Citizens of Guinea-Bissau need an ETA approved before they fly to Sri Lanka. Here is how the 30-day tourist stay works, how Portuguese-style names should be entered, and how to route the journey from Bissau through Lisbon or Casablanca.
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
Guinea-Bissau and Sri Lanka share more history than their distance suggests. Portuguese ships reached both coasts within a few decades of each other, and the evidence is still audible: a Bissau-Guinean called Pereira, Fernandes or da Silva will meet Sri Lankans named Perera, Fernando and de Silva within hours of landing. Even the cashew, the backbone of Guinea-Bissau's economy, arrived on the island by the same Portuguese route.
Getting there starts with an Electronic Travel Authorisation. People searching in Portuguese tend to type "visto Sri Lanka", and the ETA is what that search leads to in practice: an online permission linked to your passport, requested before travel and checked by the airline in Bissau and by immigration in Colombo.
The number of travellers is small. It includes Bissau-Guineans living in Lisbon or Paris who holiday in Asia, students on scholarships in India and China, footballers and officials, and a few adventurous residents of Bissau itself.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes, an ETA is required. Guinea-Bissau nationals cannot enter Sri Lanka for a holiday without one, and it has to be approved in advance. The country is not included in the government fee waiver, which means the standard charge applies to adult applicants; consult the live prices shown on this page for the amount payable today.
Many Bissau-Guineans also hold Portuguese nationality. If that is you, decide which passport you will travel on and apply with that one only, because the authorisation follows the passport number. Portugal is not on the waiver list either, so the choice makes no difference to the government charge, but mixing the two documents will stop you at check-in.
The tourist option is the right one for sightseeing, beach holidays, staying with friends or relatives, wellness and Ayurveda programmes, and taking part in sporting or cultural events. Paid work, self-employment and trading are excluded, whether or not anyone pays you locally.
If your visit is for a business meeting, a conference, a workshop or training lasting under a month, the business option applies instead. And if Colombo is only a pause on the way to somewhere else in Asia, a transit ETA covers up to two days without a government charge, provided you can show proof of onward travel.
Stay & validity
For a Guinea-Bissau passport the tourist ETA grants 30 days in total and permits two entries. The clock starts at your first arrival and does not reset. A side trip to the Maldives or to Chennai is possible, but when you return you receive just the remainder of the original thirty days.
An approved ETA remains valid for travel for six months after issue. For someone leaving from Bissau, where flight options are few and itineraries are often built weeks ahead, applying early costs nothing in flexibility. Always read the conditions on the approval itself, because they take precedence.
Sri Lanka insists on six months of remaining passport validity from the arrival date. If your Guinea-Bissau passport is close to that limit, renew first and apply afterwards: an ETA cannot be moved to a replacement passport, and the government charge paid on the first application is not returned.
Pricing
Live fees for Guinea-Bissau 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 Guinea-Bissau
Requirements
Everything Guinea-Bissau 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.
Guinea-Bissau applicants usually hear back in a day or two. Usually is the important word, because individual cases can take longer and no deadline is guaranteed. Three to five days before departure is the minimum sensible margin, and a fortnight is wiser if you are travelling in the December to March high season.
Carnival deserves a mention. In the weeks around Bissau's Carnaval, in February or early March, offices keep short hours and many people travel, so banks and passport services slow down. If you plan to leave straight after the festivities, complete the application before they begin.
Power and mobile data in Bissau are less predictable than in Lisbon or Dakar. Fill in the form in one sitting on a reliable connection and store the approval in your phone's files. Airline staff at Osvaldo Vieira airport will ask for it before they tag your bags to Colombo.
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 from Bissau towards Asia, so the journey always begins with a short or medium hop to a larger hub. TAP Air Portugal to Lisbon is the classic choice, connecting to Emirates or Qatar Airways for Colombo. Royal Air Maroc via Casablanca and regional flights to Dakar offer alternatives, each needing a further change in the Gulf.
Best time to go
Guinea-Bissau has two seasons, a long dry one from November to May and heavy rains from June to October. Sri Lanka is more complicated, with each coast having its own good months, which means you can choose your side of the island according to when you are free.
During Guinea-Bissau's dry season, particularly December to March, go south and west. This is the time for the ramparts of Galle Fort, first fortified by the Portuguese, for the beaches at Unawatuna and Mirissa, and for the train through the tea estates between Kandy and Ella.
If you travel in the rains, between June and September, when the cashew harvest is over and schools are closed, the east coast is the place. Arugam Bay draws surfers, Pasikudah has shallow lagoon-like water, and inland the leopards of Yala are within reach.
The clocks in Colombo run five and a half hours ahead of Bissau the whole year. After a route through Lisbon and the Gulf that often includes an overnight wait, give yourself a slow first day. Islanders from the Bijagós will feel at home with the fishing boats and palm-lined shore at Negombo, minutes from the airport.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Guinea-Bissau — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Three African countries carry the name: Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea. In a dropdown they are a finger's width apart. Picking Guinea by accident produces an ETA for a nationality you do not hold, and after payment the only cure is a new application.
A passport may read Mendes Correia or Gomes da Costa, and everyday life may use only the last part. The ETA has to carry the complete surname as printed. Dropping the maternal name, or moving it into the given-names box, gives the airline's system a name that does not match its scan.
Bissau-Guineans with Portuguese citizenship often keep both passports in the same wallet. The ETA recognises only the number it was issued against. Apply with the Guinea-Bissau passport and present the Portuguese one, or the reverse, and the airline will find no authorisation on file.
Sanhá, Embaló, Djaló and Baldé all end in an accent that the machine-readable zone removes. Enter them unaccented. Some keyboards and browsers convert accented letters into unreadable characters when a form is submitted, and that damage only becomes visible on the approval.
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
Guinea-Bissau has no Sri Lankan mission and you do not need to contact one to obtain an ETA, which is handled online without any appointment. For matters such as long-stay visas, the embassy in Paris is a resident mission within reach of Lisbon; check with it whether it or another post deals with Guinea-Bissau nationals.
FAQs
The questions Guinea-Bissau passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Guinea-Bissau citizens must obtain an ETA, the online travel authorisation often called a Sri Lanka visa, before departure. On a Guinea-Bissau passport the tourist version runs for 30 days and covers two entries. Guinea-Bissau is outside the fee waiver, so the standard government charge applies.
Use whichever one you will hand to the airline and to immigration, and use it for the entire trip. The ETA is bound to a single passport number. Neither nationality is on Sri Lanka's waiver list, so the government charge is the same either way.
Online, from any phone or computer. Enter your passport details and travel date, upload the photo page and pay with a card that allows international online transactions. No visit to an embassy is involved, which matters because Sri Lanka has none in Bissau.
A Bissau-Guinean tourist gets thirty days, counted from the first arrival. You may enter twice, but both entries share the same thirty days. To stay longer you would need to request an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla before the period expires.
Not direct ones. The usual journey is Bissau to Lisbon with TAP, then Dubai or Doha, then Colombo. Going via Casablanca or Dakar is also possible. Ask the airline what Portugal and the Gulf hub require of you in transit.
No. There is no Sri Lankan embassy or consulate in Guinea-Bissau. For an ETA this does not matter, as the process is entirely online.
Guinea-Bissau is a country with yellow fever risk, and Sri Lanka's port health service can ask travellers arriving from such countries to show a vaccination certificate. Bring your yellow booklet. It is checked separately from the ETA, and requirements can change, so confirm before you leave.
A short stop of up to two days can be made on a transit ETA, which carries no government charge, if you can show proof of your onward journey. Bissau-Guinean students heading to India or China sometimes break the trip this way. For anything longer, apply for the tourist ETA.
Your nationality is already set to Guinea-Bissau. 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.
