Travelling from Bangui to Colombo on a Central African Republic passport means arranging an ETA first. This guide covers the 30-day tourist stay, the passport details that cause trouble, and the connections that make the journey workable.
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
Few journeys start in Bangui and end on a beach in the Indian Ocean, yet a small number of Central Africans make it every year: staff of the United Nations and its partners on rest leave, traders with suppliers in Asia, students enrolled in India or Malaysia, and members of the diaspora in France who meet family halfway. For all of them Sri Lanka asks for the same thing before boarding.
That thing is an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Search engines in French will show you "visa Sri Lanka" or "e-visa", and those labels refer to this document. It is requested online, tied to the number of your Central African passport and checked by the airline at the first desk you reach, which for most travellers is at Bangui M'Poko.
Because the Central African Republic sends so few visitors, there is almost no local experience to draw on and no Sri Lankan office in the country to ask. This page is written to fill that gap.
At a glance
Eligibility
Central African citizens do need an ETA, with no exception for short stays, and it has to be in place before departure. The Central African Republic is outside the group of forty countries that benefit from the government fee waiver, so the standard government charge applies to adults; you will find the current figure in the live prices shown on this page.
Living abroad does not change which rule applies. A Central African who holds a residence card in France, Cameroon or Congo still applies as a Central African national, because Sri Lanka looks at the passport, not the country of residence.
A tourist ETA covers leisure travel, seeing friends or relatives, medical or Ayurveda treatment and taking part in sports or cultural events. It does not cover trade. A merchant from the PK5 market travelling to meet suppliers, or an official attending a seminar, should select the business option, which exists for meetings, conferences and short training.
Humanitarian workers deserve a specific word, since they make up much of the outbound traffic from Bangui. Rest and recuperation leave spent as a tourist is entirely within the rules. Carrying out NGO work, reporting or political activity is not available through the online ETA and requires approval from the Sri Lankan government in advance.
Stay & validity
The stay granted on a Central African passport is 30 days, and the count begins the day you first pass immigration at Colombo. The ETA is double entry, which suits anyone adding a few nights in the Maldives, but the second arrival must happen within the original 30 days and receives only the days still unused.
From the date it is issued, the approval remains usable for travel for six months. That flexibility is helpful when your departure from Bangui depends on a flight that operates only a few times a week and may move at short notice. Whatever your approval letter states is what binds you.
Six months of passport validity, measured from the date of arrival, is required. The biometric passport issued in Bangui has a limited life and renewals have at times been slow, so look at the expiry page well ahead. If you replace the passport after approval, the ETA stays with the old number and you must apply again.
Pricing
Live fees for Central African 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 Central African Republic
Requirements
Everything Central African 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.
Approvals for Central African applicants generally come through in one or two days. That is a usual pattern and not a commitment, so give yourself three to five clear days at the minimum, and more than that around Christmas and Easter, when many Central Africans travel and Sri Lanka's own high season is in full swing.
The harder deadline is often not Sri Lanka's but your airline's. Seats out of Bangui are limited and missing one departure can mean waiting several days for the next, so an ETA that arrives an hour after check-in closes is a serious problem.
Apply from somewhere with dependable power and data. Many people in Bangui use a workplace connection or a cybercafe for this; if you do, download the approval to your own phone afterwards.
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
Bangui has no long-haul service towards Asia, so every itinerary to Sri Lanka involves at least two changes. The most direct runs east with Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa and then through Dubai or Doha to Colombo. Kenya Airways via Nairobi, Royal Air Maroc via Casablanca and Air France via Paris are the other realistic ways out of the country.
Best time to go
The Central African Republic sits just north of the equator, with heavy rain from about May to October and a drier spell from December to February. Sri Lanka's seasons are split by coast instead, which means there is a good side of the island in any month you are able to leave Bangui.
For a Christmas or New Year trip, the favourite window for Central African families and for expatriate staff on leave, head for the south and west: Galle Fort, Bentota, Mirissa and the hill railway to Ella are at their best from December into March.
The long school holiday from July to September coincides with rain on Sri Lanka's south-west but fine weather on the east coast. Trincomalee and Pasikudah have calm, shallow water then, and the Kandy Esala Perahera, a torchlit procession of dancers and elephants, usually falls in July or August.
Colombo is four and a half hours ahead of Bangui all year. After two connections you will arrive tired, so plan a quiet first day near Negombo, close to the airport, before travelling inland.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Central African Republic — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
French and Sango names in Central African passports carry é, è, ï and ô on the printed line, but the machine-readable zone strips them. The ETA should follow the unaccented version.
It is common in the Central African Republic for a birth certificate, a baptism name and a passport to show slightly different combinations of given names. Only the passport counts for Sri Lanka. If the passport omits a middle name you normally use, leave it out of the application too.
Central Africans settled in France sometimes expect to be treated like French nationals, whose government charge is waived. The waiver follows nationality, not residence. Unless you hold and travel on a French passport, you apply as a Central African at the standard rate.
Cards from banks in Bangui are often restricted to the central African franc zone until the customer requests wider use. A declined payment the night before travel is hard to fix when branches are closed. Test the card on another international site first.
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
The Central African Republic has no Sri Lankan embassy, and the ETA does not call for one because nothing is submitted on paper. For questions that go beyond a short visit, the missions in Addis Ababa and Nairobi are the closest resident offices; ask them directly which one is responsible for Central African nationals before sending documents.
FAQs
The questions Central African passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Citizens of the Central African Republic must hold an ETA, the online authorisation many people call a Sri Lanka visa, before they travel. On the tourist option it allows a 30-day stay with two entries. The standard government charge applies, as the country is not covered by the fee waiver.
You can. The application is made on the internet from start to finish, so the absence of a Sri Lankan embassy in Bangui makes no difference. You need your passport, a readable image of its photo page, an email address and a card that accepts international online payments.
The rules for the passport you travel on. With a Central African passport and a French titre de séjour you apply as a Central African and pay the standard rate.
Thirty days, starting on the day of first arrival. Two entries are permitted, but the second one only uses up whatever remains of those thirty days. A longer visit requires an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration at Battaramulla, requested before the initial period ends.
There is no direct or one-stop option. Most travellers fly Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa, continue to Dubai or Doha, and take a Gulf carrier to Colombo. Routes through Nairobi, Casablanca or Paris also work.
Yes, a holiday is a holiday whatever your profession, and rest leave fits the tourist option. What the tourist ETA does not allow is doing NGO, media or political work while you are there. Those activities need prior approval from the Sri Lankan government.
It may. The Central African Republic is a yellow fever risk country, and Sri Lankan port health staff can require a vaccination certificate from passengers coming from such places. Verify the current health requirement before departure.
Each child needs to be included in an application and approved, whatever their age. For tourist stays of up to 30 days, the government fee is not charged for children under twelve.
Your nationality is already set to Central African Republic. 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.
