Bhutanese travellers flying out of Paro need an ETA in place before they connect to Colombo. A tourist ETA gives 30 days and two entries, and as a SAARC member outside the fee waiver, Bhutan is charged the reduced SAARC rate.
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 Bhutanese citizens
Bhutan is not among the 40 countries covered by Sri Lanka's waiver of the tourist ETA government charge. As a SAARC member it is charged the reduced SAARC rate instead of the standard one; see the live prices shown on this page.
Overview
Bhutan and Sri Lanka sit at opposite ends of South Asia's Buddhist world, one in the high Himalaya and the other in the Indian Ocean. For Bhutanese visitors, standing before the tooth relic in Kandy or the Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura is often the purpose of the whole trip, with a few days by the sea added because Bhutan has no coastline of its own.
There is a quieter link as well. Generations of Bhutanese doctors trained at Sri Lankan medical faculties, and parents still travel to see sons and daughters studying there. Numbers are small, which means advice written for larger countries rarely fits, particularly on the question of how a Bhutanese name should be entered on a foreign form.
Whatever the reason, a Bhutanese citizen needs an Electronic Travel Authorisation, sometimes described by agents in Thimphu as a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa. Bhutan was left out of the 40-country fee waiver announced in 2026, but its SAARC membership brings a lower government rate than most of the world pays. The sections below explain the rest.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. Bhutanese people are used to entering India without formalities, and it is easy to assume a fellow SAARC state works the same way. Sri Lanka does not. An ETA approved ahead of travel is required of every Bhutanese visitor, and the airline carrying you on the final leg to Colombo will look for it.
The tourist category covers pilgrimage and sightseeing, beach holidays, visiting relatives or a child at university, Ayurveda and yoga stays, and participation in sports events such as archery or football tournaments. That accounts for almost all private travel from Bhutan.
Civil servants and company staff going for workshops, seminars, short training of under a month, or business negotiations should select the business option. The same applies to monks and lay delegates invited to a formal religious conference or symposium, which is treated differently from a personal pilgrimage.
No form of employment is allowed on a tourist ETA, and it cannot be used to live on the island through repeated visits. Media work, political activity and assignments for non-governmental organisations need Sri Lankan government approval obtained beforehand and are not offered online.
Stay & validity
Thirty days, starting when you first land, is what a Bhutanese tourist receives. The ETA is good for two entries, which helps if you route home through Malé or make a short trip to South India partway through, but the second arrival is admitted only for whatever remains of the original period.
You have six months from approval to begin your trip. Bhutanese families planning for the long winter school vacation can therefore apply in the autumn. Your approval notice sets out the binding conditions, and those take priority over any general description.
Check your passport's expiry against your arrival date, since Sri Lanka insists on six months remaining. If the Department of Immigration in Thimphu issues you a replacement, it will have a new number and an ETA granted on the old booklet becomes useless. Anyone hoping to remain past 30 days must seek an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, outside Colombo.
Pricing
Live fees for Bhutanese 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 Bhutan
Requirements
Everything Bhutanese 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.
Bhutanese applications are usually approved in a day or two. We go through the name fields with particular care before sending anything on, because that is where forms from Bhutan most often disagree with the passport. Treat the usual turnaround as an indication only.
Submit at least three to five days before you leave Paro, and preferably before you leave for your connecting city. Bhutan is thirty minutes ahead of Sri Lanka, so timing is not an obstacle, but internet access can be patchy if you are travelling down from Bumthang or Trashigang in the days before departure.
Allow extra time in December and January, when Bhutanese schools are closed and Sri Lanka is in its peak season, and around Losar. If you must first arrange an international payment facility with your bank, start with that, as it can take longer than the ETA itself.
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
No airline flies between Bhutan and Sri Lanka, so the trip is always made in two stages. Drukair and Bhutan Airlines carry you from Paro to Delhi, Kolkata, Bangkok or Kathmandu, and Drukair also serves Singapore. Delhi and Bangkok have the most onward flights to Colombo. Because Bhutanese citizens may enter India freely, changing in Delhi on separate tickets is uncomplicated, though Paro's weather-dependent, daylight-only operations make a generous layover wise.
Best time to go
Bhutan's school year ends in mid-December and resumes in February, giving families their longest break in the coldest months. Those weeks are ideal on Sri Lanka's west and south coasts and in the hills. After frozen mornings in Paro or Haa, the warm water at Hikkaduwa and the tea slopes near Ella make a striking change.
Pilgrims may prefer Vesak, on the May full moon, when Buddhists across the island mark the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and passing with lanterns and almsgiving. It falls close to the anniversary Bhutanese observe as Lord Buddha's Parinirvana. Kandy's Esala Perahera in July or August, with the tooth relic casket carried through the town, is the other great occasion.
The short summer break in early July coincides with rain on the south-west coast, so head east to Trincomalee or Pasikudah if you want the sea. Autumn, when the Thimphu and Paro tshechus keep many people at home, corresponds to Sri Lanka's inter-monsoon period of afternoon downpours.
Visitors from high altitude often underestimate the lowland heat. Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa are hot all year, and sacred sites are visited barefoot on sun-baked stone, so plan temple visits for early morning. Each full moon is a Poya holiday, when temples are crowded with white-clad worshippers.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Bhutan — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Most Bhutanese have two given names and no inherited family name, so Sonam Dorji and his sister Karma Lhamo share nothing on paper. The form still asks for a surname. The answer is to follow the passport: whichever name it places in the surname line goes there, and if it lists both together, do not invent a split.
Dzongkha names have no single Latin spelling, and the same person can be Tshewang on a school certificate and Tsewang on a bank card. Only the spelling in the passport matters for Sri Lanka. Give that version to the airline too, since a ticket and an authorisation that differ by a letter invite questions.
Cards from Bhutanese banks are frequently limited to ngultrum and Indian rupee transactions. An international online payment needs a card your bank has opened for foreign-currency use, and there may be an annual quota. Applicants who discover this at the final screen sometimes believe they have applied when they have not.
Flights out of Paro are delayed or cancelled by cloud more often than at most airports. Travellers who leave the ETA until they reach Delhi or Bangkok, intending to apply during the layover, have nothing to fall back on if anything needs correcting. Have the approval in your inbox before you leave Bhutan.
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 has no embassy in Thimphu. Its High Commissioner in Dhaka serves concurrently as non-resident ambassador to Bhutan. Bhutanese ETA applicants need not contact that office or send documents to Bangladesh, since the application is handled online. It would become relevant only for visas beyond the ETA or for activities requiring prior approval from Colombo.
FAQs
The questions Bhutanese passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, Bhutanese citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), often called a Sri Lanka visa, approved before they travel. A tourist ETA allows a stay of 30 days and two entries. Bhutan is outside the fee waiver, so the reduced SAARC government rate applies.
No. The waiver of the government charge that began on 25 May 2026 names 40 countries, and Bhutan is not one of them. Bhutanese adults pay the reduced SAARC rate plus our service fee, with the current figures given in the live prices shown on this page.
Copy the layout of your passport. If the passport shows one of your names as the surname, use that; if it prints both names in a single field, keep them together as shown. Never borrow a parent's name to fill the gap.
There are none. You fly from Paro to a hub such as Delhi, Bangkok or Singapore and change there for Colombo. Leave a long connection, as Paro departures depend on daylight and clear weather.
Yes. Visiting friends and relatives is one of the purposes a tourist ETA covers, so a short stay to see a student in Colombo or Kandy is fine. The 30-day limit applies to the parent's visit.
Children under 12 are not charged the government fee for a tourist ETA of up to 30 days, whatever their nationality. A Bhutanese child must nonetheless be entered in the application with a passport of their own.
An organised religious event or symposium comes under the business option, not the tourist one. Private pilgrimage to Kandy, Anuradhapura or Mihintale, without a formal programme, is tourism. Choose according to what the invitation describes.
At least three to five days before leaving Paro, and earlier for travel in December, January or around Losar. Approvals usually take a day or two but are not guaranteed within any set time.
Your nationality is already set to Bhutan. 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.
