Gambian passport holders need an ETA before visiting Sri Lanka. The tourist version permits 30 days and two entries. Apply online from Banjul, Serrekunda or abroad, choosing Gambia as your nationality and matching your passport exactly.
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
The Gambia understands winter-sun tourism better than almost any country in Africa, because every November the charter flights arrive and the hotels along Kololi and Kotu fill up. Sri Lanka plays the same role on the other side of the world, on a much larger scale. For Gambians who work in hospitality, guiding or bird-watching tours, a visit can be as much professional curiosity as holiday.
Gambian citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, or ETA, to enter Sri Lanka for a short stay. It must be approved in advance. The same document is often called a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa, and you may see all three terms used for it.
This page explains the ETA from a Gambian point of view: where the country appears on the form, how names spelt the Gambian way should be entered, what the journey from Banjul International Airport at Yundum involves, and how Sri Lanka's seasons compare with the tourist season at home.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. Sri Lanka makes no exception for The Gambia, and all Gambian passport holders must have an ETA approved before a short visit. Neither Commonwealth membership nor holding a visa for another country changes that.
The Gambia is not one of the forty countries whose citizens stopped paying the government charge for a tourist ETA on 25 May 2026. Gambian applicants are in the standard-rate group. What that means in practice, together with our service fee, is set out in the live prices shown on this page.
No government fee is charged for a Gambian child under twelve on a tourist ETA of up to thirty days. Children are not exempt from the authorisation, though, and each one is added to the family's application.
The tourist ETA is right for a holiday, a stay with friends or relatives, medical or Ayurvedic treatment, and cultural or sporting events. A Gambian hotelier or guide going to Sri Lanka for a trade workshop, a seminar or training lasting under a month needs the business option. Taking a job, even an unpaid placement in a resort, is not allowed on a tourist ETA.
Stay & validity
On a tourist ETA a Gambian traveller receives 30 days, beginning on the day of first entry, and may enter a second time before those days run out. A return from a few nights in the Maldives is admitted for the balance only.
An approved ETA stays valid for travel for six months from issue. Gambians who book well in advance for the northern winter can apply as soon as the passport and dates are settled. Whatever is printed on the approval is what applies.
Sri Lanka needs six months of validity on your Gambian passport from the date of arrival. Check this before applying. If you renew at the immigration department in Banjul afterwards, the new passport number will not match the ETA and you would have to apply again.
Extensions past 30 days are decided by the Department of Immigration and Emigration at its head office in Battaramulla, outside Colombo. Gambian visitors should request one before the original period ends.
Pricing
Live fees for Gambian 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 Gambia
Requirements
Everything Gambian 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.
Most Gambian applications are approved within a day or two of being submitted. It is an expectation, not a promise, and anything that needs manual review takes longer.
Submit at least three to five days before you travel from The Gambia. Add extra days if your trip falls between December and March, the same months when Banjul's own tourist season is in full swing and Sri Lanka's south-west is busiest.
The Gambia is on Greenwich Mean Time all year and Sri Lanka is five and a half hours ahead. Banks in Banjul and Serrekunda close on 18 February, Tobaski, Koriteh and other public holidays, so sort out card settings beforehand if yours needs international use enabled.
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 nonstop from The Gambia to Sri Lanka. Gambian travellers usually begin with a short flight to Dakar, where Emirates connects to Dubai and onward to Colombo, or take Royal Air Maroc to Casablanca and continue through Doha. Turkish Airlines has served Banjul through Istanbul as well. Schedules at Banjul change with the tourist season, so confirm what is running.
Best time to go
Gambians already know the rhythm of a dry season that brings visitors and a wet season that sends them home. Sri Lanka's south and west coasts keep the same calendar as Kololi: dry and busy from December to March or April, wet from May to September.
For anyone employed in Gambian tourism, the quiet months at home are June to October. Travel then and you should go to Sri Lanka's east coast, where Trincomalee, Pasikudah and Arugam Bay are in their dry season, and time a visit to Kandy for the Esala Perahera in July or August.
Bird guides from Abuko, Tanji or Janjanbureh will find Sri Lanka rewarding, with dozens of endemic species in the wet-zone forests and wetlands near the national parks. Yala and Wilpattu add leopards and elephants. November to April is also when whales are seen off Mirissa.
If you travel in the northern winter, when The Gambia is at its busiest, book Sri Lankan rooms early as well, since it is peak season there too. Gambian Muslims will find mosques and halal food readily in Colombo, Galle and Kandy. Poya full-moon days are public holidays each month and alcohol is not sold on them.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Gambia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Families spread across the Gambia-Senegal border often share a surname with two spellings. A Gambian passport reading Jallow must not be entered as Diallo, nor Touray as Touré, even if other documents of yours use the French form.
Some forms list the country as Gambia and others as The Gambia or Gambia, The. Applicants who cannot find it sometimes choose Ghana or Guinea in error. Look under both G and T, and confirm the code GM.
Gambians naturalised in the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany or Sweden, all countries on the waiver list, sometimes apply on the Gambian passport and then present the other one. The ETA must match the passport shown at the border.
Gambian hospitality workers are sometimes offered informal stints in Sri Lankan resorts. Work of that kind, paid or not, breaches the tourist ETA. Training of under a month is possible, but on the business option.
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
Banjul has no Sri Lankan High Commission, and The Gambia comes under the mission in Nairobi. A Gambian applying for an ETA does so online and never needs to approach it. Questions about activities that require prior Sri Lankan government approval are the exception.
FAQs
The questions Gambian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Gambian citizens need an approved ETA, the electronic authorisation often called a Sri Lanka visa, before travelling for a short stay. It is obtained online ahead of the trip.
The tourist ETA allows 30 days from the first arrival and a second entry within that period. An extension from the immigration department in Battaramulla is needed for anything longer.
Yes. The Gambia is charged the standard government rate because it is not on the list of forty waiver countries. A child under twelve on a tourist ETA is not charged it. Check the live prices shown on this page for the current total.
They are the same country, and forms differ in how they list it. Select whichever appears, with the code GM, and make sure you have not picked Ghana, Guinea or Zambia by accident.
By connecting at least once and often twice. A short hop from The Gambia to Dakar followed by Emirates through Dubai is the most common pattern, with Casablanca and Doha, or Istanbul, as alternatives.
No. The Gambia is covered by the Sri Lanka High Commission in Nairobi. It is not involved in ETA applications.
Yes. The ETA depends on your passport, not on where you live, so a Gambian passport holder in Britain applies in the same way and at the standard rate. If you also hold a British passport and travel on that, the government charge is waived, but you must then apply with the British passport.
No. Employment, paid or unpaid, is outside the tourist ETA, and that includes seasonal hotel or guiding work that Gambians in the trade may be offered. Only genuine visits are covered.
Your nationality is already set to Gambia. 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.
