following countries do not need a visa to enter Sri Lanka, for stays up to the duration listed below:^[3][4][5]

Maldives (90 days)

Seychelles (60 days, 90 days within any 1 year)

Singapore (30 days)[6]

Australia Austria Bahrain Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Canada China Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Germany Hong Kong India Indonesia Italy Israel

Japan Kazakhstan Macau Malaysia   Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Oman Poland Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia South Korea Spain Sweden  Switzerland Thailand United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States

• Alternatively, citizens of visa-exempt countries who choose to apply for a "Standard tourist visa" online are exempt from paying visa fees.^[7]
• Holders of a United Nations Passport, regardless of nationality, do not need a visa to enter Sri Lanka for a maximum stay of up to 90 days.
• Holders of a Interpol Passport, regardless of nationality, do not need a visa to enter Sri Lanka for a maximum stay of up to 90 days.

Planned pilot visa-free program

On August 21, 2024, a cabinet decision was made to allow visa-free travel to 35 countries, including the USA, UK, Canada, Russia, Thailand, and Indonesia, from October 1, 2024. This pilot program to last for 6 months.^[8][9] On 1 October 2024 it was announced that the plan did not come into effect and that it needs to go through parliamentary approval process which needs to await for the new parliament to convene.^[10]. On 25 July 2025 it was announced that the plan will proceed with decision.^[11][12]

Non-ordinary passports

Holders of diplomatic, official, service or special passports of the following countries do not need a visa to enter Sri Lanka, for stays up to the duration listed below:^[3][13][14]

Bahrain2 D Sp Bangladesh2 D O S Belarus2 D O Benin2 D O S Brazil2 D O S Cambodia2 D O S Chile2 D O China2 D O S PA Cuba2 D

Czech Republic4 D O S Georgia4 D O S Hong Kong2 D O S India2 D O Indonesia2 D O S Iran2 D O S Kazakhstan2 D S

Maldives1 D O S Sp Myanmar2 D O S Oman2 D S Sp Pakistan2 D O Philippines2 D O S Qatar2 D O Romania4 D O S

Russia2 D O S Seychelles3 D O S Sp Singapore2 D O S Sp Thailand2 D O S Ukraine5 D O S Vietnam2 D O S

_{D – Diplomatic passports
O – Official passports
S – Service passports
Sp – Special passports
PA – Passports endorsed for "public affairs".
1 – 90 days
2 – 30 days
3 – 60 days, 90 days within any 1 year-period.
4 – 90 days within any 180-day period.
5 – 30 days within any 60-day period.}

Visa on arrival

Citizens of all other countries except the visa-exempt countries and countries whose citizens require a visa in advance may obtain a visa on arrival which is good for double entry for tourist or good for multiple entries for business, valid for a maximum stay of 30 days. Visas obtained on arrival are generally discouraged as such visas are not automatically approved for entry into Sri Lanka.^[15]

Gratis visa on arrival

Due to the discontinuation of the e-Visa system, citizens of the following 7 countries may obtain a gratis visa (single entry) upon arrival in Sri Lanka for tourism purposes only, valid for a maximum stay of 30 days.^[16]

China(including Hong Kong , Macao and Taiwan) India Indonesia Japan

Malaysia Russia Thailand

Electronic Visa

Citizens of all other countries except the countries whose citizens either require a visa obtained on arrival or in advance may also obtain an e-Visa online.^[1] The system was suspended in mid-2024 but restarted in September 2024.^[17]

Prospective visitors can apply for the following types of tourism/business e-Visas (unless otherwise noted):

Validity	Number of entry	Duration of stay*	Visa fee	Note
30 days	Single	up to 30 days	Gratis	Only tourists who are citizens of China(including Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan), India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Russia or Thailand may obtain this type of visa. For more details see below.
6 months	Double	up to 60 days	35 or 75 USD	SAARC member states: 35 USD Non-SAARC member states: 75 USD
1 year	Multiple	up to 90 days	200 USD	People who engage diplomatic or consular activities may get visa fee waived.
2 years	Multiple	up to 180 days	300 USD
5 years	Multiple	up to 180 days	500 USD
10 years	Multiple	up to 180 days	1000 USD

_{* - Duration of stay demonstrates how many days visitor may stay in each entry.}

Moreover, a US$18.50 service fee^[18] as well as a US$5 "convenience fee" is charged by VFS Global for each visa application, regardless of the type of e-Visa.^[19]

e-Visa restrictions

Taiwan

Citizens of Taiwan must select "China (Special Administrative Region of China)" as their nationality when applying for an e-Visa.

Visa required in advance

Citizens of the following countries are ineligible to apply for both an e-Visa and a visa on arrival independently,^[2] and thus must obtain a visa in advance from one of the Sri Lankan diplomatic missions around the world:^[20]

Cameroon Côte d'Ivoire Ghana

Nigeria North Korea Syria

When obtaining a visa at a Sri Lankan diplomatic mission, they must present the following documents:^[20]

• Police clearance report
• If the applicant is coming from another country after staying for more than 6 months, are required to provide Police clearance from that country and copy of the Visa
• Certificate from a Sri Lankan guarantor & a photocopy of the guarantors NIC
• Affidavit from a Sri Lankan JP (justice of peace) or a Lawyer
• Accommodation information (place of stay)

Entry restrictions

Mandatory yellow fever vaccination

Citizens of the following countries must present a yellow fever vaccination certificate upon arrival in order to enter Sri Lanka:^[20]

Angola Argentina Benin Bolivia Brazil Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Central African Republic Chad

Colombia DR Congo Ecuador Equatorial Guinea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau

Liberia Mali Mauritania Niger Nigeria Panama Peru Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal

Sierra Leone Somalia Sudan Suriname Tanzania Togo Uganda Venezuela

History

In 2012, Sri Lanka launched an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, created and operated by Mobitel, a state-owned enterprise.^[21]

On 17 April 2024, Sri Lanka replaced its previous Electronic Travel Authorisation system with a new e-Visa system,^[7] operated by VFS Global.^[18][21]

On 2 August 2024, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka issued an interim order, which suspended the e-Visa system operated by VFS Global and ordered the restoration of the previous ETA system operated by Mobitel.^[22]

On 4 August 2024, Ada Derana reported that the Ministry of Public Security would make a final decision the next day, and noted that the suspension of the e-Visa system meant that tourists needed to obtain their visas on arrival.^[23]

On 5 August 2024, the Department of Immigration and Emigration notified the Sri Lankan diplomatic missions around the world of the discontinuation of the e-Visa system.^[16] According to Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles, the old ETA system has yet to be reinstated due to changes made to the Department of Immigration and Emigration's computer system.^[24]

On 2 September 2024, Sri Lanka decided to implement visa-free access for citizens of 38 countries, including India, China, Thailand, the UK, the USA, and Indonesia. Although it was initially planned to be implemented on 1 October 2024, the decision was advanced due to the inconvenience caused to tourists at the visa-on-arrival counters, where overcrowding was a significant issue.^[25]

Visitor statistics

This section is transcluded from Tourism in Sri Lanka. (edit | history)

Most visitors arriving in Sri Lanka on a short-term basis were from the following countries:^[26][27][28]

Foreign visitors to Sri Lanka

Country	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
India	279,122	416,974	302,844	123,004	56,268	89,357	355,002
Russia	115,470	201,920	197,498	91,272	16,984	49,397	86,549
United Kingdom	131,377	178,339	130,088	85,187	16,646	55,455	198,776
Germany	85,144	136,084	102,539	55,542	12,442	34,507	134,899
France	72,516	88,775	56,251	35,482	6,549	24,838	87,623
China[29]	78,769	131,681	68,789	4,715	2,417	26,147	167,863
Australia	60,442	89,573	67,436	30,924	4,421	20,283	92,674
Poland	29,548	44,165	17,946	15,195	2,110	11,908	20,896
United States	39,635	59,532	46,344	22,230	6,124	16,842	68,832
Netherlands	41,695	50,116	29,056	11,987	2,422	8,656	38,993
Bangladesh	36,411	39,555	17,846	3,817	1,496	1,986	8,261
Canada	29,578	42,212	43,944	26,845	5,079	12,346	48,729
Italy	24,443	38,709	22,242	7,449	1,309	8,603	36,147
Japan	19,535	30,429	19,583	3,087	392	6,644	30,079
Switzerland	20,572	29,829	23,556	13,260	2,974	6,389	29,981
Czech Republic	8,390	19,279	12,056	7,350	1,864	7,599	19,204
Maldives	21,208	47,222	37,298	18,880	6,272	9,407	60,278
Spain	20,752	37,928	23,905	12,895	2,015	3,385	24,489
Israel	13,014	24,845	19,517	9,326	1,724	3,556	14,770
Kazakhstan	7,286	11,383	5,130	8,068	5,754	2,333	2,399
Austria	6,888	17,103	10,594	5,541	1,502	4,300	14,713
Denmark	6,834	14,952	10,346	7,278	1,302	4,905	16,869
Malaysia	5,796	18,259	10,940	2,779	323	3,494	16,861
Sweden	5,485	13,413	8,643	5,097	1,601	7,061	22,464
Belgium	13,275	17,219	10,667	6,164	1,283	3,371	14,948
Iran	5,196	10,858	10,322	4,301	397	648	3,249
Belarus	4,762	10,933	10,969	3,621	646	2,638	4,796
South Korea	4,583	10,800	7,298	1,843	389	2,499	12,195
Ukraine	4,378	7,099	5,082	14,917	7,037	17,169	35,051
Lithuania	4,256	6,395	2,722	2,115	383	1,054	2,793
Norway	4,025	11,399	8,747	5,983	1,141	3,019	13,446
Pakistan	14,255	13,451	10,744	6,260	7,520	3,065	14,655
Ireland	3,292	8,747	5,136	3,056	559	2,294	8,254
Singapore	3,261	12,591	9,551	3,770	557	2,545	13,871
Hungary	3,172	6,580	3,786	2,324	445	1,588	4,091
Slovakia	3,158	6,710	4,464	2,432	664	1,513	4,944
Turkey	2,872	6,673	3,739	1,514	309	2,121	4,972
New Zealand	2,703	11,282	7,913	2,866	325	2,324	12,463
Estonia	2,606	3,800	1,808	978	376	1,185	2,516
Romania	2,542	6,407	4,092	3,313	820	1,724	5,463
Portugal	2,364	6,489	3,943	1,906	372	1,602	5,193
Thailand	2,247	7,246	4,922	1,725	247	1,880	9,861
Finland	2,050	4,276	2,287	1,500	341	2,298	7,028
South Africa	1,427	4,872	3,444	1,502	272	1,364	7,132
Slovenia	1,408	3,477	1,927	602	91	800	2,926
Philippines	1,390	5,267	4,164	1,961	529	4,249	14,590
Nepal	1,370	4,463	4,750	1,065	325	1,384	5,414
Egypt	1,102	4,069	3,091	2,340	400	956	3,708
Saudi Arabia	1,046	5,887	6,797	5,952	1,596	4,755	15,707
Lebanon	976	3,438	3,347	1,606	547	483	4,304
Total	1,368,288	2,053,465	1,487,303	719,978	194,495	507,704	1,913,702

List countries with visa-free access to Sri Lanka.^[30]

1. Australia
2. Austria
3. Bahrain
4. Belarus
5. Belgium
6. Canada
7. China
8. Czech Republic
9. Denmark
10. Finland
11. France
12. Germany
13. India
14. Indonesia
15. Iran
16. Israel
17. Italy
18. Japan
19. Kazakhstan
20. Kuwait
21. Malaysia
22. Maldives
23. Nepal
24. Netherlands
25. New Zealand
26. Norway
27. Oman
28. Pakistan
29. Poland
30. Qatar
31. Russia
32. Saudi Arabia
33. Seychelles
34. Singapore
35. South Korea
36. Spain
37. Sweden
38. Switzerland
39. Thailand
40. Turkey
41. UAE
42. UK
43. USA

See also

• Sri Lanka portal

• Visa requirements for Sri Lankan citizens
• Tourism in Sri Lanka
• Foreign relations of Sri Lanka
• Sri Lankan passport