Cape Verdean passport holders need an ETA before arriving in Sri Lanka. Find out how the 30-day stay is counted, what dual nationals in the diaspora should watch for, and how to connect from Praia or Sal 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
Cape Verdeans know islands, and Sri Lanka is an island on a very different scale: one landmass roughly sixteen times the size of the whole archipelago, green where Sal and Boa Vista are bare, with mountains high enough for frost. For travellers from Praia or Mindelo it offers the familiar pleasures of sea, music and grilled fish alongside things the Atlantic cannot supply, from wild elephants to ancient rock fortresses.
Entry depends on an Electronic Travel Authorisation obtained before you fly. Search for "visto Sri Lanka" from Cape Verde and you will be shown e-visa pages; the correct name is ETA, and it is an electronic record attached to your passport number, with nothing glued into the booklet. Airlines verify it at check-in.
Most Cape Verdeans who visit Sri Lanka do not set out from Cape Verde at all. More of the nation lives abroad than at home, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Lisbon, Rotterdam, Paris and Luxembourg, and many hold a second passport.
At a glance
Eligibility
A Cape Verdean citizen needs an ETA for any tourist visit, however brief. Cape Verde is not one of the forty countries for which Sri Lanka has waived its government charge, and no reciprocal arrangement exists, so a Cape Verdean passport is processed at the standard rate. The live prices shown on this page give the current cost.
Dual nationals should read this paragraph twice. The waiver is decided by the passport used for the application. A Cape Verdean who also holds United States, Dutch or French nationality, and who applies and travels on that passport, falls under the waiver of the government charge. Portuguese and Luxembourgish passports, like the Cape Verdean one, do not.
Whichever passport you choose, the ETA is still compulsory and must match the document you present at the border. The tourist option covers holidays, visiting friends and relatives, wellness and medical stays, sports events and cultural performances. Performers booked for an organised art, music or dance event should look at the business option instead, as should anyone attending meetings or conferences.
Children need to be included too. No government fee is collected for under-twelves on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days, whatever passport they hold.
Stay & validity
The tourist ETA on a Cape Verdean passport allows 30 days, beginning the day you first clear immigration, and two entries within that span. It is one allowance used in up to two parts. Return from a few days in the Maldives and you continue the same count; you do not start a new one.
A Cape Verdean applicant has six months from approval in which to travel. Since reaching Sri Lanka from the archipelago involves booking several separate sectors, having the authorisation settled before you commit to fares is sensible. The terms written on your approval are the ones that apply if they differ from any summary.
At least six months must remain on your passport when you arrive. Cape Verdean electronic passports have a comparatively short life, and emigrants often renew through a consulate, which can be slow. Do the renewal first. A replacement passport cancels the usefulness of an existing ETA, and the government charge already paid cannot be recovered.
Pricing
Live fees for Cape Verdean 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 Cape Verde
Requirements
Everything Cape Verdean 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.
For Cape Verdean applicants a decision normally comes within a day or two, though it would be wrong to treat that as a promise. Submit at least three to five days ahead, and if your trip falls in the December to March peak or you hold tickets that cannot be changed, give it longer.
Bear the time difference in mind when you are waiting. Sri Lanka is six and a half hours ahead of Cape Verde, so an application sent on a Praia afternoon lands in Colombo's late evening.
Emigrants returning to the islands for the summer festivals sometimes organise an onward Asian holiday from a relative's house on Santiago or São Vicente. That is perfectly workable so long as you have the travelling passport physically with you; do not fill in the form from memory or from an old photocopy.
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
Cape Verde has no flights to Asia, and nearly everyone travels by way of Lisbon. TAP Air Portugal and Cabo Verde Airlines link the archipelago with the Portuguese capital, from where Emirates via Dubai and Qatar Airways via Doha continue to Colombo. Royal Air Maroc from Praia via Casablanca is the main alternative.
Best time to go
Cape Verde's weather barely changes, so the timing of a Sri Lanka trip is decided by the island's seasons and by your own calendar. The broad rule is simple: west and south from December to March or April, east from May to September.
Carnival in Mindelo, in February or early March, is the fixed point of the Cape Verdean year, and few people want to be away for it. Travelling just afterwards works well. March is still dry on the south coast, the sea at Mirissa is calm for whale watching, and the hill country is clear.
July and August bring the Baía das Gatas festival and the return of emigrants, along with school holidays. Those who use that break to travel should choose Sri Lanka's east coast, where surfers from Sal and Boa Vista will want to try the long right-hand point break at Arugam Bay.
Expect jet lag. Six and a half hours is a real shift, and it comes after a night in the air. On the cultural side, monthly Poya full-moon days close bars and stop alcohol sales across Sri Lanka, which can surprise visitors used to a grogue with live music.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Cape Verde — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
A traveller living in Boston or Rotterdam may renew the Cape Verdean passport out of pride and travel on the American or Dutch one out of habit. If the ETA was requested with one and the other is shown at the airport, there is no valid authorisation. Pick one passport and keep to it.
The reverse error costs money rather than the flight. A dual national who could have applied with a United States, Dutch or French passport, and so had the government charge waived, sometimes applies with the Cape Verdean one and pays the standard rate. That charge is not refunded afterwards.
Names such as Tavares Lopes Monteiro are normal in Cape Verde, and people rarely use all of them. The ETA must. Copy each surname in sequence from the passport and resist the urge to keep only the final one.
Because the outward journey crosses many time zones, travellers from Cape Verde sometimes count from their departure day or from the booking date. The 30 days begin at the first arrival stamp. Read the date endorsed in your passport at Colombo and plan your exit from that.
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
Cape Verde hosts no Sri Lankan mission, and none is needed for an ETA, which is applied for and delivered online. Cape Verdeans in the diaspora can approach the Sri Lankan embassy in their country of residence for other consular questions; those at home may contact the embassy in Paris and ask which post covers Cape Verde.
FAQs
The questions Cape Verdean passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Cape Verdean citizens need an ETA, Sri Lanka's online travel authorisation that is widely described as a visa, and it must be approved before travel. A tourist ETA permits 30 days and two entries, and the standard government charge applies to a Cape Verdean passport.
If you apply and travel on the United States passport, the government charge on a tourist ETA is waived, because the United States is among the forty countries covered. A service fee for our assistance still applies. On the Cape Verdean passport the standard rate is charged.
Yes. The whole application is online and can be completed from any of the islands. You need the passport you will travel on, an image of its photo page, an email address and a card that can be used for international online payments.
A Cape Verdean visitor may stay up to 30 days from the date of first arrival. The ETA allows a second entry, but only within those 30 days and only for the days left. Longer stays require an extension obtained from the immigration authorities in Battaramulla before the initial period runs out.
Fly to Lisbon first, then to Dubai or Doha, then to Colombo. The trip takes about a day in total.
Not for the fee. Portugal is not on the waiver list, so a Portuguese passport is charged at the standard rate, as a Cape Verdean one is. What matters is consistency: apply with the passport you will actually carry and show it at every stage.
Attending concerts and cultural shows as a visitor is tourism. Being booked to take part in an organised art, music or dance event is listed under the business option, so choose that if in doubt. Paid or unpaid employment is not permitted on a tourist ETA under any circumstances.
No, there is not. Because the ETA is issued electronically, Cape Verdeans do not need an embassy to visit Sri Lanka as tourists.
Your nationality is already set to Cape Verde. 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.
