This page is for holders of the passport of the République Démocratique du Congo, issued in Kinshasa. They need an online ETA for Sri Lanka, giving 30 days and two entries, approved before the first flight leaves N'djili.
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
Two countries share the name Congo, and Sri Lanka's application form lists them separately. This guide concerns the larger one: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, capital Kinshasa, whose passport cover reads République Démocratique du Congo. If your passport was issued in Brazzaville, you need our page for the Republic of the Congo instead.
Congolese from the DRC travel to Sri Lanka in modest numbers, among them gem and mineral traders, church and NGO staff, students based in India who cross over for a break, and families living in Belgium, France or South Africa. All of them need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the approval that French-speaking travellers generally search for as a visa Sri Lanka.
The process is entirely online, which matters in a country where the nearest Sri Lankan diplomat is a flight away. Below you will find the points specific to a DRC passport: the three-part Congolese name, the yellow fever card, the usual connections out of Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, and the time difference that changes depending on which side of the country you live.
At a glance
Eligibility
A citizen of the DRC cannot enter Sri Lanka for a visit without an ETA, and it must be approved before travel. Kinshasa and Colombo have no exemption agreement.
The DRC is charged at the standard government rate. It is not one of the forty states that benefit from the waiver introduced in May 2026, so a Congolese adult pays that rate plus our service fee, as itemised in the live prices shown on this page. For children who have not yet turned 12, Sri Lanka leaves out its government charge on the tourist ETA.
Pick the tourist ETA if the visit is a holiday, a stay with relatives, medical or Ayurvedic treatment, or attendance at a sporting or cultural event. Traders going to buy sapphires in Ratnapura or to negotiate with suppliers are on business and should select the business option. Journalism and NGO work need separate government approval and are outside the online system.
Many Congolese abroad also carry a Belgian, French or other passport. Sri Lanka looks only at the document in front of it. Someone travelling on a Belgian passport applies as a Belgian, and someone travelling on the DRC passport selects the Democratic Republic of the Congo and travels on that same booklet throughout.
Stay & validity
The tourist authorisation gives DRC nationals 30 days on the island and two entries. Time runs from the first landing at Colombo. If you go on to Chennai or Malé and come back, immigration grants the balance of those 30 days and nothing more.
From the date of approval you have six months to begin the trip. Your own approval notice states the conditions that apply, and they prevail.
The DRC biometric passport has a comparatively short life, so look at the expiry date first. Sri Lanka insists on six months remaining at arrival. If you are waiting for a new passport from Kinshasa or from an embassy abroad, hold the ETA application until it is in your hands, because the number on the old one will be useless.
Pricing
Live fees for DRC 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 Democratic Republic of the Congo
Requirements
Everything DRC 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.
Decisions for Congolese applicants mostly arrive within a day or two, though no fixed time can be promised. Submit at least five days before departure. Add more margin around Christmas and the 30 June Independence holiday.
The DRC spans two time zones. Kinshasa, Matadi and Mbandaka are four and a half hours behind Colombo, while Lubumbashi, Goma and Bukavu are three and a half hours behind. Either way, an evening application in the Congo is read on the following Sri Lankan working day.
Power cuts and slow networks are the real enemies of a last-minute application. Prepare the passport image in advance, keep its file size moderate, and complete the form in one sitting. Once payment is taken an error cannot be edited, and correcting it means starting again with a new application.
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
Nothing flies directly from the DRC to Sri Lanka. The most straightforward ticket from Kinshasa N'djili is Turkish Airlines through Istanbul, which serves both cities. Otherwise travellers leave on Ethiopian Airlines or Kenya Airways and add a second change in Dubai or Mumbai. Check the transit rules of each country where you switch aircraft, as some require a visa of their own from Congolese passengers.
Best time to go
Kinshasa's dry season, from June to September, coincides with the long school holidays, and that is when most Congolese families are free to go. In those months choose Sri Lanka's east coast. Pasikudah's shallow lagoon and the beaches around Trincomalee are in season while the west of the island is wet.
If you can travel between December and March, the picture reverses. Colombo, Galle and the southern beaches are dry, the sea is swimmable, and boats leave Mirissa to look for whales. Katanga's travellers, whose rains fall at this time, often find it the more appealing escape.
Visitors used to the Congo basin will find Sri Lanka's heat familiar but its scale very different. The island is smaller than the former province of Bandundu, so a fortnight comfortably takes in Sigiriya rock, the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, the tea slopes of Nuwara Eliya and a few days by the sea.
Wildlife is a draw even for people from a country with gorillas and okapi. Yala and Wilpattu are known for leopards seen in open scrub, and elephants gather in large herds around the tanks of the dry zone.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Democratic Republic of the Congo — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
The country list offers Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as separate entries. A Kinshasa passport filed under the Brazzaville republic yields an approval that does not correspond to the document, and it cannot be amended once paid for.
Foreign forms have two name boxes and Congolese identity has three parts. Put the nom in the surname field and the postnom with the prénom in the given-names field, following the passport's own sequence, so nothing is lost.
A routing through India or another third country can require its own transit permission for DRC nationals who change terminals or airlines. An approved Sri Lankan ETA does nothing for that stop, so settle it before you buy the ticket.
Because the Congolese passport is issued for a limited term, many holders are closer to expiry than they realise. Count six months forward from your arrival in Colombo before spending anything on tickets or the application.
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 anywhere in the DRC, and consular matters are referred to one of its missions elsewhere in Africa. For an ETA this is irrelevant, as the application never involves an embassy, an interview or the surrender of your passport. Confirm the currently accredited mission with Sri Lanka's foreign ministry only if your purpose falls outside the ETA.
FAQs
The questions DRC passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, in effect an online Sri Lanka visa, approved before they travel. The tourist ETA allows 30 days and two entries and is linked to the passport number.
No. This page covers the passport of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, issued in Kinshasa. Holders of a passport from the Republic of the Congo, whose capital is Brazzaville, should use the separate page for that country and select it on the form.
Enter your nom as the surname and place the postnom together with the prénom under given names, unless the bottom lines of your passport group them differently. The safest guide is always the machine-readable zone, copied word for word.
There is none, and none is needed. The ETA is applied for online from Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Goma or abroad, and the approval is sent by email. Print a copy, since airline staff at N'djili will want to see it.
It does not. The waiver applies to forty listed countries, and the DRC is charged the standard government rate. See the live prices on this page for what is payable with our service fee. Children under 12 are spared the government portion.
Carry it. Sri Lanka's health authorities ask travellers arriving from countries with yellow fever risk, which includes the DRC, for a valid vaccination certificate. It is checked separately from the ETA, and you already need the same card to depart from N'djili.
Yes. Residence does not matter, only the passport. Apply with your Congolese passport, choose the Democratic Republic of the Congo as nationality, and remember your Belgian residence card for the return through Brussels.
Buying a souvenir stone as a tourist is fine, but travelling to trade is not. Business and trade activity, including negotiations with dealers, needs the business option. A tourist ETA also rules out any employment or self-employment on the island.
Your nationality is already set to Democratic Republic of the Congo. 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.
