Algerian passport holders can obtain their Sri Lanka ETA online before leaving Algiers, Oran or Constantine. It covers a 30-day stay with two entries, and Algerian passports are charged the standard government rate because Algeria is outside the waiver.
30 days
Stay on a tourist ETA
Double
Entries permitted
6 months
Passport validity needed
3 options
Tourist, Business, Transit
100% online
No embassy visit
Important for Algerian citizens
Sri Lanka's waiver of the tourist ETA government charge does not extend to Algeria. Algerian applicants are charged the standard rate, and the live prices shown on this page reflect that.
Overview
For Algerian travellers the appeal of Sri Lanka starts with paperwork. Much of the world asks an Algerian passport holder for a consulate file, bank attestations and weeks of waiting, whereas Sri Lanka issues its entry permission entirely online. That alone has put the island on the shortlist of agencies in Algiers and Oran.
The permission is called an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Algerian agencies and Facebook travel groups mostly advertise it as the visa Sri Lanka or e-visa, and you can treat the terms as the same thing. Every Algerian citizen needs one before departure, adults and children alike.
Algeria was not among the 40 countries whose government charge Sri Lanka lifted in May 2026, so the standard rate applies. This guide looks at the questions Algerians actually raise with us: paying from a country with a non-convertible currency, which passport to use if you are also French, how names move between Arabic and Latin script, and how to reach Colombo from Houari Boumediene airport.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. Algerians are required to hold an approved ETA for any short stay in Sri Lanka, and there is no exemption attached to the green Algerian passport.
The tourist ETA is designed for holidays, sightseeing tours, visits to friends or relatives, medical stays including Ayurveda and yoga, and trips to watch or take part in sport or cultural performances. Algerian importers going to negotiate with suppliers, and anyone attending a seminar or conference, should apply for the business option.
Employment is excluded from a tourist ETA whether or not money changes hands, as is self-employed trade. Algerian journalists and people working with associations or NGOs need the Sri Lankan government's agreement before travelling, which cannot be obtained through this online route.
Add each child to the application with the details from their own passport. Under-12s are not charged the Sri Lankan government fee for a tourist visit of up to 30 days. Note that an Algerian minor's passport has a shorter life than an adult's, so its expiry date deserves a separate look.
Stay & validity
The tourist ETA gives an Algerian visitor 30 days, measured from the first arrival, and two entries that must both take place inside that period. Leave for a few days in Malé and you return to Sri Lanka with whatever is left of the 30, not a fresh month.
After approval you have six months in which to make your first entry. Algerians who book early for the summer can therefore apply in spring without the authorisation running out.
Adult Algerian biometric passports are valid for ten years and those issued to minors for five. Either way Sri Lanka wants at least six months remaining on your arrival date. A passport renewed at the daïra, or at an Algerian consulate in France, comes back with a new number and needs a new ETA. If 30 days is not enough, an extension must be sought from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, near Colombo, before your stay expires.
Pricing
Live fees for Algerian passport holders, shown all-in — any government charge that applies to your passport and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Algeria
Requirements
Everything Algerian passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport valid for at least six months from the date you arrive in Sri Lanka — the same passport you will travel on
A clear image of the passport bio-data page, with every corner visible and no glare over the photograph
A working email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should be able to open while travelling
A credit or debit card for online payment
Your intended arrival date and an address in Sri Lanka, such as your first hotel
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with one form per traveller and a full review before you pay.
Pick the Tourist, Business or Transit option that matches the real purpose of your trip, and add every traveller in your party to the same application.
Give each traveller's details exactly as printed on the passport, plus the intended arrival date and an address in Sri Lanka. Entries are made in English.
Check every name, date and passport number on the review screen before paying. Corrections are simple at this stage and difficult afterwards.
The approval is linked electronically to your passport number. Keep a copy on your phone and a printout with your travel documents for check-in and arrival.
A typical Algerian application is approved inside one or two days. Before it goes forward we check the spelling of every name against the passport image, as French-pattern transliteration is the commonest source of mismatches. We cannot promise any particular turnaround.
Apply three to five days ahead as a minimum. Algeria does not change its clocks, so Colombo stays four and a half hours ahead of Algiers all year. The Algerian weekend is Friday and Saturday while Sri Lankan offices close on Saturday and Sunday, leaving only four shared working days in each week.
Demand from Algeria concentrates in July and August and around the two Eids, and seats to the Gulf sell out early in those weeks. Send the ETA application as soon as flights are confirmed.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land, and how to make the arrival as quick as possible.
Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake, about 30 kilometres north of Colombo, handles nearly all international arrivals. Follow the signs to immigration and join the foreign passport queue.
The officer retrieves your ETA from the passport number. Have the approval email to hand as a backup, on paper or saved offline, since airport connectivity is not guaranteed.
You may be asked where you are staying, how long for and when you leave. A hotel confirmation and your return ticket answer all three in a few seconds.
Your passport is endorsed with the date you must leave by. Read it at the counter — that date, not the length of your booking, is what counts if your plans change.
Getting there
Algeria has no nonstop flight to Sri Lanka. Travellers go from Algiers Houari Boumediene to Doha, Dubai or Istanbul and change there for Bandaranaike International Airport, north of Colombo. Oran and Constantine both have Istanbul services, which saves people in the west and east of the country a domestic flight to the capital.
Best time to go
The winter school holiday at the end of December and the spring break in late March both sit inside the dry season on Sri Lanka's west and south coasts. These are good weeks for Galle Fort, the beaches at Hikkaduwa and Unawatuna, and the train ride through the tea country to Ella, with warm days in place of a wet Algiers winter.
Most Algerian families travel in July and August, when the south-west of Sri Lanka is under the monsoon. The answer is the opposite shore. Trincomalee, Nilaveli and Pasikudah are dry and calm through the summer, and the Kandy Esala Perahera, a torchlit procession with dancers and elephants, takes place in July or August.
Sri Lanka's heat is humid, unlike the dry heat of the Algerian south, and visitors from Ghardaïa or Tamanrasset often find the coast more tiring than they expected. The hills around Nuwara Eliya are noticeably cooler and make a good midpoint. Halal restaurants are common in Colombo and the larger towns.
Between the monsoons, in October and November, showers can arrive on any coast. Use those months for Sigiriya, Dambulla and Anuradhapura, or for leopard-spotting in Yala. Full-moon Poya days are public holidays every month, and mid-April brings the Sinhala and Tamil New Year shutdown.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Algeria — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
This is the most frequent obstacle for applicants in Algeria. Everyday bank cards there are tied to the dinar and to domestic payments. Without a card cleared for international online use the application cannot be paid for and is never submitted, however carefully it was filled in.
Many Algerians are also French citizens, and France is one of the countries covered by the waiver. Either passport may be used, but only one. The authorisation is recorded against a single passport number, and that booklet has to be shown in Algiers, in transit and in Colombo.
Algerian passports write Djamel, Kheira or Abdelkader in the French manner. Applicants filling in an English form sometimes switch to Jamal or Khaira without thinking. The entry must mirror the passport, and the machine-readable lines at the bottom of the data page show the correct letters.
Parents holding ten-year passports tend to assume the children's are equally long-lived. A minor's booklet expires after five years, and the six-month rule applies to it just the same. Look at every expiry date in the family before any ticket is bought.
Passport number mistyped
The authorisation attaches to the number you enter. One wrong character produces an ETA that does not match the passport handed over at the counter, and a paid application cannot be edited afterwards.
Passport with under six months left
Sri Lanka expects six months of validity counted from the day you arrive, not the day you apply. A passport that falls short is refused at check-in regardless of the ETA.
The wrong ETA type
Attending meetings or a conference on a tourist ETA is outside its conditions. Choose the option that matches what you will actually do in the country.
Conditions
These conditions are set by Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration and Emigration and do not vary by nationality.
Sri Lanka requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation for short visits by all foreign nationals, and it should be approved before you travel. Even where the government charge is waived, the authorisation itself is still required.
The authorisation is recorded against the passport number you enter. If that passport is lost, replaced or renewed before you travel, the ETA does not move across and a new application is needed.
A tourist ETA allows two entries. The stay period runs from your first arrival, so a second entry is granted only the balance of that period rather than a fresh allowance.
A tourist ETA covers holidays, family visits, medical treatment and cultural or sporting events. Business meetings, conferences and short training need the business option, and a stopover of up to two days uses the transit option.
Immigration officers at the port of entry may ask for a confirmed return or onward ticket and evidence that you can support yourself for the length of your stay.
An approved ETA lets you travel to Sri Lanka. The decision to admit you is made by an immigration officer on arrival, and the conditions printed on your approval govern your stay.
Consular services
There is no Sri Lankan embassy in Algiers. Algeria is one of several countries handled by Sri Lanka's embassy in Cairo, whose ambassador is concurrently accredited there. Algerian ETA applicants deal with none of this, because nothing has to be lodged in person or sent by post. The Cairo mission matters only for visas and permissions that sit outside the online ETA.
FAQs
The questions Algerian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, Algerians need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to visit Sri Lanka, commonly described as the Sri Lanka visa or e-visa. It is requested online before the trip and allows 30 days with two entries for tourism. The standard government rate applies, as Algeria is not in the waiver scheme.
Yes. The ETA is applied for online and sent by email, and Sri Lanka has no embassy in Algiers in any case. You need your passport, an email address and a card that can pay online in foreign currency.
With a credit or debit card that your bank has enabled for international online payments. Standard dinar cards are generally limited to domestic use, so check with your bank in advance. The amount due is given in the live prices shown on this page.
You can use either one. French passports benefit from the waiver of the government charge and Algerian passports do not. Pick one, apply with its number, and travel on that same passport throughout, making sure it has six months of validity on arrival.
Up to 30 days from the first arrival date. Two entries are allowed within that period, with the second entry receiving only the remaining days. Any extension is a matter for the immigration department in Battaramulla.
No. The usual journey is Algiers to Doha, Dubai or Istanbul and then a second flight to Colombo, taking about 13 to 16 hours altogether. Passengers from Oran and Constantine can connect through Istanbul.
At least three to five days before flying, and earlier for July, August and the Eid holidays. Most approvals are issued within a day or two, although no timeframe is guaranteed. An approved ETA can be used for a first arrival for six months.
No. It authorises you to travel, and the final decision belongs to the immigration officer at the airport. Carrying your return ticket, hotel booking and proof of funds makes the conversation at the desk short.
Your nationality is already set to Algeria. Complete the form in around ten minutes, review every detail, and receive your ETA by email.
Other nationalities
Charges, routes and the practical details differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
