Sri Lanka Visa Guide.

The ETA is a short online form: passport details, travel dates and where you are staying. You pay by card if a fee applies, and approval arrives by email, so apply at least a few days before you fly. The tourist ETA lets you stay 30 days from the day you arrive, with a second entry allowed inside the same 30 days, and you must enter within three months of approval.

It covers sightseeing, visiting friends and family, yoga and Ayurveda retreats, and medical treatment, but not work of any kind. Your passport must be valid for six months from arrival, and immigration can ask for a return or onward ticket and proof that you can pay for your stay.

Sri Lanka still sells the tourist ETA at a counter in the arrivals hall at Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport, which is what most people mean by a Sri Lanka visa on arrival. It gives the same 30-day stay as the online version.

The immigration department calls it a limited facility and tells travelers to get the ETA before they arrive. In October 2025 it briefly made the online ETA compulsory before departure, then dropped the rule within days. Check the current rules before you fly.

You extend inside Sri Lanka, either online on the immigration department's e-services site or in person at its head office in Battaramulla, on the edge of Colombo. You need your passport, a photo, a return ticket and the address where you are staying, and your passport has to stay valid for at least two months beyond the new end date.

Extensions come in stages, up to 270 days from the day you arrived for most nationalities. If an online application gets no answer, go to Battaramulla within three working days, because an online attempt doesn't protect you from overstay fines.

A business ETA isn't issued through the online tourist form. You apply through a Sri Lankan embassy or high commission, or at the immigration head office in Colombo, with a letter that shows the purpose of the trip.

It allows 30 days at first and can be extended to 180 days: US$100 up to day 90 and US$200 beyond that for most nationalities, or US$100 for the whole extension for US citizens. It isn't a work permit: a job in Sri Lanka, even an unpaid one, needs a residence visa sponsored by a Sri Lankan employer.

Sri Lanka launched its Digital Nomad Visa in February 2026. It is a one-year residence visa, renewable each year, for people whose income comes from outside the country. You apply to the Department of Immigration and Emigration with a recommendation from the Ministry of Digital Economy, police and medical clearance, and international health insurance.

Local work isn't allowed, and renewing the visa requires registering with the Inland Revenue Department. Most remote workers base themselves in Colombo, Galle or the south-coast surf towns.

Taxes are the part to plan for. Spend 183 days or more in Sri Lanka in any 12-month period and you become tax resident, so your worldwide income is taxable there at rates up to 36%. Since April 2025, income from services for foreign clients, paid in foreign currency and brought in through a Sri Lankan bank, is taxed at no more than 15%, and tax you have already paid abroad can be credited against the bill. How salaried remote work is treated, and what your home country still expects, is worth settling with a tax adviser before you apply.

The Golden Paradise Visa is a 10-year investor residence visa that covers your spouse and dependents. It isn't a retirement visa, but since the My Dream Home retirement scheme closed to new applicants, it is the main long-stay route for people who can place a large deposit.

The deposit goes into a dedicated foreign-currency account at a licensed commercial bank. After the first year you can withdraw up to half of it, and the money can also go into approved investments such as condominiums. Buying a condominium is a separate route to a five- or 10-year visa, depending on its price and location.

The visa doesn't change your tax position by itself. What counts is time: 183 days or more in Sri Lanka in any 12-month period makes you tax resident, and residents are taxed on worldwide income at rates up to 36%, with credit for tax paid abroad. Get tax advice on the deposit and your other income before you move.

The spouse residence visa is issued at the immigration head office. The first visa lasts a year, renewals run two years at a time until you reach five years, and after that five years at a time.

Once you have been married for five years, you can apply for the Permanent Residence Visa introduced in 2024, which comes with a card valid for 10 years. Former Sri Lankan citizens and people of Sri Lankan descent can apply for it under their own categories.

To work in Sri Lanka you need an employment residence visa. Your employer applies for it at the immigration head office, after getting a recommendation from the relevant ministry or the Board of Investment, and it is issued for a year at a time and tied to that job.

There is no route to apply on your own, and no work is allowed on a tourist ETA or the digital nomad visa. Students follow a similar route, with a university or approved school as the sponsor.