For passports of the République du Congo, the country whose capital is Brazzaville. Its citizens need an ETA before flying to Sri Lanka; the tourist option gives 30 days with two entries and is requested entirely online.
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
This guide is for citizens of the Republic of the Congo, often called Congo-Brazzaville, whose CEMAC-format passport carries the words République du Congo. It is a different state from the much larger Democratic Republic across the river in Kinshasa, and Sri Lanka's system treats the two nationalities as distinct choices.
Travel between Brazzaville and Colombo is rare enough that most people planning it are doing so for the first time. They may be oil-sector employees in Pointe-Noire using rotation leave, civil servants on a study visit, or couples looking for an Indian Ocean honeymoon beyond the usual options. Each needs an Electronic Travel Authorisation, searched for in French as a visa Sri Lanka.
The good news for Congolese applicants is that no embassy visit is involved. The request is made on a phone or laptop, the passport page is uploaded, and the result comes by email. The sections below set out the rules, the routing from Maya-Maya and Agostinho-Neto airports, and the errors that most often trip up travellers from the Congo.
At a glance
Eligibility
Citizens of Congo-Brazzaville must have the ETA; there is no way to visit Sri Lanka without it and no category of ordinary passport that is excused. Because it has to be approved ahead of the journey, it belongs near the top of the planning list, before flights are paid for.
The Republic of the Congo is a standard-rate nationality. Sri Lanka currently waives its government charge for tourists from forty countries, none of them in Central Africa, so Congolese travellers pay that charge and our service fee. Consult the live prices shown on this page. A child below the age of 12 is processed on a tourist ETA without the government charge.
Most visitors from Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire will want the tourist ETA, which takes in sightseeing, beach holidays, seeing friends or family, wellness and medical stays, and cultural or sporting events. Attending a seminar, a workshop or commercial talks is business, and the business option should be chosen at the outset.
A fair number of Congolese hold French nationality as well. If you intend to fly on the French passport, apply as a French citizen, since France is treated differently on charges. If you fly on the Congolese one, apply with it and carry it for both the outward and the return crossing of the Sri Lankan border.
Stay & validity
On a tourist ETA a Congo-Brazzaville national may spend 30 days in Sri Lanka. The authorisation is good for two entries, both of which have to occur within that 30-day span beginning at first arrival, and on the second you are admitted for the unused portion alone.
Travel can begin at any time in the six months after a Congolese approval is issued. Oil workers whose rotation dates shift at short notice can therefore apply as soon as leave is pencilled in. Read the approval itself, because its printed conditions are decisive.
Count six months of passport validity from your arrival date. Passport production in Brazzaville has at times been slow, and Congolese abroad depend on embassy appointments, so do not apply on a passport you are about to replace. A new passport number always requires a new ETA.
Pricing
Live fees for Republic of the Congo 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 Republic of the Congo
Requirements
Everything Republic of the Congo 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.
Expect an answer within a day or two in the normal course of things. We suggest applying at least five days before you leave Brazzaville or Pointe-Noire, and sooner if your leave falls over the year-end holidays or around the 15 August national day, when flights out of the Congo fill up.
Brazzaville is four and a half hours behind Colombo, with no seasonal clock change in either place. An application lodged at the end of the Congolese working day reaches Sri Lanka at night, so the earliest realistic reply is the next day.
Allow for the length of the journey when you count backwards. With two connections, a traveller can be in airports for well over a day, and a correction is impossible once you are airborne. Have the approval printed and stored on your phone before the first check-in desk.
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
There is no nonstop or simple one-stop service between the Republic of the Congo and Sri Lanka. Most itineraries from Brazzaville Maya-Maya or Pointe-Noire use Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa and continue through Dubai, or Air France to Paris with a Gulf carrier beyond. Turkish Airlines via Istanbul can cut this to a single change on the days it serves the Congo.
Best time to go
The long dry season in the Congo lasts from about June to September and includes the main school holiday. Sri Lanka's eastern seaboard is the place to be then: Nilaveli near Trincomalee for snorkelling, Arugam Bay for surfers, and reliably blue skies while the capital sees monsoon showers.
Between December and March the advice flips to the south-west. That stretch brings dry weather to Colombo, Bentota and Galle Fort, and it is the favoured season for honeymooners. Demand is high, which is one more reason for Congolese couples to settle the ETA early.
Pointe-Noire residents know the Atlantic, but the Indian Ocean around Sri Lanka is warmer and, in season, far calmer. Inland, the tea country near Ella offers a cool break from the coast, and the ancient capitals of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa show a Buddhist heritage with no parallel in Central Africa.
October and November are transitional, with afternoon downpours across the island, much as Brazzaville sees at the start of its own rains. Trips are still possible and cheaper to arrange, though beach days are less certain. Mid-April brings the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, a holiday when transport is crowded.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Republic of the Congo — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Scrolling quickly, applicants from Brazzaville sometimes tap the DRC because it appears under the same word. That records the wrong nationality against the passport number, and the only cure after payment is a completely new application.
Dual nationals occasionally apply on the passport that looks more convenient, then board with the other. The ETA will not be found against the second passport in Colombo, and the airline may refuse carriage before that.
Two-part family names are common in the Congo. If half of the surname is typed into the given-names box, the result no longer matches the passport line for line, so keep both parts together in the surname field.
A stop in Paris means a different terminal and sometimes a different airport for the onward flight, and France has transit requirements of its own for some nationalities. Verify them for a Congolese passport before buying a ticket by that route.
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
Congolese travellers do not need a Sri Lankan mission to obtain an ETA, which is fortunate, because none exists in the country. If your visit involves something the ETA does not allow, such as press work, ask Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs which mission currently holds accreditation for Brazzaville before making any journey.
FAQs
The questions Republic of the Congo passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Citizens of the Republic of the Congo must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation before travelling, which serves as the online visa for Sri Lanka. A tourist ETA permits 30 days and two entries and is tied to the passport you apply with.
If your passport says République du Congo and was issued by the authorities in Brazzaville, select Congo or Republic of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the Kinshasa state and has its own entry and its own page on this site.
You can apply from Pointe-Noire, Dolisie, Oyo or anywhere else. Nothing is handled in person in the capital, and no courier is involved. All you need is the passport image, a payment card and an email address.
Yes. The Republic of the Congo is not covered by Sri Lanka's forty-country waiver, so the standard rate applies in addition to our service fee. Up-to-date amounts are in the live prices on this page. The government charge is not applied to under-12s.
Usually between 18 and 26 hours with two changes of plane, most often in Addis Ababa and Dubai. Because of the four-and-a-half-hour time difference and an overnight sector, you generally land in Sri Lanka the day after leaving the Congo.
Yes, because the tourist ETA allows a second entry. Both arrivals need to fall inside the original 30 days, and the return visit is limited to the days remaining. Check separately what the Maldives asks of Congolese visitors.
The approval stays attached to the old passport number and cannot be carried over. You would have to submit and pay for a new application with the replacement passport, as government charges are neither refundable nor transferable.
For a stop of no more than two days, yes. The transit ETA has no government charge, though you must hold documentary proof of your onward travel. A longer stay, or any plan to re-enter later in the trip, calls for the tourist ETA.
Your nationality is already set to 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.
