Belarus is one of forty countries whose tourists no longer pay Sri Lanka's government charge, but the ETA itself remains compulsory. Arrange it online before leaving Minsk for 30 days on the island and two entries.
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 Belarusian citizens
Since 25 May 2026 Sri Lanka has waived its government charge on tourist ETAs for Belarusian passports. The ETA is still mandatory, and our service fee applies — see the live prices shown on this page.
Overview
For Belarusians, the list of warm places that are easy to reach has shortened in recent years, and Sri Lanka has moved up it. The island offers ocean beaches, elephants, tea estates and Buddhist temples in a country small enough to cross in a day, and it sits comfortably on the routes through Dubai and Istanbul that Minsk travellers already use.
Sri Lanka recognised that interest in May 2026 by adding Belarus to a group of forty nationalities whose tourist ETA carries no government charge. This is often misread as visa-free travel. It is not: a Belarusian citizen must still hold an approved Electronic Travel Authorisation, the document searchers tend to call a Sri Lanka visa, before the flight.
This page sets out what the waiver does and does not change for a Belarusian passport, how the 30-day stay works, and the practical details, from name spelling to connections out of Minsk National Airport, that decide whether the trip starts smoothly.
At a glance
Eligibility
They do. The waiver removed a charge, not a requirement, so every Belarusian visitor needs an ETA granted before arrival. Airlines check for it at the transfer desk in Dubai, Istanbul or Moscow as well as at departure, and a passenger without one risks being left behind at the connection.
For tourism the government portion is waived. That covers beach holidays, sightseeing tours, visits to friends, Ayurvedic treatment and yoga retreats, and attendance at sporting or cultural events. A fee for our help in preparing and submitting the application still applies, which is why the page shows live prices instead of describing the ETA as costing nothing.
The business option is a separate product for trade meetings, conferences, seminars and training lasting under a month. Belarusian companies in IT, potash and machinery do send staff to South Asia, and those travellers should not use the tourist route simply because it is the one mentioned in the news about the waiver.
Paid or unpaid work, self-employment and settling in Sri Lanka through consecutive visits are all outside a tourist ETA. Journalism, political activity and work for non-governmental organisations require prior clearance from the Sri Lankan government and cannot be arranged through an online ETA.
Stay & validity
A Belarusian tourist is admitted for 30 days starting on the day of first entry. The ETA is double entry, which helps those combining Sri Lanka with a week in the Maldives or South India, but re-entry does not reset anything: the officer grants the days still unused from the original 30.
After approval you have six months in which to make the journey. Tour operators in Minsk commonly sell winter packages in early autumn, so there is room to apply as soon as the booking is confirmed without the authorisation going stale. The conditions shown on your approval are the ones that govern.
Sri Lanka requires six months of passport validity from arrival. A Belarusian passport serves as both the internal identity document and the travel document for many citizens and is normally issued for ten years, so check the expiry page if yours dates from around 2016 or 2017. Citizens who have added the newer biometric travel passport should apply with whichever document they will actually present.
To remain beyond 30 days, an application for an extension goes to the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, outside Colombo, while the first stay is still valid.
Pricing
Live fees for Belarusian 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 Belarus
Requirements
Everything Belarusian 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.
Approval for Belarusian applicants normally comes through in one or two days. The waiver has not created a faster or slower channel; applications are assessed in the same way as before, simply without the government charge attached.
Submit the application at least three to five days ahead of departure. Travellers on a package tour should not assume the operator has done it for them, a misunderstanding that comes up regularly now that the charge has gone and agencies describe the destination as simple to enter.
The weeks before New Year and before the March school break are the busiest, both in Minsk travel agencies and on the island. Apply a fortnight ahead for those dates so that a query about a passport scan does not collide with your flight.
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
With European Union airspace closed to Belarusian carriers, almost all traffic from Minsk to South Asia flows south or east. The Gulf is the natural connection: Belavia and flydubai both link Minsk with Dubai, where Emirates, flydubai and SriLankan Airlines continue to Colombo. Istanbul and Moscow are the two alternatives.
Best time to go
Belarusian winter runs long, and the months when Minsk is darkest, December to March, are exactly when Sri Lanka's west and south coasts are at their best. Sea temperatures stay warm enough for children to swim all day, and whale-watching trips operate from Mirissa throughout.
The long break from New Year to Orthodox Christmas on 7 January is the single most popular departure window. A quieter option is late February into March, when many Belarusians combine the 8 March holiday with school spring break and find the beaches less crowded.
The May holidays, Labour Day, Victory Day and Radunitsa, fall at the turn of the season. Rain is arriving in the south-west by then, so spend those days in the Cultural Triangle or on the east coast around Trincomalee, which enters its dry months in May and stays good until September.
Minsk keeps the same time all year, so Sri Lanka is always two and a half hours ahead. That small gap makes the island easier on the body than Thailand or Vietnam, and families with young children usually adjust within a day.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Belarus — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
News coverage in Belarus described the 2026 change as free entry, and some travellers stopped there. Without an approved authorisation the airline will not carry you on the Colombo sector, whatever the charge may be.
A passport may say Uladzimir while the bank card and the ticket say Vladimir. Copy the application from the passport, then ask your agent to correct the ticket if it differs.
Citizens who hold both the standard passport and the newer biometric one occasionally enter the wrong number. The ETA is bound to a single document, and that is the one you must hand to the officer.
The waiver applies to tourist ETAs. An engineer visiting a client or a delegate at a trade fair needs the business option, even if a few beach days are added at the end.
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 Minsk; Belarus is served from Moscow. Tourist ETA applicants have no reason to contact the embassy, because the authorisation is requested online and delivered by email.
FAQs
The questions Belarusian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Belarusian citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation before travelling, even though the government charge for tourists has been waived. It gives 30 days and two entries and is attached to your passport number.
Not quite. Since 25 May 2026 Sri Lanka has not collected its government charge on tourist ETAs for Belarusian passports, but the ETA remains a compulsory step that must be completed before you fly.
The price reflects our service for checking and submitting your application. The Sri Lankan government portion is waived for Belarusian tourists, and the live prices here show what is payable today.
A tourist ETA gives a Belarusian visitor thirty days, starting with the first arrival. If you leave and come back, the second visit uses the balance of those days.
Use the Latin spelling printed in your passport and nothing else. It does not matter which language it was derived from, only that the application, the ticket and the passport all agree.
Scheduled travel normally involves one connection, most often in Dubai and sometimes in Istanbul or Moscow. Check that your ETA is approved before the first flight, as it is inspected at the transfer point too.
The waiver announced in May 2026 concerns tourist ETAs. Meetings, conferences and short training call for the business option, and the current price for it appears in the live prices on this page.
Yes. A Belarusian child of any age has to be listed in an application under his or her own passport, and no government charge applies to them on a tourist ETA.
Your nationality is already set to Belarus. 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.
