Sri Lanka Visa for Indians in 2026: Free 30-Day ETA Explained

Yes, the Sri Lanka visa for Indians is free. Indian passport holders get a 30-day tourist ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) with double entry at no charge, and they have since 27 September 2024. On 25 May 2026 a new notice put India on a 40-country free list, at number 13, and that notice was still the lead alert on eta.gov.lk in late September 2026. Free does not mean optional: you still apply online before you fly, and extending beyond 30 days costs money.

Sri Lanka visa for Indians: what the 25 May 2026 notice says

Indian passport holders have had a free 30-day, double-entry tourist ETA since 27 September 2024, when Sri Lanka's free visa regime for seven nationalities (China, India, Russia, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) took effect. On 25 May 2026 the Department of Immigration and Emigration published a new notice that puts India on a 40-country free tourist ETA list, as number 13. Alongside India are the UK, the US, China, Japan, Australia, 12 EU countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and Asian countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Kazakhstan.

For an Indian traveller nothing changes. It is still free, still 30 days, still double entry, and you still apply on eta.gov.lk before you fly. The scheme covers ordinary, diplomatic, official and service passports. Double entry means you can leave once and come back inside the 30-day window on the same ETA.

The notice gives a start date and no end date. I would not read that as a promise, so check the alert banner on eta.gov.lk again a week or two before you fly, and before you commit to non-refundable flights. The notice also says ETA fees paid before 25 May 2026 are non-refundable.

How to apply for the ETA

Go straight to eta.gov.lk, the official site of the Department of Immigration and Emigration. Click Apply, fill in the tourist application with your passport details and travel dates, and submit. You get an acknowledgment promptly, followed by either an ETA approval notice or a referral notice. The site says no passport copies or photographs are needed. Type your name, passport number and expiry date exactly as printed on the passport's data page, because a mismatch is the easiest mistake to make on this form.

This is the tourist ETA. If you are travelling for a meeting or a conference, the free scheme does not apply, and the site says a business ETA can only be had from a Sri Lankan overseas mission or the department's head office.

A referral notice is the system's way of saying the ETA was not approved. The site tells you to contact your nearest Sri Lankan overseas mission when that happens, so it is not something you can wait out. You can track an application with your reference number on the site, or call the 24-hour ETA line on 0094 71 99 67 888.

The site does not promise a turnaround time, so timing is your call. An approved ETA lets you enter within three months of the date it was issued (one FAQ answer on the same site says six months, so I would plan around the shorter one). I would apply two to four weeks before flying: early enough to sort out a referral, late enough that the approval does not lapse before you land. You do not need flights booked first, because the FAQ says an ETA can be obtained even before you book your ticket. If fares are moving, apply once your dates are firm, not before.

Which way to apply

The site lists several routes. For most people the first is the only one you need.

The airport row deserves a warning. The site says a referral at the counter means you are refused entry and returned to where you flew from, so applying at home is the only way a problem shows up while you can still fix it.

The lookalike sites that will still try to charge you

Search "Sri Lanka visa" and you will find polished sites that are not run by the Sri Lankan government and add a service fee on top of the ETA. The official site does list third parties such as travel agents as a legitimate way to apply for someone else, so a third-party site is not automatically a scam. But the ETA costs Indian passport holders nothing, so any charge is a service fee you can skip. The address that matters is eta.gov.lk. If the domain does not end in gov.lk, close the tab.

Double entry and the Maldives add-on

The free ETA lets you enter twice within the 30-day window that starts on your first arrival. That suits a Sri Lanka trip with a short Maldives add-on, since Colombo to Male is a short flight. You can land in Sri Lanka, cross to the Maldives for a few nights, and come back on the same ETA without applying twice.

The catch is the second entry. The site says you are granted only the balance of your original 30 days, not a fresh 30, and it does not spell out how that balance is counted. I would plan on the strict reading, where the window closes 30 days after your first arrival. Land in Colombo on day one, leave for the Maldives on day twelve, come back on day seventeen, and assume you have until day thirty. Put the Maldives leg in the middle of the trip with that in mind, rather than expecting two full stays. If the last few days matter, call the ETA hotline on 0094 71 99 67 888 before you book it. Do not count on fixing anything from inside the country either: the FAQ says you cannot get a fresh ETA while you are in Sri Lanka, whatever state your old one is in.

Do not combine this with an extension. If you extend within your first 30 days, the double-entry facility is cancelled, and a paid extension is cancelled the moment you leave Sri Lanka, so you would need a new visa to return.

Read nextMaldives Visa for Indians: Rules, Fees and How to ApplyIndians get a free 30 day visa on arrival in the Maldives. Here is the one form you must file, the documents to carry and the fees to budget for.6 min read →

What Colombo airport immigration will ask

The ETA site lists three things every ETA holder should have at the port of entry:

• a passport valid for at least six months from your arrival date
• a confirmed return ticket
• sufficient funds for the stay, which the site does not define

I would carry a hotel booking and a working card for the funds question. Save your ETA approval notice, your return flight and your first night's hotel confirmation on your phone, and screenshot them before you leave home, because airport wifi is a poor thing to rely on at the counter.

The site's FAQ says the ETA is not a precondition to board a flight to Sri Lanka, but I would not test that at check-in. Airlines usually carry the cost of flying someone who is refused entry, so check-in staff may ask to see your approval before they hand over a boarding pass.

Staying longer than 30 days

Ten to fourteen days covers the hill country and the south coast comfortably, so most people never need this. If you do want longer, the short-visit visa can be extended to a maximum of 270 days from your arrival date: 30 days on entry, 60 more at the first extension, then 90 at the second and third. You apply at the department's head office in Battaramulla, or online through the e-Visa extension portal, which the site says covers extensions of up to six months.

Extensions are not free, even on the free ETA. India is not named in the department's fee chart, so the general row applies: US$60 (about Rs 5,800) to extend into days 31 to 90, US$150 (about Rs 14,400) for days 91 to 180, and US$200 (about Rs 19,200) for days 181 to 270. Those rupee figures use roughly Rs 96 to the dollar as of September 2026, so treat them as approximate. Extend only for the days you are sure you will use.

Do not overstay to save the fee. The department's fee page lists a US$250 penalty for an overstay of 8 to 14 days and US$500 beyond that, on top of the visa fee. If you leave within seven days of expiry, you pay the applicable fee at the departure port with no penalty.

Two mistakes worth checking before you apply

The ETA site does not publish a list of refusal reasons, so treat this as my checklist, not official data. Two things are worth ten minutes before you submit.

The first is your passport's validity. The requirement at the port of entry is a passport valid for at least six months from your arrival date, and I would not fly with less. If yours is close, renew it before you book.

The second is a mismatch between the form and the passport: a missing middle name, a transposed digit in the passport number, or a nickname instead of your legal name. Type the details straight off the data page rather than from memory, and read them back before you submit. If the application comes back as a referral notice, do not pay a third-party site to fix it. Contact your nearest Sri Lankan overseas mission, using the list on eta.gov.lk, and ask what it needs.

None of this should hold up a booking. Check your passport validity first, since that is the one thing you cannot fix in a hurry once you are standing at the counter, then apply for the ETA on eta.gov.lk two to four weeks before you fly, not the night before.

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