Bolivian travellers swap the Altiplano for the Indian Ocean on a tourist ETA that allows 30 days and two entries. Apply online before leaving Santa Cruz or La Paz, using the passport you will carry to Colombo.
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
Bolivia has no coastline, and for many Bolivians a long-haul trip is above all a trip to the sea. Sri Lanka answers that with warm water on every side, but it also offers things a paceño or cruceño will recognise: highland towns wrapped in cloud, terraced hillsides, crowded religious festivals and markets where bargaining is expected.
To get there on a Bolivian passport you need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the permit that Spanish-language searches tend to call a visa or e-visa for Sri Lanka. It is requested through an online form, decided before you travel and stored electronically against your passport number, so nothing has to be posted or stamped in advance.
Bolivian nationals pay the standard government rate, as the country is not part of the forty-nation waiver, and our assistance fee is charged on top. Check the live prices shown on this page for what applies on the day you apply.
At a glance
Eligibility
All Bolivian citizens need an ETA for a short visit, with no exception for age, profession or length of stay. A honeymoon couple from Cochabamba, a student backpacking after graduation and a retired teacher visiting friends are all treated alike, and each must hold an approval before the first flight leaves Viru Viru or El Alto.
Tourism is read broadly. Sightseeing, beach holidays, staying with friends or relatives, medical care including Ayurveda and yoga programmes, and taking part in sporting or cultural events all sit within a tourist ETA.
Commercial visits do not. Bolivians travelling to negotiate with suppliers, attend a trade conference, give a workshop or complete training lasting under a month should select the business option. Reporting for a media outlet, political activity and work for a non-governmental organisation need the Sri Lankan government's approval first and are not offered through the online system.
A good number of Bolivians also hold a Spanish passport after years of residence in Spain, and some hold an Argentine or Brazilian one. Spain is covered by the waiver of the government charge; Argentina and Brazil are not. Whatever you choose, the nationality and number on the application must be those of the booklet presented at immigration.
Stay & validity
The tourist ETA allows a Bolivian visitor to stay for 30 days. That clock starts on the first arrival and does not pause, so a second entry later in the trip, perhaps after a side visit to southern India, is admitted only for the days still unused.
Once issued, the authorisation remains valid for travel for six months. Bolivians who buy tickets far in advance to secure a reasonable connection can therefore apply early without the approval lapsing, provided the trip begins inside that window and the printed conditions say nothing different.
Your pasaporte must have at least six months left on the day you land at Bandaranaike. Bolivian booklets have been issued with different validity terms over the years, so do not rely on memory: open the photo page and count forward from your arrival date, not from the date you fill in the form.
Pricing
Live fees for Bolivian 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 Bolivia
Requirements
Everything Bolivian 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 from Bolivia are normally decided within one or two days. Some come back in a matter of hours and a few need longer, usually because the passport image is unclear or the name on the form does not agree with the machine-readable zone.
We advise Bolivian travellers to apply no later than three to five days before departure. Add more time ahead of the December and January school holidays and the July winter break, when families travel together and a single delayed approval can hold up the whole group.
There is a gap of nine and a half hours between La Paz and Colombo, with Sri Lanka ahead. An application sent after lunch in Bolivia arrives late at night on the island, so in practice the earliest reply tends to appear the next Bolivian morning.
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
Reaching Sri Lanka from Bolivia means at least two changes of aircraft. Santa Cruz de la Sierra is the country's long-haul gateway, with services to Madrid and to São Paulo, and from either city a Gulf or Turkish carrier completes the journey. Travellers from La Paz, Cochabamba or Sucre first take a domestic flight down to Viru Viru.
Best time to go
Bolivian school holidays fall in two blocks, and each matches a different side of Sri Lanka. The long summer break in December and January is the time for the south and west: Bentota, Galle, Mirissa and Tangalle are dry, the sea is calm, and blue whales pass close to the southern tip.
The winter break in July, when nights on the Altiplano drop below freezing, lines up with the east-coast season. Trincomalee and Pasikudah are at their best, Arugam Bay has its surf, and Yala's leopards are easier to see as water sources shrink. The south-west gets monsoon rain during those weeks.
Visitors from La Paz or Potosí will find the hill country amusingly low. Nuwara Eliya, the highest tea town, stands at roughly half the altitude of El Alto, so there is no soroche to worry about, only cool evenings and mist.
Carnaval in February falls within Sri Lanka's dry season on the west coast. Mid-April brings Sinhala and Tamil New Year, May the lantern-lit Vesak festival, and each full moon a Poya day when shops selling alcohol stay shut.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Bolivia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Online forms designed around a single family name tempt Bolivians to leave out the apellido materno. The ETA is matched to the passport, where both appear, and an approval issued to Juan Mamani will not sit comfortably beside a passport reading Juan Mamani Quispe.
The six months run from your arrival in Sri Lanka. A Bolivian who applies in March for a July trip should measure from July, and with two days of travel involved it is the landing date in Colombo that matters, not the day you leave Santa Cruz.
Restrictions on foreign-currency spending have caught out Bolivian cardholders before. Ask your bank to confirm that international online purchases are enabled and that your limit covers the payment before you begin, so the form does not have to be started again.
Bolivians visiting gem, tea or textile exhibitions sometimes tick the tourist box because the trip also includes a holiday. Meetings, negotiations and conferences belong under the business option, and choosing the wrong type leaves you outside the conditions of your approval.
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 keeps no embassy or consulate in La Paz. Its embassy in Brasília is the resident mission on the continent and the natural first contact for Bolivians with a consular question, though you should confirm with it that it handles your matter. None of this is needed for an ETA, which involves no appointment, interview or posted passport.
FAQs
The questions Bolivian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, in the sense that Bolivian citizens must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation before travelling, which is the online permit people commonly call the Sri Lanka visa. A tourist ETA lets a Bolivian stay for 30 days and enter twice within that time.
Online, from anywhere with an internet connection. You choose the tourist, business or transit type, add each traveller, enter the passport details in English as printed, pay by card and wait for the approval email. No visit to an embassy is involved.
It does not. The waiver of the government charge covers forty named countries and Bolivia is not on the list, so Bolivian adults are charged the standard rate plus our service fee. The government fee is not collected for children under 12 on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days.
Most travellers fly from Santa Cruz to either Madrid or São Paulo and connect there to Qatar Airways, Emirates or Turkish Airlines for Colombo. Expect two changes and well over a day in transit, and check whether the country you connect through requires anything of Bolivian passport holders.
You can. The tourist ETA is a double-entry authorisation, so a Bolivian may leave for the Maldives or India and return. Both entries have to happen inside the 30 days that began with your first arrival, and the second one gives you only the remainder.
Not on that passport. Sri Lanka asks for six months of validity from the date of arrival, and airlines apply the rule at check-in. Renew first, then apply for the ETA with the new passport number, because an authorisation issued against the old booklet does not carry over.
It depends on the coast. The December and January holidays suit the south and west and the tea country, while the July break suits the east coast around Trincomalee and Arugam Bay. October and November are the least predictable months for weather.
A paid application cannot be edited, and government charges are neither refunded nor transferred. If the error affects your name, date of birth, nationality or passport number, a new application is the remedy.
Your nationality is already set to Bolivia. 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.
