Georgian travellers reach Colombo in a single connection from Tbilisi, but an approved ETA has to be in place first. The tourist authorisation allows 30 days and two entries and is requested online with your passport.
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
Georgians are used to travelling light. A Georgian passport opens the Schengen area without a visa, and an ID card is enough for a weekend in Turkey, so it comes as a small surprise that a beach holiday in Sri Lanka needs something arranged in advance. That something is the Electronic Travel Authorisation, or ETA.
The number of Georgians visiting the island is still modest, but it is growing as Gulf carriers add seats out of Tbilisi and as travellers who have already seen Dubai, Sharm el-Sheikh and Thailand look for somewhere new. Sri Lanka's appeal is easy to explain to a Georgian audience: mountains and sea within a few hours of each other, a serious food culture, and tea estates that make an interesting comparison with the plantations of Guria.
You will see the ETA described online as a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa. In practice it is an electronic approval tied to your passport number, with no sticker and no visit to a consulate. The sections below cover how it works for a Georgian passport in particular.
At a glance
Eligibility
A Georgian citizen needs an ETA for any short visit to Sri Lanka, and it should be approved before the journey starts. The visa-free access Georgians enjoy in Europe has no equivalent here, and there is no exemption based on holding a Schengen residence permit or a visa for another country.
Georgia is not one of the forty countries named in the government-charge waiver that took effect on 25 May 2026. Georgian applicants therefore pay the standard government rate along with our service fee, and the combined figure is displayed in the live prices on this page.
The tourist ETA suits most Georgian trips: a holiday on the south coast, a tour of the ancient cities, a yoga or Ayurveda programme, a visit to friends working on the island, or participation in a sports competition or cultural performance. Wine importers, hospitality consultants and others travelling for meetings or a conference should select the business option.
Children are counted too. A Georgian family of four needs four people named in the application, though the government fee is not charged for those under twelve on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days. Taking employment, running a business or living on the island through successive visits is not allowed on tourist terms.
Stay & validity
Thirty days is the stay a Georgian passport holder receives, counted from the first arrival stamp. Two entries are permitted, and both must fall within that same 30 days, so a side trip to the Maldives shortens the time left for Sri Lanka instead of adding to it.
The approval remains usable for six months from the date it is issued. A Georgian planning a January holiday can apply in the autumn without difficulty, provided the passport does not change in the meantime. The conditions printed on the approval itself always take priority.
Georgian adult passports are issued for ten years and children's for shorter terms, and Sri Lanka wants at least six months remaining on the day of arrival. Because Georgians can cross into Turkey on an ID card, a passport may sit in a drawer for years, so look at the expiry date before paying for flights. An extension of stay, where needed, is requested from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, near Colombo.
Pricing
Live fees for Georgian 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 Georgia
Requirements
Everything Georgian 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.
Georgian applications are generally decided within one to two days. Treat that as the usual pattern and not a commitment, because any application can be held for a further check.
Give yourself a margin of three to five days before departure. Flights from Tbilisi to the Gulf often leave late at night or before dawn, and an approval that arrives the afternoon before a 3 a.m. departure leaves no room to resolve a question about a blurred passport scan.
Two periods are worth planning around. The first is the run from New Year through Orthodox Christmas and Epiphany, when Georgians take their longest winter break and Sri Lanka is at its busiest. The second is Orthodox Easter, whose date moves each year and can coincide with the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in mid-April, when offices on the island slow down.
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
Tbilisi has no direct service to Sri Lanka, but the Gulf is only about three hours away and the onward flight to Colombo takes roughly four and a half. Dubai with flydubai, Sharjah with Air Arabia and Doha with Qatar Airways are the three most practical connections, and Istanbul with Turkish Airlines is a fourth for those who prefer to travel west first.
Best time to go
January and February are when Tbilisi is cold and Gudauri is full of skiers, and they are also the driest months on Sri Lanka's south and west coasts. Georgians who would rather swim than ski find calm seas at Unawatuna and Bentota and clear mornings in the tea hills above Nuwara Eliya.
The Georgian winter holiday is generous, beginning on 1 January and running through Christmas on the 7th, with Epiphany on the 19th not far behind. That places most Georgian departures in the island's high season, so accommodation should be reserved early.
Georgian schools close from mid-June to mid-September, a period when the south-west of Sri Lanka is under monsoon cloud. Families travelling then should choose the east coast, where Pasikudah and Trincomalee have sunshine and flat water, or time a visit for the Esala Perahera procession in Kandy in July or August.
Georgia stays on the same clock all year, an hour and a half behind Sri Lanka. The difference is barely felt. The harder adjustment is the overnight connection in the Gulf, which usually delivers Georgian passengers to Colombo around dawn or mid-morning after very little sleep.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Georgia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Georgian sounds have several possible Latin renderings, and a name written one way on social media may be printed another way in the passport. Kakhaber, Tsotne and Dzhaba are easy to mistype. Read the letters from the document one at a time.
Regular trips to Turkey on an ID card lead some travellers to start the form with the card in hand. Sri Lanka accepts only the passport, and the authorisation is recorded against the passport number.
A passport that has not been used since a European trip three years ago may no longer have six months left. The ETA cannot make up for a document that is too close to expiry.
A late-evening departure makes it tempting to apply that morning. If anything needs correcting, there is no working day left in which to fix it.
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 does not maintain an embassy in Tbilisi, and Georgia is handled from Ankara. A tourist ETA is obtained online, so Georgian holidaymakers never need to travel to Turkey or send documents there.
FAQs
The questions Georgian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Georgian citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, commonly called a Sri Lanka visa, approved before they travel. It permits a stay of 30 days with two entries.
No. Georgia's visa-free arrangement with the Schengen area does not extend to Sri Lanka, which requires an ETA from every foreign visitor.
It is not. Georgia falls outside the forty-country waiver introduced in May 2026, so the standard rate applies. See the live prices on this page for the amount payable now.
With one change of aircraft, most often in Dubai, Sharjah or Doha. Total travel time is typically between nine and twelve hours depending on the length of the connection.
No, the application requires your passport. The ID card is valid for a few neighbouring countries only and cannot be used for Sri Lanka.
Usually a day or two. Applying three to five days ahead is recommended, and earlier still for travel around New Year.
Online, from wherever you are. You apply as a Georgian national with your Georgian passport, and your European residence permit does not alter the requirement or the charge.
You can ask for an extension in person at the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla before your permitted stay runs out. Approval is at the department's discretion.
Your nationality is already set to Georgia. 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.
