Travelling from Nadi or Suva to Colombo means crossing most of the Pacific and half of Asia, so settle the paperwork first. Fijian passport holders need an approved ETA for a 30-day, double-entry visit.
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
Fiji and Sri Lanka are both island nations with sugar, tea, rugby and cricket in their histories, yet few Fijians have made the journey between them. Those who do tend to have a clear reason: a pilgrimage, a rugby connection, a conference, or a stop on a longer trip to India.
For Indo-Fijian families the pull is often religious. The Ramayana is recited in mandalis from Labasa to Lautoka, and Sri Lanka is where much of the story is set. Sites linked to Sita and Hanuman around Nuwara Eliya, Ella and Chilaw pair naturally with a visit to ancestral districts in India.
Before any of that, Fijian citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation. People in Fiji usually search for it as a Sri Lanka visa, and for practical purposes it plays that role: an online approval recorded against your passport number, without which the airline will not carry you on the final leg to Colombo.
At a glance
Eligibility
Fijian citizens do need an ETA for Sri Lanka, whatever the length of the visit. Fiji is not one of the 40 countries covered by the waiver that began on 25 May 2026, so a Fijian passport is charged the standard government rate on top of our service fee. The live prices shown on this page set out what applies to you.
It is worth knowing that the charge follows the passport, not the person. Plenty of people born in Fiji now travel on Australian or New Zealand passports, and both of those nationalities are in the waiver. If you hold one of them as well as a Fijian passport, you can apply with either, provided you then travel on the same document.
A tourist ETA suits a pilgrimage, a holiday, time with friends, an Ayurveda programme or a trip to watch a sporting event. Church groups and temple committees travelling to a religious gathering or symposium fall under the business option, which also covers conferences, workshops and short training, so check the purpose before choosing.
One situation is specific to Fiji. Fijian rugby players are regularly recruited by Sri Lankan clubs for the domestic season, and playing for pay is employment. A tourist ETA does not cover it, and neither does the business option. The club must arrange the proper permission before the player travels.
Stay & validity
The tourist ETA allows a Fijian visitor to stay for 30 days, starting on the day of first arrival. Two entries are permitted. A Fijian family who spend ten days in Sri Lanka, cross to South India for a week and return to fly home from Colombo will be given only the days still unused when they come back.
An approval is good for a first arrival within six months of issue. Because the journey from Fiji is long and usually booked months ahead, check that your travel date sits inside that window, and read the conditions on the approval itself, which override any general description.
Sri Lanka wants six months of passport validity counted from your arrival. Renewing a Fijian passport from an outer island or from overseas can take time, so look at the expiry date when you start planning. If you do renew, the ETA must be applied for afterwards, because an approval on the old number cannot be moved to the new book.
Pricing
Live fees for Fijian 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 Fiji
Requirements
Everything Fijian 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 Fijian applicants normally come through in a day or two. Apply at least three to five days before you leave Fiji, and longer if you are travelling in a group, because one mistyped passport number in a party of twelve holds up the person concerned while everyone else is cleared.
Fiji is six and a half hours ahead of Sri Lanka. Offices in Colombo open when it is already mid-afternoon in Suva, so do not expect a reply the same morning. Fiji's own public holidays make no difference to processing, but Sri Lanka's monthly Poya full-moon holidays can add a day.
If your itinerary passes through Australia, New Zealand or Singapore, remember that those countries have their own entry or transit rules for Fijian passports. Arrange them alongside the ETA. Processing times are not promised, and a long multi-stop ticket is not something to risk on a last-minute 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
No airline flies directly from Fiji to Sri Lanka. The most efficient routing uses Fiji Airways' own long-haul service from Nadi to Singapore, with a same-airport connection on to Colombo. Travellers from Suva first fly from Nausori to Nadi or drive the Queens Road, and those with family in Australia often break the journey in Sydney or Melbourne.
Best time to go
Fijians do not go to Sri Lanka for the heat, because they already have it. What matters is avoiding two wet seasons at once. Fiji's cyclone season runs from November to April, which happens to be the driest and calmest period on Sri Lanka's south and west coasts and in the hills, so a January trip trades storm warnings for clear skies.
The long school break in December and January is the easiest time for families, and it suits a Ramayana circuit well: Nuwara Eliya and Ella are cool and clear, something of a novelty for visitors from Viti Levu. Nights in the tea country are far colder than anything on the Coral Coast.
Shorter term breaks in the middle of the year fall in Sri Lanka's south-west monsoon. That is the moment to look east instead, to Trincomalee and Pasikudah, where the sea is flat from May to September. Kandy's Esala Perahera in July or August is the island's largest procession and draws Hindu as well as Buddhist visitors.
Travellers who mark Diwali at home in Fiji and leave afterwards arrive during the inter-monsoon weeks of October and November, when afternoon downpours are common across the island. Hotels are quieter, but build slack into temple visits and hill roads.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Fiji — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Some older Indo-Fijian passports show one name only, or a given name with the father's name in the surname field. Follow the printed layout exactly instead of inventing a surname for the form, because the airline compares the ETA with the passport, not with your birth certificate.
Mixed-passport families are common in Fiji. A cousin on an Australian passport is not charged the government fee, but a Fijian passport holder in the same booking is. Each traveller is assessed on their own document.
Rugby links between Fiji and Sri Lankan clubs are real, and so is the temptation to arrive as a tourist and sort things out later. Paid or unpaid work for a club is outside the tourist ETA and can lead to refusal at the border.
The ETA only deals with Sri Lanka. Fijian travellers routed via Sydney, Auckland or Singapore have been stopped at Nadi for lacking the transit permission of the country in between, with a valid Sri Lankan approval in hand.
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 resident mission in Suva. Fiji is covered by the High Commission in Canberra, whose head of mission presents credentials in Fiji. For an ETA none of this matters, because the application is made online from wherever you are and no document is sent to Australia.
FAQs
The questions Fijian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, Fijian citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, often called a Sri Lanka visa, before they travel. The tourist ETA allows a stay of 30 days with two entries and is applied for online, so there is no need to deal with a mission overseas.
No. Fiji is outside the group of 40 countries whose citizens are not charged the government fee, so the standard rate applies to a Fijian passport. Children under 12 are the exception and are not charged the government fee. See the live prices shown on this page.
Yes. Fijians studying in Brisbane, working in Auckland or visiting family in Sydney can apply from there. What counts is the passport, so a Fijian document is treated the same way wherever its holder happens to be when applying.
There is no Sri Lankan embassy or high commission in Suva. The High Commission in Canberra is responsible for Fiji. You only need it for matters the online ETA does not cover, such as employment with a Sri Lankan club or company.
Yes. Visiting temples and places connected with the Ramayana as a pilgrim or sightseer is tourism. If you are travelling as part of an organised religious event or symposium, with a programme and invited delegates, the business option is the correct one.
Most travellers take Fiji Airways from Nadi to Singapore and change there for Colombo, which keeps the trip to one connection. Going via Sydney or Melbourne suits those seeing family in Australia on the way.
Up to 30 days on a tourist ETA, counted from the first arrival. Leaving for India or the Maldives and coming back is allowed once, but the return visit uses the remaining days and does not start a new period.
You should renew first. Sri Lanka requires six months of validity from the date of arrival, and an airline can refuse to board a passenger who falls short. Apply for the ETA only once you have the new passport and its number.
Your nationality is already set to Fiji. 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.
