Philippine passport holders need an approved ETA before departure, wherever they start from. It allows 30 days and two entries. The Philippines is outside the fee waiver, so the standard government rate applies to adults.
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 Filipino citizens
The Philippines is not on Sri Lanka's 40-country waiver list. Filipino applicants are charged the standard government rate for a tourist ETA wherever they live; check the live prices shown on this page.
Overview
Filipinos reach Sri Lanka from more starting points than almost any other nationality. Some fly out of Manila or Cebu on holiday. Many more are overseas workers in Dubai, Doha, Riyadh, Singapore or the resorts of the Maldives, for whom Colombo is a short flight and an affordable break between contracts.
Wherever the journey begins, the document is the same: an Electronic Travel Authorisation applied for online and approved before you board. It is widely described as a Sri Lanka tourist visa or e-visa, and for a visit of up to 30 days that description is close enough.
The Philippines is not included in the fee waiver that Sri Lanka introduced in May 2026. That means the standard government rate applies to every adult Philippine passport, including those held by Filipinos resident in countries that are on the list. The sections below cover the stay, the paperwork and the routes.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes, without exception. A Philippine passport does not carry visa-free access to Sri Lanka, and the ETA has to be in place before travel. Airline staff at NAIA, Mactan-Cebu and the Gulf hubs verify it at check-in.
The tourist option is right for leisure trips, for visiting a partner or friends, for Ayurveda and wellness stays and for attending a sporting or cultural event. Catholic travellers also come for the island's churches and shrines, among them St Anthony's in Kochchikade, the churches of Negombo and the Marian shrine at Madhu.
It is not a work document. Filipino seafarers signing on to a vessel at Colombo or Galle, engineers on a project and domestic or hotel staff taking up a job are all employed, and employment is outside what a tourist ETA permits. Manning agencies and employers arrange the appropriate clearance for those cases.
Company representatives attending meetings, a conference or a training course shorter than a month should select the business option. Children need to be listed too. A child below 12 is not charged the government fee, a concession that applies to every nationality and is worth knowing for Filipino families travelling together.
Stay & validity
On a tourist ETA a Filipino visitor may stay 30 days, starting from first arrival, and may enter twice. Overseas workers often use it for a week of leave; holidaymakers from Manila typically stay eight to twelve days.
Two entries do not mean two stays of 30 days. A nurse based in Malé who visits Colombo on the 3rd, returns to the Maldives on the 8th and comes back on the 20th has until the original period ends. For more time, an extension must be granted by the Department of Immigration and Emigration, whose head office is in Battaramulla.
The approval is valid for travel for six months after issue. Adult Philippine passports now run for ten years, but Sri Lanka requires at least six months remaining on the arrival date, and renewing through the DFA or a Philippine embassy abroad produces a new number. An ETA issued against the old passport cannot be reused.
Pricing
Live fees for Philippine 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 Philippines
Requirements
Everything Philippine 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.
Approval for Filipino applicants normally arrives in one to two days. Treat that as a guide. We recommend applying three to five days before departure at the latest, and a week ahead if you are leaving from Manila for the first time as a tourist.
That extra margin has a Philippine reason. Bureau of Immigration officers screen departing passengers, and a traveller who cannot show an entry authorisation for the destination, a return ticket and a hotel booking may be delayed or stopped. Having the ETA printed with the rest of your papers makes that conversation short.
Manila is two and a half hours ahead of Colombo; the Gulf states are behind it. OFWs applying during a break in a shift should use a personal email address, since some employers' systems filter outside mail. Peak periods are Christmas, Holy Week and the Eid holidays in the Gulf, when many Filipino workers take leave at once.
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 service between the Philippines and Sri Lanka. From Manila and Cebu the usual connections are Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Filipinos based in the Gulf have a simpler trip, with frequent nonstop flights to Colombo from Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, and those in the Maldives are about ninety minutes away.
Best time to go
Christmas and New Year are when Filipinos travel most, and they fall in Sri Lanka's best season for the west and south coasts. Galle Fort, Unawatuna and Mirissa are dry and busy from December to March. Hotels sell out early, so apply for the ETA when you book.
Holy Week in March or April is the second big window. Weather on the south-west side is still good, if hot, and Negombo's Catholic fishing communities stage passion plays that Filipino visitors find both familiar and quite different. A week later the Sinhala and Tamil New Year closes many businesses for several days.
From June to September, when typhoons and the habagat rains affect much of Luzon, the dry side of Sri Lanka is the east. Trincomalee, Pasikudah and Arugam Bay have calm seas and sunshine while Colombo is wet. This is also the season of the Kandy Esala Perahera.
OFWs in the Gulf usually travel during Eid or in the summer leave period. In summer, choose the east coast or the cooler hills around Nuwara Eliya, which come as a relief after a Doha July. On full-moon Poya days, which are public holidays, bars and shops do not sell alcohol.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Philippines — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Filipinos routinely reduce the middle name to an initial on forms. The ETA should carry the names as the passport prints them, in full. Writing Juan D. Santos when the passport reads Juan Dela Cruz Santos produces a record that differs from the travel document.
A Filipino living in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait or Qatar sometimes hears from colleagues that the Sri Lanka ETA carries no government charge. That is true for citizens of those states, not for their residents. The rate follows the passport, so the standard charge applies.
DFA and embassy renewal slots can take weeks to secure, and workers often plan a holiday around the same leave. If the ETA is issued on the old passport and the new one arrives before the trip, the authorisation is lost. Renew first.
Crew changes at Colombo and Galle are common for Filipino seafarers. Signing on is employment, which a tourist authorisation does not allow. The correct documents come through your manning agency or the vessel's local agent, not through a holiday 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's embassy in Manila provides consular services for the Philippines. It is not part of the ETA process: Filipino applicants at home or overseas apply online, with no personal appearance, no notarised documents and no passport to leave behind.
FAQs
The questions Philippine passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, Filipinos need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, commonly called a Sri Lanka visa, approved before they travel. A tourist ETA gives a stay of 30 days and two entries. The Philippines is outside the fee waiver, so the standard government rate applies to adult applicants.
Yes. You apply online with your Philippine passport from wherever you live. Residence in a Gulf state does not alter the stay or the charge, both of which depend on nationality. Carry your residence permit on the trip so you can show you are able to return to your country of work.
Very likely. Departure screening at Philippine airports commonly includes the entry document for your destination along with a return ticket, accommodation details and proof that you can fund the trip. Keep a printed copy of the approval with those papers.
Write it in full, as it appears on the photo page, and do not reduce it to an initial. On a Philippine passport the middle name is usually your mother's maiden surname and forms part of your legal name. Suffixes and abbreviations should also follow the passport exactly.
A Filipino tourist may stay up to 30 days from first arrival. A second entry within that time is permitted, but the days are not renewed when you come back. Anyone needing longer must obtain an extension from the immigration department in Sri Lanka.
No airline flies the route nonstop at the moment. Most passengers from Manila or Cebu change in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, for a total journey of around eight to eleven hours. From the Gulf and the Maldives there are nonstop flights.
They do. Each child is added to the application with his or her own passport details. The government fee is not charged for children under 12, though older children are charged as adults. Minors' Philippine passports last five years, so confirm the expiry date early.
No. Joining a ship is employment, and the tourist ETA is for holidays, family visits and similar purposes. Your manning agency or the ship's agent in Sri Lanka arranges the proper clearance. Use a tourist ETA only for a genuine holiday.
Your nationality is already set to Philippines. 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.
