Australians need an approved ETA before flying to Colombo, whether to visit family, chase waves at Arugam Bay or follow a Test series in Galle. It allows 30 days and two entries, and Sri Lanka waives its government charge for Australian passports.
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 Australian citizens
Australian passports have been exempt from Sri Lanka's government charge on tourist ETAs since 25 May 2026. The ETA is not optional, and it needs to be approved ahead of your flight.
Overview
Australia's ties with Sri Lanka run deeper than tourism figures suggest. Melbourne is home to one of the largest Sri Lankan communities outside the island, Sydney is not far behind, and a great many flights between the two countries are filled with people visiting parents, attending weddings or introducing children to their grandparents. Alongside them travel surfers bound for Arugam Bay, cricket followers heading for Galle, and holidaymakers who have noticed that Colombo is a single flight away from Melbourne.
All of them need the same thing before boarding: an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Sri Lanka requires one from every foreign national, and it should be approved before you leave Australia. Travel agents here often describe it as a Sri Lanka visa or tourist e-visa. Australia is on the list of 40 countries for which Sri Lanka stopped levying a government charge on the tourist ETA from 25 May 2026.
Australians already know the term ETA from their own border system, which causes some confusion, so this page starts by separating the two. It then covers the 30-day stay and what it means for long family visits, passport and name details that trip people up, the nonstop flights from Melbourne and Sydney, and how the Australian school terms fit the two Sri Lankan monsoons.
At a glance
Eligibility
Australian citizens need a Sri Lankan ETA, and it has nothing to do with the Electronic Travel Authority that Australia issues to its own visitors. The names are almost identical; the documents are unrelated. Having dealt with one for an overseas relative does not mean you hold the other, and airline staff at Tullamarine or Kingsford Smith will check for Sri Lanka's approval against your passport.
Holidays, family visits, weddings, Ayurveda and yoga retreats, and playing in or watching sporting events are covered by the tourist ETA. That takes in the two biggest groups of Australian travellers: those staying with relatives in Colombo, Kandy or Jaffna, and those on a touring or surfing holiday.
The tourist option stops short of work in any form. Paid employment, unpaid placements, freelance work for Sri Lankan clients and commercial trade are all excluded, as is volunteering that amounts to a job. Staff of aid organisations and journalists need prior clearance from the authorities and cannot obtain it through the online ETA. Conferences, business meetings and short training courses go under the business option.
Australians born in Sri Lanka who travel on an Australian passport are treated as foreign nationals and need the ETA like anyone else, as do their Australian-born children. Apply under the nationality of the passport you will hand over in Colombo. New Zealand citizens living in Australia apply on their New Zealand passport, and permanent residents holding other passports apply under that nationality, since residence in Australia does not affect the charge.
Stay & validity
A tourist ETA entitles Australian visitors to 30 days from first arrival, with two entries. The second entry suits anyone adding a side trip to the Maldives or southern India in the middle of a longer visit. It is not a fresh 30 days: if you leave on day 12 and return on day 18, you have twelve days left.
You can travel on the approval at any time in the six months after it is issued. Australians booking the long December and January break often buy tickets in winter, and applying then is perfectly workable. The conditions printed on the approval are the ones that count at the border.
Sri Lanka wants six months of passport validity from the date you arrive. Adult Australian passports last ten years, while those issued to children under 16 last five and catch families out. Replacing a passport through the Australian Passport Office before a peak period can take several weeks, so check dates early and apply for the ETA only once you have the passport you will actually travel on.
Thirty days is often shorter than a family visit from Australia, where a trip home commonly lasts six weeks or more across the summer holidays. Staying beyond the initial period requires an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration at Battaramulla, near Colombo, applied for before the 30 days are up. Back-to-back visits used to live in Sri Lanka for much of the year fall outside what a tourist ETA allows.
Pricing
Live fees for Australian 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 Australia
Requirements
Everything Australian 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.
Approvals for Australian applicants generally come through within a day or two. It is not a guaranteed turnaround, so apply at least three to five days before departure. Colombo is four and a half to five and a half hours behind the eastern states, which means a form lodged on a Melbourne evening reaches Sri Lanka in the middle of its working day.
The heaviest period for travel from Australia is mid-December to late January, when school holidays, Christmas and the main Sri Lankan tourist season all coincide. Flights on the nonstop services are close to full for weeks. If you are travelling then, apply three or four weeks ahead, and do the same before the Easter and July school holidays.
Large family groups should plan carefully. It is common for three generations to travel together from Melbourne or Sydney, sometimes on a mix of Australian and other passports. Each person's application must use their own passport and nationality, and the waiver applies passport by passport. Sort the group by passport before you start, and double-check every number on the review screen.
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
Melbourne is Australia's main gateway to Sri Lanka. SriLankan Airlines flies nonstop from Melbourne to Colombo and also serves Sydney, and Jetstar began a low-cost nonstop service from Melbourne in August 2026. Travellers from Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide usually connect in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, which adds only a few hours. Check timetables when you book, as frequencies change between seasons.
Best time to go
Sri Lanka is four and a half hours behind Sydney and Melbourne on standard time and five and a half during daylight saving, while Perth is only two and a half hours ahead. Flying west is the easy direction for jet lag, and most Australians feel normal by the second day. The trip home is harder, so leave a buffer day before returning to work.
The Australian summer holidays line up with the best weather on the west and south coasts and in the hills. December to March is the time for Galle Fort, the beaches at Hikkaduwa and Mirissa, whale watching and the train ride from Kandy to Ella. It is also when Australian touring sides have often played in Sri Lanka and when accommodation is most expensive.
The Easter break in April is still good in the south-west, though Sinhala and Tamil New Year in mid-April sees families gather and many businesses shut, which is a pleasure if you are staying with relatives and an inconvenience if you are touring. By the July school holidays the south-west is in monsoon. That is peak season at Arugam Bay, where the right-hand point break draws surfers from Australia each winter, and at Trincomalee and Pasikudah.
The September and October holidays fall at the tail of the east coast season and the start of the inter-monsoon rains. It is a quieter and cheaper time, well suited to the Cultural Triangle and to leopard spotting in Yala or Wilpattu. Whatever the month, look up the Poya dates: on these full-moon public holidays alcohol is not sold, including at hotel bars.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Australia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Australians hear ETA and think of the authority issued to visitors coming to Australia. Some assume the Sri Lankan one is only needed by foreigners, or that an old approval for a relative has some bearing. It does not. Each Australian traveller needs Sri Lanka's own authorisation.
Long summer visits to family are the norm for Australians of Sri Lankan background. The tourist ETA covers the first 30 days only. Anyone staying longer must arrange an extension at the immigration department in Battaramulla before that period ends, and should plan a day for it.
Households often include Australian citizens, permanent residents on other passports and sometimes New Zealanders. Entering everyone as Australian is a frequent slip. Nationality and passport number must match the document each person carries, and the price shown depends on that nationality.
Children's passports in Australia expire after five years, and a passport obtained for a baby's first trip is often close to its end by the next one. With less than six months left on arrival, the child will not be accepted for travel. Check before booking.
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
Sri Lanka's High Commission is in Canberra, with consulates general in Melbourne and Sydney serving the largest communities. Australian tourists do not need to contact any of them for an ETA, which is applied for online and sent by email. The missions look after visas that fall outside the ETA, and consular services for Sri Lankan nationals in Australia.
FAQs
The questions Australian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Australian citizens need an approved Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for Sri Lanka, which is what most people mean by a Sri Lanka visa for a short visit. It allows 30 days and two entries, and Sri Lanka does not apply a government charge to it for Australian passports.
Sri Lanka waived its government charge on tourist ETAs for Australians on 25 May 2026. You must still apply before travelling, and our service fee for handling the application applies. Check the live prices shown on this page.
No. They share a name and nothing else. Australia's ETA is for foreign visitors entering Australia. The Sri Lankan ETA is issued by Sri Lanka for people entering that country, and Australian passport holders need it for every short visit.
Thirty days from the day you first arrive. You may enter twice within that time, but the second entry only gives you the days remaining. For a longer stay, apply for an extension at the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla.
If you enter on your Australian passport, yes. Sri Lanka asks every foreign national for an ETA regardless of birthplace. Select Australian as your nationality and enter your place of birth as the passport records it.
The ETA itself covers 30 days. A two-month visit is possible only with an extension obtained in Sri Lanka before the first 30 days expire. Leaving briefly and returning does not reset the period on the same ETA.
Yes. Every child needs to be included in an application under their own passport. Australian child passports last five years, so confirm that each one will have six months left on the arrival date.
At least three to five days before you fly, and three to four weeks ahead for the December and January holidays. An approved ETA can be used for six months, so there is no penalty for applying as soon as your tickets are booked.
Your nationality is already set to Australia. 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.
