Danish passport holders must have an ETA approved before leaving Copenhagen or Billund for Colombo. It allows a 30-day stay with two entries, and the government charge on the tourist ETA is waived for Danes.
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
Danes have a habit of travelling far for a small country, and Sri Lanka has become a fixture of the Danish long-haul list. It is a staple of the sabbatår, the gap year many young Danes take after gymnasium, and it draws surfers to Weligama and Ahangama and older travellers to the ancient cities.
Whichever group you belong to, the first formality is an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Danish travellers tend to call it a visum, and plenty of English-language sites call it a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa. The name matters less than the timing: it is applied for online and should be approved before you fly.
Denmark is one of the 40 countries whose nationals have paid no government charge for a tourist ETA since 25 May 2026. You still need the ETA, and a service fee for our help with the application still applies. The live prices shown on this page are the place to see the amount.
At a glance
Eligibility
A Danish passport gets you into a long list of countries without paperwork, and Sri Lanka is not on it. All foreign nationals need an ETA for a short stay, Danes included. The waiver changed what the Sri Lankan government charges Danish tourists, and it did not change whether the authorisation is required.
Holidays, visits to friends and family, yoga and Ayurveda stays, sporting competitions and cultural performances all sit within the tourist ETA. Denmark has a Tamil community of long standing, much of it in Jutland, and its members travelling on Danish passports use the tourist ETA for family visits like anyone else.
What the tourist ETA will not cover is work. A young Dane hoping to stretch a sabbatår budget by helping in a surf camp or hostel in exchange for a bed is describing unpaid employment, which the conditions rule out. Business meetings, conferences and short training courses have their own business option.
Children under 12 are not charged the government fee on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days, regardless of nationality. For a Danish family that point is now academic, since the adults' charge is waived as well, but every child must still be entered in the application.
Stay & validity
Danish citizens receive 30 days on a tourist ETA, starting from the day of first arrival, and may enter twice. The two entries share one allowance. Fly out to Malé or Bangkok midway and return, and immigration grants only the days left over from the original thirty.
The approval can be used for six months after it is issued, and the conditions printed on it are what govern your trip. A Dane booking in January for an April departure can apply straight away.
Thirty days is shorter than many sabbatår itineraries allow for. If Sri Lanka is one stop on a three-month journey through Asia and you want to linger, you will need an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration at Battaramulla, close to Colombo, before the date stamped in your passport passes.
The ETA belongs to one passport. Danish adult passports are valid for ten years, so the usual trap is not expiry but replacement: a passport lost on the road, or renewed early because it was nearly full, has a new number, and the old ETA is of no use with it.
Pricing
Live fees for Danish 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 Denmark
Requirements
Everything Danish 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.
Danish applications are normally approved in a day or two. A few take longer, and no turnaround can be promised, so the sensible minimum is three to five days before departure. Leave more room if you are flying in uge 7, in the days before Christmas or at the start of the industriferie.
Backpackers present a different timing problem. If you are already on the road in India or Thailand and decide on Sri Lanka at short notice, you are applying from a hostel with a patchy connection and a passport photographed on a bunk bed. It is easier to apply from Denmark for any country you might plausibly visit within six months.
Because a paid application cannot be amended, an error means starting again. Government charges are non-refundable as a rule, though for Danish tourists that charge is currently waived. The cost of a slip is therefore mostly delay, which is still unwelcome when the flight from Kastrup leaves in two days.
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
No airline flies nonstop from Denmark to Sri Lanka. Copenhagen Kastrup is the main gateway, with one-stop connections on Qatar Airways through Doha, Emirates through Dubai and Turkish Airlines through Istanbul. Travellers in Jutland can avoid Copenhagen altogether by flying from Billund to Istanbul, while Aalborg and Aarhus usually connect through Copenhagen or another European hub.
Best time to go
Vinterferie in uge 7 is the classic Danish slot for Sri Lanka. Mid-February is high season on the south and west coasts: dry, hot and calm, with whale-watching boats running from Mirissa and clear views in the tea hills around Ella. Prices and crowds peak accordingly, and flights for that week go quickly.
Efterårsferie in uge 42 is the awkward one. October sits between the two monsoons, and showers can arrive on any coast. Danes who travel then generally do best inland, around Sigiriya, Dambulla and Kandy, treating beach time as a bonus if the weather allows.
The summer holiday suits the east coast. From late June through the industriferie weeks of July, Arugam Bay has its surf season and Trincomalee and Pasikudah have flat, clear water, while the south-west is wet. Sabbatår travellers who arrive in spring often follow the weather across the island as the season turns.
Colombo is four and a half hours ahead of Denmark in winter and three and a half in summer. One local detail worth knowing: on the monthly Poya full-moon day, a public holiday, alcohol is not sold, which surprises Danes expecting a beer at sunset.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Denmark — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Many Danes carry a middle name that functions as a second surname and leave it out in everyday use. The passport does not leave it out. An application for Mette Larsen when the document says Mette Holm Larsen creates a mismatch between the ETA and the photo page that can cause difficulty at check-in.
Exchanging a few hours a day in a hostel, surf school or guesthouse for free accommodation is a popular way for young Danes to travel longer. Under a tourist ETA it counts as unpaid employment, which is not permitted. Keep the stay to tourism.
On a long journey through Asia, passports get lost, soaked or stolen. A replacement issued by a Danish embassy along the way has a different number. If Sri Lanka is still ahead on your route, a new ETA is needed for the new document before you fly to Colombo.
Danish backpackers like to keep plans open, and one-way tickets are common. Immigration officers in Sri Lanka may ask to see a return or onward booking and proof of funds, and airlines sometimes check before boarding too. Have a confirmed departure within the 30 days to show.
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 does not have a resident embassy in Copenhagen; Denmark is covered by the Sri Lankan embassy in Stockholm. Danish citizens applying for an ETA have no dealings with it, as the whole process takes place online and the result is emailed to you.
FAQs
The questions Danish passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, Danes need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) before travelling, which serves as the Sri Lanka visa for short visits. The tourist version permits a stay of 30 days with two entries and is tied to your Danish passport number.
Danish citizens are not charged the government fee for a tourist ETA under the waiver in place since 25 May 2026. Our own service fee for handling the application does apply. The live prices shown on this page tell a Danish applicant the current total.
Yes. The application is online, so a Dane can apply from anywhere with a decent connection. Allow three to five days before your flight to Colombo, and make sure the passport image is sharp and complete rather than a hurried phone snapshot.
No. The tourist ETA excludes paid and unpaid employment as well as self-employment. An arrangement where you work in exchange for a bed falls on the wrong side of that line, even though no money changes hands.
Yes, if it appears on your Danish passport. Enter every name in the field and order the passport uses. Leaving out a mellemnavn is one of the most frequent causes of a mismatch for Danish applicants.
Copenhagen has the widest choice, with one-stop routes via Doha, Dubai and Istanbul. Billund offers a connection through Istanbul that saves Jutland residents the trip across the country. There is no nonstop flight from Denmark.
It is one of the best weeks of the year for the south and west coasts and the hill country, which are dry in February. It is also peak season, so book early and apply for the ETA as soon as your tickets are confirmed.
Passports issued in the Faroe Islands and Greenland record the holder's nationality as Danish. Enter the nationality and other details as they are printed on your own document, and the application proceeds in the usual way.
Your nationality is already set to Denmark. 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.
