Bahraini nationals need an ETA in place before leaving Manama for Colombo, a flight of roughly five hours. Tourist approvals allow 30 days and two entries, and the Sri Lankan government charge does not apply to Bahraini 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
Overview
Bahrain is a small country with an outward-looking habit, and Bahrainis have been travelling east across the Arabian Sea for trade and leisure for generations. Sri Lanka fits the modern version of that pattern well: an island nation like their own, though one with mountains, rainforest and a coastline that takes days to drive.
Bahraini citizens cannot simply turn up. Sri Lanka issues an Electronic Travel Authorisation, or ETA, that has to be approved before the journey starts. Search engines and travel agents in Manama often label it a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa; the document is the same whatever name is used, and it exists only as an electronic record against your passport.
On 25 May 2026 Sri Lanka stopped collecting its government charge on tourist ETAs from 40 nationalities, Bahrain included. Applying through us still involves a service fee, which you can see in the live prices shown on this page. Roughly half the people living in Bahrain are not Bahraini, so to be clear: this page concerns citizens, and residents apply on the passport they hold.
At a glance
Eligibility
The answer is yes for every Bahraini traveller and every kind of short trip. The Kingdom's passport is well regarded and its holders enter many countries without formalities, but Sri Lanka's ETA applies universally. The waiver changed what a Bahraini pays the Sri Lankan government, not what a Bahraini must hold.
Most visitors from Bahrain will use the tourist ETA and its 30-day allowance. It suits beach and wildlife holidays, visits to friends, wellness stays built around Ayurveda or yoga, and trips to attend a match, tournament or cultural performance.
Bahrain's financial and trading community should take care to choose correctly. Banking meetings, negotiations with suppliers, conferences and short training courses are business purposes and need the business option. Taking up employment, paid or unpaid, is not permitted on a tourist ETA.
Parents should note that each child needs to be included, with a passport of their own. The under-12 exemption from the government fee applies across all nationalities and so adds nothing for Bahrainis already covered by the waiver, but it does matter for any child in the party travelling on a passport from outside the list.
Stay & validity
Bahraini passport holders receive 30 days on entry. The count begins on the day of first arrival and keeps running during any trip out of the country. Two entries are permitted, so a Colombo–Malé–Colombo itinerary works, provided the second arrival is still within the original 30 days; only the balance is granted.
The approval may be used for travel at any point in the six months after it is issued. Bahrainis who book Eid trips late can therefore apply long before choosing flights. If the wording on your approval sets out specific conditions, those are what the immigration officer applies.
A passport with fewer than six months remaining on the arrival date will not be accepted, however valid the ETA. And since the authorisation is locked to one passport number, renewing your passport in the meantime leaves you needing to apply again from scratch.
Pricing
Live fees for Bahraini 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 Bahrain
Requirements
Everything Bahraini 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.
Expect a decision within a day or two in most cases. No turnaround is guaranteed, which is why we ask Bahraini travellers to apply at least three to five days before they are due to fly, and sooner if several relatives are travelling together.
Bahrain's public holidays cluster in ways that create sudden demand. National Day on 16 and 17 December falls in Sri Lanka's high season. The two Eids each bring several days off. In spring and summer, school closures send families abroad for longer spells. For any of these, have the approval ready before you search for seats.
Bahrainis who cross the causeway to fly from Dammam, or who connect through Dubai or Doha, should apply with the same lead time. The ETA is normally checked where your journey begins, and a missing approval can stop the trip before the connecting flight is ever reached.
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
Bahrain's national carrier links Manama with Colombo, and the island is also an easy one-stop journey through the neighbouring Gulf hubs. Some Bahrainis prefer to drive across the King Fahd Causeway and depart from Dammam, where SriLankan Airlines operates, particularly when fares or timings from Bahrain International do not suit.
Best time to go
Bahrain's best weather and Sri Lanka's best beach weather arrive together. Between December and March the island's southern and western shores are dry, and a National Day break gives enough time for Galle Fort and a couple of nights in a tea-country bungalow.
Summer travel from Bahrain is about escaping humidity as much as heat. Sri Lanka's hill stations provide the contrast: Nuwara Eliya and Ella sit in cloud and drizzle for much of June to August, with waterfalls at full strength. For sun and swimming in those months, the east coast is the dry side.
April is a shoulder month worth considering. The Sinhala and Tamil New Year in the middle of the month closes many shops and offices for a few days, and domestic travel is heavy, but the weather on the south coast is generally still good.
With Sri Lanka two and a half hours ahead, a Bahraini traveller barely needs to adjust. Friday prayers are easy to attend in Colombo and other towns with established Muslim communities, and halal food is common. Poya, the monthly full-moon holiday, is a quiet day when alcohol is not sold.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Bahrain — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Bahrainis are admitted to a long list of countries with nothing more than a stamp. Sri Lanka is not on that list, and since the fee waiver it is often wrongly described as visa-exempt. Airlines will refuse to carry a passenger whose ETA is missing.
The personal number on the identity card is second nature to Bahrainis and appears on many forms at home. It is not what Sri Lanka asks for. The field requires the passport number from the photo page, and an ETA issued against anything else is unusable.
Older Bahraini passports sometimes carry spellings the holder no longer uses, such as Mohamed where they now write Mohammed. The application must reproduce the passport, quirks included. Updating the spelling on the form produces a mismatch.
Travellers routing through Dubai or Doha sometimes plan to sort out the ETA during the layover. A day or two is the usual wait, and airlines look for the document at the start of the journey, so the layover is too late.
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 a Sri Lankan embassy in Manama, occupied largely with services for Sri Lankan nationals in Bahrain. It has no role in a Bahraini citizen's tourist ETA, which is applied for, paid for and issued online without any contact with the mission.
FAQs
The questions Bahraini passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Bahraini citizens require an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the online permission sometimes called a Sri Lanka visa, before travelling. Bahrain is one of 40 countries whose nationals are not charged the government fee for a tourist ETA, but holding the authorisation is still a firm requirement.
No. The change made on 25 May 2026 waived the government charge; it did not exempt Bahrainis from the ETA. You still apply online before departure, and a service fee applies if you use our assistance, as set out in the live prices shown on this page.
A tourist ETA allows 30 days counted from first arrival, with a second entry permitted during that time. To stay longer you would need an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration, which has its head office at Battaramulla near Colombo.
No. The identity card works for travel within the GCC. For Sri Lanka you need a passport valid for six months from the date of arrival, and your ETA will be linked to that passport.
That depends entirely on your citizenship. Sri Lanka looks at the passport, so you apply with the one you hold and the charge reflects that country's status. Bahraini residency by itself confers nothing.
Gulf Air has operated between Bahrain and Colombo, and one-stop connections through Dubai and Doha are plentiful. Because schedules are revised from season to season, confirm what is running for your dates before you plan around a nonstop.
At least three to five days before departure, and earlier ahead of Eid, National Day in December or the summer school holidays. Approvals normally come through in a day or two and can be used for six months, so there is nothing to lose by applying early.
No. Meetings and negotiations are business activities and require the business option. If your visit combines work and leisure, the business purpose governs the choice.
Your nationality is already set to Bahrain. 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.
