Gabonese travellers swapping the Atlantic for the Indian Ocean must hold an ETA before departure. It allows 30 days and two entries in Sri Lanka, and Libreville residents can complete the request online in one sitting.
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
Gabon knows something about protected forest and wild coastline, with Loango's surfing hippos and elephants on the beach. Sri Lanka offers the Asian counterpart on a far smaller island: leopards in Yala, elephants by the hundred at Minneriya, and sea turtles nesting within sight of hotel terraces. For Gabonese travellers with an eye for nature, it is an easy country to like.
Getting in requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Gabonese searching in French will usually type visa Sri Lanka, and although the ETA is lighter than a consular visa, it is just as compulsory. It must be approved before you fly and it is matched electronically to your passport when the airline checks you in.
Sri Lanka has no diplomatic presence in Libreville, which once made the island seem out of reach. The online application removes that obstacle. This page explains how the rules apply to a Gabonese passport, what to prepare, how to route the journey, and when to go.
At a glance
Eligibility
The ETA is obligatory for Gabonese nationals on any short stay. Gabon has no visa-waiver agreement with Sri Lanka, and membership of the Commonwealth, which Libreville joined in 2022, has not altered the requirement. Plan on having the approval before you commit to non-refundable flights.
Gabon is charged the standard government rate. Although forty nationalities now have that charge waived on tourist ETAs, Gabon is not on the list, and our service fee applies in the usual way. The live prices shown on this page give the figures. Families benefit from one concession, since under-12s are not subject to the government charge.
A tourist ETA is right for holidays, visits to friends, Ayurveda and yoga stays, and attendance at cultural or sporting events. Gabonese executives from the timber, manganese or energy sectors travelling for meetings or a conference should take the business option. Paid or unpaid work is excluded under both.
Applicants resident in France on a titre de séjour apply in the same way as those living in Libreville or Port-Gentil. The form asks for nationality and passport details, not for immigration status in a third country, though you will want your French residence card for the journey back.
Stay & validity
Gabonese visitors are granted 30 days on a tourist ETA. It is a double-entry authorisation, and both entries draw on the single 30-day period that opens when you first arrive. Returning from a few days in the Maldives, you are given what remains.
After approval there are six months in which to travel, enough to apply before the long school holidays are finalised. Always treat the wording on the approval you receive as the authority on dates and conditions.
Gabonese biometric passports need six months of validity left when you arrive in Colombo. Renewals are handled by the Direction Générale de la Documentation et de l'Immigration in Libreville and can involve a wait, so deal with the passport first. An ETA issued on an old passport number cannot be attached to a new one.
Pricing
Live fees for Gabonese 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 Gabon
Requirements
Everything Gabonese 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.
In most cases Gabonese applicants hear back inside a day or two. Apply five days or more before leaving, and allow longer for travel between mid-December and early January or in the weeks after the 17 August Independence holiday, when many Gabonese take their annual leave.
Libreville is four and a half hours behind Sri Lanka in every month of the year. Send the form in the morning and it lands in the Sri Lankan afternoon; send it at night and it waits for the next day. Friday evening applications are the ones most likely to feel slow.
Because the route involves at least one long connection, sort out the ETA before the tickets if you can. Airlines serving Libreville check documents for the final destination at the first desk, and a passenger whose authorisation is still pending is not accepted for the flight.
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
Gabon has no direct air link with Sri Lanka. The neatest itinerary from Libreville Léon-Mba is Turkish Airlines through Istanbul, a hub with onward flights to Colombo. Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa and Dubai is the main alternative, and Air France through Paris suits those combining the trip with a stop in Europe. Travellers from Port-Gentil and Franceville first take a domestic flight to the capital.
Best time to go
Gabon's grande saison sèche, from June to mid-September, is cool, overcast and the time when schools are closed. Sri Lanka's east coast is at its sunniest in exactly those months. Gabonese families can count on calm water at Pasikudah and Nilaveli while Colombo is in its wetter spell.
The short dry season around December and January matches the best months on Sri Lanka's south-west coast. This is the season for Galle Fort, the beaches at Tangalle and whale watching from Mirissa, and also for the hill country, where the views from Ella and Horton Plains are clearest.
Wildlife enthusiasts from Gabon should look at the dry-zone parks. Between July and September several hundred elephants converge on the reservoir at Minneriya, a spectacle quite unlike the forest elephants glimpsed at Lopé or Ivindo. Yala offers leopards, and its busiest months are December to April.
Sri Lanka is hot at sea level all year, as Libreville is, but the highlands around Nuwara Eliya can be genuinely chilly at night. Pack a layer. Note also the Vesak festival at the May full moon, when towns are hung with lanterns and many shops close for two days.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Gabon — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Some Gabonese travellers lose weeks looking for a Sri Lankan consulate in Libreville to stamp a visa. None exists and none is required. The tourist authorisation is granted online, and delay only eats into the time available to correct a problem.
In Gabon people are often known by a first name plus one family name, while the passport may show two forenames and a double surname. The application has to follow the passport in full, not the version on a business card.
Banks in the CFA zone commonly disable online payments abroad until the customer asks. Discovering this at the payment step the night before departure is avoidable. Call the branch a few days ahead and test the card.
The ETA deals with immigration and says nothing about health checks. Arrivals from Gabon are asked for proof of yellow fever vaccination in Colombo, so the carnet belongs in the same wallet as the passport.
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
Gabon does not host a Sri Lankan embassy, and the country is covered from a Sri Lankan mission elsewhere in Africa. Gabonese ETA applicants have no dealings with it, because nothing in the online process calls for a consular officer. Only travel for purposes beyond the ETA, such as reporting or NGO work, would lead you to contact a mission, and its accreditation should be confirmed first.
FAQs
The questions Gabonese passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Gabonese citizens need an approved Electronic Travel Authorisation, which functions as the Sri Lanka visa for short stays, before they depart. For tourism it provides 30 days and two entries and is linked to the Gabonese passport used to apply.
Online. The ETA is applied for through a web form in English, with a photo of your passport page and a card payment. The approval is emailed, usually within a day or two, and there is nothing to collect in Libreville.
No. The waiver of the government charge depends on a specific list of forty countries, not on Commonwealth membership, and Gabon is not listed. The standard rate and our service fee are set out in the live prices on this page.
Thirty days from first arrival on a tourist ETA, with the right to enter twice in that time. For a longer stay you would need to seek an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration at Battaramulla before your permitted stay runs out.
The simplest is usually Turkish Airlines with a change in Istanbul. If dates or fares do not suit, Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa and on through Dubai is the common fallback. Either way, expect most of a day in transit.
Entries have to be made in English and in Latin capitals as on the passport. The questions are short and factual, covering names, dates, passport number, arrival date and address, so limited English is rarely an obstacle.
Children must be included in an application whatever their age. Sri Lanka does not collect its government charge for those under 12 on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days. Check the live prices on this page for how the service fee applies.
Employment, whether paid or unpaid, and self-employment are not permitted on a tourist ETA. It is a visitor authorisation for holidays, family visits, treatment and events. Nor may it be used to settle on the island by returning repeatedly.
Your nationality is already set to Gabon. 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.
