Cameroonians, whether English- or French-speaking, need an ETA arranged before travelling to Sri Lanka. It is requested online from Douala, Yaoundé or abroad, covers 30 days with two entries and follows your passport number.
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
Cameroon likes to call itself Africa in miniature, and Sri Lanka makes a similar claim for Asia: beaches, rainforest, highlands, wildlife and ancient cities packed into an island smaller than the Centre and South regions combined. Cameroonian visitors are few, usually students, professionals working in the Gulf or Asia, footballers on trial and the occasional adventurous honeymoon couple. Each must organise an entry authorisation before travelling.
It is called an Electronic Travel Authorisation, or ETA. Anglophone Cameroonians tend to search for a Sri Lanka visa and francophones for a visa Sri Lanka; the ETA is what both will be issued for a short stay. Nothing is stamped into the passport ahead of travel, and no courier is involved.
Cameroon's bilingual passports and its naming customs create a few traps on an English-only form, and the country's limited long-haul connections make planning the journey just as important as the paperwork. Both are dealt with here, from a Cameroonian point of view.
At a glance
Eligibility
If you hold Cameroonian nationality, you need an ETA to visit Sri Lanka, with no exceptions for age or length of stay. The approval must exist before departure, and since your journey will pass through at least one other country, each airline along the way may verify it.
Cameroon pays the standard government rate. It was not included when Sri Lanka removed the charge for forty nationalities on 25 May 2026, and the SAARC and reciprocal categories concern other regions. The live prices shown on this page give the government element and our service fee side by side.
The tourist category is the right one for sightseeing, a beach break, visiting a relative studying in Colombo, Ayurvedic treatment or playing in a tournament. Cameroonians heading to a conference, a business negotiation, a workshop or training of under a month should apply for the business option. Unpaid internships and volunteering count as work and are not allowed on either.
Members of the diaspora who have taken French, German, Belgian, Canadian or American citizenship fall under the waiver when travelling on that passport. Cameroonians resident abroad on a Cameroonian passport, including the many in the Gulf, are assessed as Cameroonian wherever they apply from.
Stay & validity
A Cameroonian tourist may remain for 30 days, measured from the first entry. The authorisation is double entry, which is handy for adding the Maldives or southern India, but the second arrival draws on the same 30 days. Spend eight nights away after a week in Sri Lanka and fifteen days are left when you come back.
The approval can be used to start a visit at any time within six months of its issue date. Given how far ahead Cameroonians often need to buy long-haul tickets, applying a month or two before travel is reasonable. Treat the terms on the approval notice as final.
Cameroon's biometric passports are valid for five years. Sri Lanka insists on six months remaining at arrival, so a passport in its last year deserves a close look before you commit to dates. Any replacement booklet has a different number, and an ETA obtained on the earlier one will not be recognised.
Pricing
Live fees for Cameroonian 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 Cameroon
Requirements
Everything Cameroonian 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.
The usual wait for a Cameroonian application is one or two days, without any guarantee attached to that estimate. Three to five days before departure is the latest we would suggest applying. In practice, because itineraries from Cameroon are long and hard to rebook, earlier is wiser.
Cameroon is on West Africa Time, one hour ahead of GMT with no seasonal change, and Sri Lanka is four and a half hours further on. Midday in Yaoundé is half past four in Colombo, close to the end of the working day there. Send your application first thing if you would like it reviewed promptly.
Travel peaks in Cameroon around the end-of-year holidays and from late June, when schools break up. Those weeks see heavy demand for the few long-haul seats out of Douala and Yaoundé. Arrange the ETA once your ticket is issued instead of waiting for the week of departure, and keep National Day on 20 May and Sri Lanka's Vesak holiday in mind if you travel in May.
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
Cameroon has neither a nonstop flight to Sri Lanka nor a Gulf carrier serving its airports directly, so routings take more thought than from Lagos or Accra. The simplest is a single connection in Istanbul. Other itineraries involve two changes, typically a first leg to Addis Ababa, Lagos or a European hub followed by a Gulf airline into Colombo.
Best time to go
Douala is among the wettest cities in Africa between June and October, so the idea of a dry-season escape resonates. Sri Lanka's south and west coasts are at their sunniest from December to March, which coincides with Cameroon's own dry months and the Christmas break.
If the long school holiday is your only opportunity, choose the east coast. From May to September the beaches north and south of Trincomalee are calm, while Colombo and Galle receive monsoon rain. Leopard sightings in Yala are also good in the dry middle of the year.
Anyone who has walked the slopes of Mount Cameroon or the Bamenda highlands will feel at home in the Sri Lankan hill country, where tea covers the hillsides and morning temperatures are fresh. Late January to April is the most reliable time for the train ride between Kandy and Ella.
Sri Lankans follow cricket with the devotion Cameroonians give to the Indomitable Lions, and a match day in Colombo or Galle is worth experiencing. Check for Poya days when planning evenings out, as no alcohol is served on them, and avoid the mid-April New Year if you want everything open.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Cameroon — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Cameroonian passports often list three or four names, and families do not always treat one of them as a surname. The form still needs a surname and given names. Follow the split printed on the data page, even if it differs from how your school certificates read.
The bilingual data page prints Nom/Surname and Prénoms/Given names together. Applicants working quickly in their second language sometimes copy the wrong line. Match English label to English field and the problem disappears.
A two-stop routing can mean leaving Cameroon a full day before you land in Colombo. Count your application lead time back from the first departure, not from the arrival date, or the approval may still be pending when you check in.
A Cameroonian with a Dubai or Doha residence visa, or a European student permit, is still a Cameroonian applicant. Selecting the country of residence as nationality produces an authorisation that does not correspond to the passport.
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 or high commission in Yaoundé or Douala, and we have not named an accredited mission here because regional coverage has been reorganised in recent years. A tourist ETA involves no mission at all. If you need one for another reason, ask Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs which post currently handles Cameroon.
FAQs
The questions Cameroonian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Cameroonian citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation before travelling to Sri Lanka, which is the online permission people generally mean by a Sri Lanka visa. For a Cameroonian tourist it gives 30 days and two entries.
Yes. There is no Sri Lankan mission in Cameroon to visit, and none is needed. The application, payment and approval are all handled online, from Douala, Yaoundé, Bamenda, Garoua or anywhere with an internet connection.
Details are entered in English. Since Cameroonian passports are bilingual, you can read the English labels directly from your own data page and copy across. Avoid accents and keep the names in the printed order.
No, the waiver of the government charge covers forty other nationalities. Cameroonian passports are processed at the standard rate, and a service fee applies for our assistance. See the live prices shown on this page.
A single connection through Istanbul from Douala or Yaoundé is generally the simplest. Alternatives with two stops exist through Addis Ababa, Lagos or Europe combined with a Gulf carrier, and are worth comparing on total travel time.
Only if at least six months remain on the day you arrive in Sri Lanka. With seven months left today, a trip more than a few weeks away would fall short. Renew first, then apply using the new passport.
Yellow fever risk countries such as Cameroon are subject to a vaccination certificate check by Sri Lanka's health authorities. Although unrelated to the ETA, it can stop a journey just as surely, so pack the certificate with your travel documents.
Taking part in sporting events and competitions is a tourist purpose. Signing for a club or being paid to play is employment, which no ETA permits. If the trip could lead to a contract, seek the appropriate permission first.
Your nationality is already set to Cameroon. 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.
