Ethiopian passport holders need an ETA approved before leaving Addis Ababa Bole. It permits a 30-day tourist stay with two entries at the standard government rate, and the form's Gregorian dates deserve particular care from Ethiopian applicants.
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
Important for Ethiopian citizens
Ethiopia is outside Sri Lanka's 40-country waiver, so Ethiopian passports are charged the standard government rate for a tourist ETA. Refer to the live prices shown on this page for the current total.
Overview
Ethiopia and Sri Lanka are two of the world's oldest continuous civilisations, each with its own script, calendar traditions and a religious heritage stretching back well over a thousand years. One gave the world coffee, the other became synonymous with tea. Visitors from Addis Ababa often remark that Kandy's hills feel oddly like home, only wetter.
Reaching the island requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation for every Ethiopian national. You may have seen it referred to as a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa, which is understandable given that it does a visa's job. The process happens entirely online, with the approval emailed to you and matched to your passport when you land.
Two things make an Ethiopian application distinctive. The first is naming: Ethiopians use a personal name followed by a father's and grandfather's name, not a family surname. The second is the calendar, since the form works in Gregorian dates. Both are easy to handle once you know to look for them, and both are covered below.
At a glance
Eligibility
There is no exemption for Ethiopian passports. An ETA is compulsory for a tourist visit and has to be in place before you travel. Ethiopian Airlines and the Gulf carriers verify it at Bole before issuing a boarding pass for the first sector.
Ethiopia does not feature among the 40 states whose citizens had the government charge lifted in 2026. An adult Ethiopian therefore pays the standard government rate, with our assistance fee in addition. Exchange rates and bank charges move often, so look at the live prices displayed here instead of trusting an older quote.
A tourist ETA is appropriate for holidays, visits to relatives or friends, medical care including Ayurveda, and attendance at sports or cultural events. Ethiopians coming for a conference, a training course of under a month, or a religious symposium should apply under the business option, which lists those purposes.
Children holding Ethiopian passports follow the same rule as adults and must be part of an application. The government fee is not charged for those under 12 staying up to 30 days as tourists. Be especially careful with children's birth dates, which families often remember in the Ethiopian calendar.
Stay & validity
An Ethiopian tourist is admitted for 30 days from the date of first entry. The ETA carries a second entry, handy if you break the trip with a visit to the Maldives or India, but it must be used before those 30 days run out and gives only the unused remainder.
You have six months from issue to begin your journey. An Ethiopian planning travel after Meskel could apply during the rainy season without the authorisation lapsing. Should anything on the approval notice contradict what you have read elsewhere, treat the notice as the authority.
The passport must be valid for six months or more counted from the day you arrive, and that expiry date is written on the photo page in the Gregorian calendar. If your Ethiopian passport is renewed after the ETA is issued, the authorisation does not follow you to the new booklet.
Longer stays depend on an extension, which only the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla can grant. Ethiopians hoping to remain for an extended retreat should apply there in good time and not let the first 30 days lapse.
Pricing
Live fees for Ethiopian 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 Ethiopia
Requirements
Everything Ethiopian 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.
Ethiopian applications are normally decided within one to two days. Treat that as a guide. Names that do not match the passport image or a date that looks inconsistent can prompt a manual check. Aim to submit at least three to five days before you are due at Bole.
Demand in Sri Lanka is heaviest from December to March, which takes in Genna on 7 January and Timkat later that month, both popular times for Ethiopians to take leave. If you intend to travel around those holidays, or over Enkutatash in September, apply a couple of weeks ahead.
Colombo is two and a half hours ahead of Addis Ababa. Remember too that airline schedules and the ETA form use the international clock, not the Ethiopian convention of counting hours from dawn. A flight shown as 01:00 leaves in the middle of the night, not at seven in the evening.
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
Ethiopian Airlines does not serve Colombo directly, but its Addis Ababa hub offers frequent flights to Indian cities, from which Colombo is a short hop. The Gulf is the other natural route, with Emirates, flydubai and Qatar Airways all flying from Bole. Travellers from Bahir Dar, Mekelle or Dire Dawa connect through Addis first.
Best time to go
The Ethiopian highlands are cool and dry from October to February, and that is also when Sri Lanka's south and west come into season. Leaving Addis in January for the beaches of Mirissa or Hikkaduwa means swapping thin mountain air for tropical humidity at sea level, so allow a day to adjust.
Kiremt, the main Ethiopian rains from June to September, is a common time to get away. Sri Lanka's west is also wet then, but the east coast is at its best. Trincomalee and Pasikudah offer calm seas, and the Esala Perahera in Kandy usually falls in late July or August.
Ethiopian Orthodox travellers observing fasting periods will find Sri Lanka accommodating. Rice with vegetable, lentil and coconut curries is the everyday meal, and meat-free food is available everywhere. On Poya full-moon days the island observes its own restraint, with alcohol sales suspended.
Those interested in faith and history should look at the Cultural Triangle. Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambulla's cave temples and the rock fortress of Sigiriya reward the same patient curiosity as Lalibela or Aksum. The dry months from May to September suit that inland region well.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Ethiopia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
The Ethiopian year runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian one and has thirteen months. A birth date or travel date typed from memory in the Ethiopian system will not match the passport. Copy dates from the photo page and from your airline ticket, both of which use Gregorian dates.
Because Ethiopians have no inherited family name, foreign forms cause confusion. Do not repeat your father's name or leave a field blank on a guess. Look at how your passport divides the names between surname and given names, and reproduce that division exactly.
Amharic names have several accepted Latin spellings, such as Tewodros and Theodros or Hailu and Haylu. Your ticket, hotel booking and ETA should all use the single spelling in your passport, even if your bank or university spells it another way.
Plenty of Ethiopian bank cards are restricted to transactions inside the country. Discovering that at the payment step wastes time when a flight is near. Ask your bank in advance, or arrange for a relative with an internationally enabled card to pay.
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 opened a resident embassy in Addis Ababa, which also handles relations with the African Union. Ethiopian tourists do not have to visit it, because the ETA is requested and delivered online. The embassy remains the right contact for purposes that sit outside the ETA, such as journalism or long-term residence enquiries.
FAQs
The questions Ethiopian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, Ethiopian citizens must have an Electronic Travel Authorisation, commonly called a Sri Lanka visa, before departure. It is obtained online, is tied to the Ethiopian passport number, and allows 30 days as a tourist with two entries.
No. Ethiopia is not one of the 40 waiver countries, so the standard government rate applies to Ethiopian adults, alongside our service fee. Under-12s are not charged the government fee. Current amounts are in the live prices on this page.
Whatever your Ethiopian passport shows in its surname line, which is typically your grandfather's name. Put your own and your father's name where the passport lists given names. Never rearrange them to resemble a Western format.
Gregorian only. Your Ethiopian passport and your flight ticket already show dates in that calendar, so copy them directly. An arrival date entered in the Ethiopian calendar would be years out.
Not directly. Ethiopians usually fly from Addis Ababa to Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru and take a short connecting flight, or travel via Dubai or Doha. The whole trip takes roughly 10 to 13 hours.
Most are approved in a day or two, though no time is guaranteed. Ethiopian travellers should apply three to five days before flying as a minimum, and earlier around Genna and Timkat.
Religious events and symposiums are listed under the business option, as are conferences and workshops. An Ethiopian attending one should choose that category and keep the tourist ETA for holidays and private visits.
The ETA stays attached to the old passport number and cannot be moved. An Ethiopian who renews must submit a new application, and the government charge already paid is not refunded.
Your nationality is already set to Ethiopia. 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.
