French travellers need an ETA approved before leaving for Sri Lanka, whether on a guided circuit or an independent trip by train and tuk-tuk. It gives 30 days and two entries on a passport, and the government charge is waived for French citizens.
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 French citizens
France benefits from the waiver that began on 25 May 2026, under which Sri Lanka makes no government charge for a tourist ETA. French travellers are still obliged to hold an approved ETA before they fly.
Overview
Sri Lanka has become one of the destinations French travellers talk about most. It offers the variety of a much larger country in a space smaller than Ireland, and it rewards the kind of trip the French like to take: two or three weeks on the move, by car with a driver-guide or independently, linking the rock fortress of Sigiriya, the temples of Kandy, the blue train to Ella and a last stretch of beach near Mirissa or Tangalle. Paris has a direct flight, and French is now heard regularly in guest houses across the hill country.
One step has to be completed before the departure. Sri Lanka asks all foreign nationals for an Electronic Travel Authorisation, obtained ahead of arrival. French guidebooks and agencies tend to call it the visa Sri Lanka or e-visa, and the names refer to the same permission for a tourist stay. France is one of the 40 countries whose citizens have been exempt from the Sri Lankan government charge on the tourist ETA since 25 May 2026.
What follows is aimed specifically at holders of a French passport. It explains which name to enter when the passport shows both a birth name and a nom d'usage, how accents and hyphens should be handled, why the carte d'identité stays at home, how the three school-holiday zones fit the island's weather, and what to expect on the route from Roissy to Colombo.
At a glance
Eligibility
A French citizen cannot enter Sri Lanka without an ETA. This sometimes surprises travellers who have recently visited Thailand or Malaysia without formalities and expect the same here. The requirement applies to adults and children alike, on a package or travelling independently, and the airline will ask for the approval at Charles de Gaulle before accepting your bags.
For holidays the tourist ETA is the appropriate type. It covers touring and beach stays, visits to friends, Ayurveda cures, yoga retreats and participation in sporting or cultural events. Honeymooners, surfers bound for Weligama and hikers heading to Adam's Peak all fall within it without needing anything more.
Paid or unpaid work does not. French travellers on long journeys through Asia often plan to exchange a few hours of work in a hostel or on a farm for accommodation, and that counts as employment under Sri Lankan rules. Freelance assignments for local clients and any form of trade are excluded too. Reporters and film crews need government approval obtained in advance, which the online ETA cannot provide, while professional meetings, seminars and short training come under the business option.
French nationality is what matters, wherever the passport was issued. Citizens living in Réunion, Mayotte or New Caledonia, or registered at a consulate abroad, apply on the same terms as someone in Lyon. Binational travellers should enter the nationality of the passport they will show at the border; a French and Lebanese dual national, for instance, must not apply with one document and fly with the other.
Stay & validity
French visitors receive 30 days on a tourist ETA, counted from their first arrival, and may enter the country twice. Three weeks is the usual length of a French circuit, so the limit is seldom reached. Those who finish with a few nights in the Maldives can come back through Colombo on the second entry, bearing in mind that the days spent away are still deducted from the 30.
The authorisation may be used to travel during the six months after it is granted. A couple booking in the spring for a trip at Toussaint can apply straight away. Keep the approval and read its conditions, which take precedence over any general description, this one included.
Six months of passport validity are required on the date of arrival. A French adult passport lasts ten years and a minor's only five, and waiting times for appointments at the mairie can stretch to several weeks before the summer. Check each family member's expiry date as soon as you start planning, and renew before applying, because a new passport has a new number and the ETA does not follow it.
Travellers on a sabbatical or a long tour of Asia who want more than a month must obtain an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, a suburb of Colombo, while the first 30 days are still valid. A tourist ETA is not meant for settling in Sri Lanka by means of one visit after another.
Pricing
Live fees for French 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 France
Requirements
Everything French 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.
French applicants usually receive their approval in a day or two. Since this is an observed average and not a commitment, apply at least three to five days before leaving. A circuit with a private driver, booked and paid for in advance, is not something to put at risk for the sake of a few days.
Applications from France rise with the school holidays, which are spread across three zones. The February break alone runs for four weeks as zones A, B and C take turns, and all three share the Christmas fortnight and the Toussaint holidays. For any of these, and for July and August, apply two weeks ahead.
Check the name fields one last time before paying. The most frequent correction requested by French travellers concerns a married name entered in place of the birth name, and once the application is paid for it cannot be amended. If in doubt, read the two lines of capital letters and chevrons at the foot of the passport page and follow them.
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
Paris is the only French city with a nonstop flight to Sri Lanka: SriLankan Airlines flies from Charles de Gaulle to Colombo several times a week. On other days, and from the regions, the journey involves one connection, most often in Dubai, Doha or Istanbul. Travellers from Nice, Lyon, Marseille or Toulouse can generally avoid a transfer through Paris by using one of those hubs.
Best time to go
The time difference with France is four and a half hours in winter and three and a half in summer, as Sri Lanka keeps the same hour all year. The nonstop from Paris leaves in the afternoon or evening and arrives early the next day, which leaves time to reach Negombo or even Sigiriya before nightfall.
December to March is the high season for the south-west coast and the highlands, and it matches the Christmas and February holidays. This is the time for the beaches from Bentota to Tangalle, for the whales off Mirissa and for climbing Adam's Peak, whose pilgrimage season runs through these months. Prices are at their highest between Christmas and early January.
The spring holidays in April remain favourable in the south and the centre, with one caveat: around 13 and 14 April the country stops for Sinhala and Tamil New Year, and buses, trains and many restaurants are affected. From May the monsoon reaches the south-west. For a summer trip, French families should reverse the usual circuit and end on the east coast, at Trincomalee, Pasikudah or Arugam Bay, perhaps timing it for the Esala Perahera in Kandy.
The Toussaint holidays fall between the two monsoons. Expect heat, greenery and showers at the end of the day, along with quieter sites and lower rates. It is a rewarding period for the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Remember that each full moon is a Poya holiday on which alcohol is not sold, so an aperitif by the sea may have to wait a day.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from France — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
A French passport can display a married or customary name beneath the birth name, and many people use it daily. The machine-readable zone carries the birth name only, and that is what the ETA should show. An application made in the married name may not match the passport when it is scanned.
The form is filled in using unaccented Latin letters. Typing é, è, ç or ï, or replacing them with something inventive, creates a discrepancy. Drop the accent and keep the letter, as the bottom lines of the passport do.
The French identity card is enough for much of Europe and a few countries beyond, which leads some travellers to check its date and not the passport's. For Sri Lanka only the passport counts, with six months remaining on arrival.
Appointment slots at French town halls fill up before the summer and the year-end holidays. Travellers who apply for the ETA on the old passport and then receive a new one must apply again, since the authorisation is tied to the number. Renew first.
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
The Embassy of Sri Lanka in France is located in Paris, in the 16th arrondissement. Tourists holding a French passport have no need to go there for an ETA: everything is done online, with no appointment and no documents to send by post. The embassy handles requests the ETA does not cover, such as visas for work, residence or press assignments.
FAQs
The questions French passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. French citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), generally referred to in France as the visa Sri Lanka, approved before they travel. The tourist ETA allows 30 days and two entries. Sri Lanka applies no government charge to it for French passport holders.
The government charge on the tourist ETA has been waived for French nationals since 25 May 2026. The application is still mandatory and a service fee applies for our assistance. The amount is given in the live prices shown on this page.
No. You need a passport valid for six months from the day you arrive. The carte nationale d'identité is not accepted by Sri Lanka, even for a short stay, and the ETA can only be linked to a passport number.
Use the name that appears in the machine-readable zone of your passport, which for French passports is the birth name. Do not add the nom d'usage or the word épouse. Enter first names in full, without accents.
Thirty days from the first arrival, with a second entry possible in the same period. If you leave for the Maldives and come back, you get the remaining days. A longer stay requires an extension granted by the immigration department in Battaramulla.
Yes. Each child travels on a personal passport and has to appear on an ETA application. Children's passports in France are valid for five years, so check that six months will remain on the arrival date.
No. Employment is not permitted on a tourist ETA, whether or not it is paid, and that includes working in return for board and lodging. Yoga courses, Ayurveda stays and ordinary travel are fine.
Three to five days before departure at the least, and about two weeks ahead during school holidays in any zone. The approval stays valid for travel for six months, so it can be requested as soon as the flights are booked.
Your nationality is already set to France. 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.
