Novruz in March lands in the best beach weather Sri Lanka has to offer. Azerbaijani citizens need an ETA in hand before flying from Baku, valid for a 30-day visit with two entries on the same passport.
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
Overview
Outbound travel from Azerbaijan has traditionally meant Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Dubai. Sri Lanka is a newer idea in Baku, promoted by agencies as an alternative to the Maldives with more to do: ocean beaches, national parks with elephants and leopards, and a hill country of tea estates that appeals to a nation which takes its own tea seriously.
Since Azerbaijan's land borders have largely been closed to ordinary passenger traffic for several years, nearly every trip begins at Heydar Aliyev International Airport, and connections through the Gulf make Colombo reachable in well under a day. Before any of that, an Azerbaijani traveller needs an Electronic Travel Authorisation from Sri Lanka.
Azerbaijanis are already familiar with the concept, as their own country runs the ASAN electronic visa for foreign visitors. The Sri Lankan ETA, which people often search for as a Sri Lanka visa, works on a similar principle and is attached electronically to your passport.
At a glance
Eligibility
An ETA is required for all Azerbaijani citizens making a short visit, and it has to be approved ahead of travel. There is no exemption for holders of residence permits in the Emirates or Turkey, or for those with valid visas for Europe or the United States.
Azerbaijan does not appear among the forty nationalities whose government charge was waived from 25 May 2026. Azerbaijani applicants are charged at the standard rate. Neighbours such as Turkey, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan are on the waiver list, which sometimes causes confusion when friends from those countries compare notes; the rule follows the passport and not the region.
Under a tourist ETA you may holiday, tour, visit friends or relatives, follow an Ayurveda or yoga course, and attend or compete in sporting and cultural events. Oil and gas engineers, traders and delegates heading to a conference or negotiation must take the business option, and paid or unpaid work of any kind is ruled out on tourist terms.
Honeymooners form a noticeable share of Azerbaijani visitors, with weddings concentrated in the warmer months. Each spouse needs to be named in the application under the surname in the passport they will carry, which for a newly married bride may still be her maiden name.
Stay & validity
An Azerbaijani tourist may remain for 30 days from the first date of entry. The ETA permits two entries inside that span, and a traveller who steps out to the Maldives and returns is given the remainder of the 30 days, not a new allowance.
The approved ETA can be used at any point in the six months after it is issued. Wedding dates in Azerbaijan are often fixed long in advance, so couples can apply as soon as the honeymoon is booked. The terms printed on your approval are the definitive ones.
The general-purpose foreign passport, issued to adults for ten years and to children for shorter periods, needs six months of life remaining when you arrive. The domestic identity card cannot be used. Should you wish to stay longer than 30 days, the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, just outside Colombo, considers extension requests.
Pricing
Live fees for Azerbaijani 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 Azerbaijan
Requirements
Everything Azerbaijani 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.
Applications on Azerbaijani passports are usually approved in one or two days. This is an observed average, and no specific turnaround can be guaranteed.
Apply at least three to five days before you depart. The Novruz holiday is the exception that needs more care: Azerbaijan closes for about a week around 20 March, a great many families travel at once, and March is still high season on Sri Lanka's west coast. For Novruz trips, apply at the start of the month.
The same caution applies before the Ramazan and Gurban holidays and in the week leading up to New Year. Banks may be slow to respond if a card payment is blocked, and a spare few days absorbs that kind of delay.
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
Baku is well connected to the Gulf and to Istanbul, and all of the practical routes to Colombo use one of those hubs. Dubai offers the most frequencies, served from Baku by Azerbaijan Airlines, flydubai and Emirates, with several onward departures to Sri Lanka each day. Doha and Istanbul are comfortable alternatives with a single change.
Best time to go
Novruz is the standout opportunity. The holiday falls around the spring equinox, just as Sri Lanka's south-west coast is finishing its dry season, with warm seas and little rain before the mid-April New Year celebrations on the island.
The New Year break at the turn of December and January is the other peak, and it sits in the middle of the best weather for Bentota, Hikkaduwa and Mirissa. Baku is windy and raw at that time of year, which makes the appeal obvious.
Summer holidays and the wedding season run from June to September. During those months the monsoon affects Colombo and the south, so honeymooners are better served by the east coast resorts at Pasikudah and Trincomalee, perhaps combined with a few nights in the Maldives on the way home.
Baku time is fixed at an hour and a half behind Colombo throughout the year. Visitors who observe a halal diet will find it straightforward in Sri Lanka, which has a sizeable Muslim community, and should simply note that alcohol is not sold on the monthly Poya full-moon days.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Azerbaijan — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
A name such as Əliyev or Hüseynov contains characters the application is not built for. Use the plain-letter version from the machine-readable lines, which is what the airline and the immigration system will read.
If a bride's passport still shows her maiden name, that is the name for the ticket and the ETA. A marriage certificate does not bridge the gap at a foreign border.
Submitting on the eve of the holiday, when offices and bank support lines are closing, turns a small problem into a missed flight.
Hearing that Turkish or Russian friends were not charged leads some Azerbaijanis to expect the same. The waiver is nationality-specific, and Azerbaijan is not currently included.
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 diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan are conducted on a non-resident basis. This has no bearing on tourist travel, because the ETA is applied for and issued online without any contact with a mission.
FAQs
The questions Azerbaijani passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Azerbaijani citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, widely referred to as a Sri Lanka visa, before they travel. It allows 30 days in the country and two entries.
No. Azerbaijan is not one of the forty countries covered since 25 May 2026, so the standard government rate applies. What an Azerbaijani applicant pays today is set out in the live prices on this page.
Do not type them. Copy the simplified spelling from the machine-readable lines at the bottom of your passport's photo page, where those letters are shown in plain Latin form.
No direct service operates. The normal journey is one stop in Dubai, Doha, Sharjah or Istanbul, taking around nine to eleven hours in total.
Applications can be submitted online at any time, including public holidays. It is still wise to apply before the holiday begins in case your bank or a document check causes a delay.
You may travel within six months of approval, and once you arrive you can stay for 30 days. Both entries must take place within those 30 days.
The surname printed in the passport you will travel with. If you renew the passport in a married name after applying, a new ETA is needed for the new document.
Yes. The tourist ETA is double entry, so you can leave for the Maldives and come back, as long as the return falls inside your original 30 days.
Your nationality is already set to Azerbaijan. 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.
