Sri Lanka Visa for Indian Citizens: Free ETA, Rules and How to Apply

Indian passport holders get a free tourist visa for Sri Lanka. It covers 30 days, it lets you enter twice, and it has cost nothing since 25 May 2026.

You still have to apply for it online before you fly. Free is not the same as automatic, and this is where people come unstuck at the airport.

If you have read anything about this written before mid-2026, it will tell you Indians pay US$20. That was true for years. It is not true now. This guide covers what changed, what you actually need, and how to apply without handing money to an agent for a form that is free.

For the general rules that apply to every nationality, there is a fuller Sri Lanka visa and ETA guide on the site. This page is only about Indian citizens.

Do Indian citizens need a visa for Sri Lanka?

Yes. India is on Sri Lanka's free-visa list, but a free visa is still a visa. You need an approved Electronic Travel Authorization, or ETA, before you board your flight.

This catches people out constantly. The word "free" gets read as "not needed", and travellers turn up at Chennai or Mumbai airport with no ETA. The airline is the one that checks first, and if you cannot show an approval, they can refuse to let you board. That is not immigration being strict. That is the airline protecting itself from having to fly you home again.

So the answer is: no fee, but yes, you must apply.

India joined the free list on 25 May 2026 along with 39 other countries. Before that date, Indian citizens paid US$20 as a SAARC nation. If you already paid for an ETA before 25 May, that money is not refundable.

How much does a Sri Lanka visa cost for Indians?

Nothing, for a standard 30-day tourist trip.

That is the whole picture for most travellers. One free application, 30 days, and you can leave and come back once inside that window.

Watch out for agent sites

This is the part worth reading twice.

Search for a Sri Lankan visa in India and you will find plenty of sites offering to "process" it for you. They charge anywhere from ₹2,000 to ₹5,000. What they actually do is fill in the same government form you can complete yourself in about ten minutes.

They are not scams in the legal sense. They do submit a real application and you do get a real visa. You have simply paid a few thousand rupees for a service that the Sri Lankan government now provides free.

The Department of Immigration and Emigration is blunt about this. Its own guidance says that when a third party applies on your behalf, payment should be made through the official ETA site, and it warns travellers not to end up paying a second time at the port of entry.

There is one official website. It is eta.gov.lk. Anything else is a middleman.

What is the Sri Lanka ETA for Indians?

The ETA is Sri Lanka's tourist visa. You will see it called an e-visa, an electronic travel authorisation and a tourist visa, sometimes in the same paragraph on the same website. They are all the same document.

You apply online and you get an approval by email. You do not get a sticker or a stamp in advance. The actual visa goes into your passport when you land in Colombo, and the officer at the desk issues it based on your approval.

Keep the approval reference somewhere you can reach without internet. A screenshot is fine. A printout is better.

Documents Indian passport holders need

Get these sorted before you start the form.

A passport valid for at least six months from the day you arrive. Not from the day you apply. Not from the day you come home. Six months from arrival. This is the most common reason Indian travellers get refused, and it takes thirty seconds to check.

At least one blank page. You get stamped on the way in and on the way out.

A return or onward ticket. Sri Lankan immigration guidance asks for a return ticket or a visa for wherever you are going next. Officers do not check every time, but they can.

Enough money for the trip. The official wording is adequate funds for your stay and your return passage. Nobody counts your cash, but if you arrive with a one-way ticket and no booking, expect questions.

An address for your first night. The form asks. A hotel booking works.

One more rule that matters: an ETA does not let you work. Not paid, not unpaid, not "just helping a friend's business for a week". It is a tourist permission and the department states that plainly.

How to apply, step by step

The whole thing takes about ten minutes.

1. Go to eta.gov.lk directly. Type the address rather than clicking a search advert, because the adverts are usually agents.
2. Choose the tourist ETA. Not business, unless you are genuinely coming for meetings.
3. Enter your name exactly as it is printed in your passport. Same spelling, same order, no short forms. If your passport says one thing and your ETA says another, you will be sorting it out at the immigration counter instead of collecting your bag.
4. Fill in your passport number, travel dates and first-night address. Approximate dates are fine. Your 30 days start when you actually land, not when you apply.
5. Skip the payment step. As an Indian citizen you should see no fee for a 30-day tourist ETA. If you are being asked to pay, you are on the wrong website.
6. Wait for the approval email, then save the reference offline.

Approval is often the same day and sometimes within the hour. Sri Lanka does not publish a guaranteed processing time, so give yourself about a week. There is no advantage to applying at the last minute and no cost to applying early.

You can check your status on the same site if the email is slow to arrive.

Can Indians get a visa on arrival in Sri Lanka?

This one has a messy answer, so here it is honestly.

Sri Lanka's published fee chart still lists on-arrival pricing, at US$25 for SAARC citizens rather than US$20 online. At the same time, the Department of Immigration now tells all travellers to obtain their ETA before arriving.

In practice, do not plan around getting one at the airport. Three reasons:

• Your airline may not let you board without an approved ETA, and that decision happens in India, not Sri Lanka.
• You would be paying for something that is currently free for you.
• You land after a flight and join a slower queue instead of walking through.

Apply online. There is genuinely no argument for doing it any other way.

How long can Indians stay, and how to extend

Your free ETA gives you 30 days from the date you land, with two entries allowed inside that window. The double entry is useful if you are pairing Sri Lanka with a few days in the Maldives, which a lot of Indian couples do.

Thirty days means thirty days, not one calendar month. Land on 3 April and you are due out on 2 May.

If you want longer, you can extend. Tourists can usually reach 90 days and sometimes more. The catch is that extensions are chargeable even when your original visa was free. Expect a US$20 processing fee as a SAARC citizen, plus the applicable visa fee on top.

Extensions can be started through the department's online tourist visa extension service, and the head office in Battaramulla handles them in person if you need that. Do it before your 30 days run out. Overstaying means a fine when you leave and a note against your passport, which is a silly thing to carry around for the sake of a few days.

After you land in Colombo

Most flights from India arrive at Bandaranaike International Airport, about 35 kilometres north of Colombo. Chennai is the shortest hop at roughly an hour, with Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Kochi all running direct or one-stop.

What happens next:

Immigration. Passport and ETA reference ready. The officer may ask how long you are staying and where. Answer straight. It is usually a two-minute conversation.

SIM card. The network desks are right there in arrivals and a tourist SIM costs a few dollars. Do it before you leave the terminal.

Money. Change a small amount at the airport for your first day. Rates in town are better, so do not change everything at the counter.

Getting out. This is where tired arrivals overpay. Airport transfer prices are negotiable, and the drivers waiting outside know exactly how long you have been travelling. Arranging a Colombo airport taxi service beforehand fixes the price before you land and removes the haggling entirely.

Once you are through, the country is smaller than most first-time visitors expect. Sketching a rough route with the Sri Lanka trip planner before you arrive will tell you quickly whether your 30 days are comfortable or ambitious.

FAQs about the Sri Lanka visa for Indians

Do Indians need a visa for Sri Lanka?

Yes. Indian citizens need an approved ETA before flying. It is free since 25 May 2026, but it is still compulsory, and airlines can refuse boarding without one.

Is the Sri Lanka visa free for Indian citizens?

Yes, for a 30-day tourist stay. India is one of 40 countries on the free-visa list introduced on 25 May 2026. Business visas and extensions still carry a fee.

How much is the Sri Lanka ETA for Indians?

Nothing for a 30-day tourist ETA. If a website is charging you ₹2,000 or more, it is a private agent adding a service fee to a free government form.

Can Indians get a Sri Lanka visa on arrival?

The official fee chart still lists an on-arrival option, but the Department of Immigration tells travellers to apply before arrival, and your airline may not board you without an approval. Apply online instead.

How long can Indian tourists stay in Sri Lanka?

Thirty days from the date of arrival, with two entries permitted inside that period. Extensions to 90 days are possible and are charged even if your first visa was free.

What passport validity do Indians need for Sri Lanka?

At least six months from the date you arrive in Sri Lanka. This is the single most common reason travellers are turned back, and it is easy to check before booking.

How long does the Sri Lanka ETA take for Indian applicants?

Often within a day and sometimes within the hour, though no guaranteed time is published. Applying about a week ahead costs nothing and removes the risk.

Can I apply for my whole family in one application?

Each traveller needs their own ETA, including children, though under-12s are free. You can submit them one after another in the same sitting using each person's passport details.

The short version

Apply at eta.gov.lk about a week before you fly. Check your passport has six months left from your arrival date. Pay nothing, because as an Indian citizen you no longer have to. If a site is asking for ₹3,000, close it and go to the government one.

For anything the department has not answered clearly, the Department of Immigration and Emigration publishes the current rules, and they are the only source worth trusting on a visa that changed this recently.