Visiting Sri Lanka for the first time? No worry, Getting Sri Lankan Tourist Visa is a quite simple.
Being close to India, Sri Lanka has become one of the favorite destinations of Indian tourists. Back in 2015, I have traveled most of the Sri Lanka in 10 days. And it was an amazing experience.
Before planning any international trip, we need to first get Air tickets and visa done. In case of Sri Lankan tourist visa, Visa procedure is quite simple and there are no hard and fast rules of Indian citizens.
There are two ways of getting Sri Lankan tourist visa
- ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) (Recommended )
- On Arrival
What is ETA?
ETA is an Electronic Travel Authorization granted online through the web based visa system. An ETA is issued only for Short Visits to Sri Lanka for Business purposes, Tourism and Transit purposes.
Official link for Sri Lanka Electronic Travel Authorization online visa application – Click Here
So first, you need to do is to submit ETA form online at the link, wherein you need to provide all required details and make a payment of 20$ (US Dollar).
Once you submit the ETA form, you will get instant Visa approval within 10 minutes or it may take 24 hours in some case. And that’s done, now you are all set to go to Sri Lanka.
Once you land in Colombo Airport, directly proceed to immigration counter with below documents.
- Printout of approved ETA
- Valid Passport for a minimum period of six months
- Return ticket within 30 days of your date of entry
- First day accommodation address
- 2 Passport size photographs
- Adequate funds in bank or working credit cards
It will not take much time to clear immigration checks and visa stamping. Sri Lankan Tourist visa is generally issue for maximum stay of 30 days, on which you can make double entry.
Pretty simple isn’t it? No need to wait for a long time for getting visa approval or interviews or sending documents to embassies.
On Arrival Visa
There is also an option of Visa on arrival, which is a bit time consuming than the ETA visa. All you need to do is carry all required documents, which I have mentioned above and go to Visa on Arrival counter. Here you need to fill a Visa form and pay fees.
I would recommend for ETA visa, which is quite easy, simple and time efficient. Also, there is no need of wasting time in filing long forms at the airport.
Do you have any plan to visit Sri Lanka? I hope this will be a useful post for you.
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Also Read my travel experiences of Sri Lanka
Colombo -Visiting Sri Lanka for the first time
