Cricket tours, Hindu pilgrimage sites and Indian Ocean beaches draw Guyanese travellers to Sri Lanka. Each visitor needs an ETA approved in advance, giving 30 days and two entries on the passport used to apply.
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
Guyana and Sri Lanka sit on opposite sides of the world yet share more than most pairs of distant countries: membership of the Commonwealth, English in public life, a devotion to cricket, and rice, sugar and tea in the history books. For Indo-Guyanese families there is a further tie in the Hindu and Muslim traditions carried across from the subcontinent.
Getting in requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation, which Guyanese travellers often look up as a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa. The application is made online and, helpfully for a Guyanese applicant, entirely in English. Approval is logged against your passport number, with no sticker or stamp issued beforehand.
Sri Lanka's waiver of the government charge covers forty countries, and Guyana is not among them, so Guyanese nationals pay the standard rate along with our service fee. The live prices shown on this page set out what that comes to at the moment you apply.
At a glance
Eligibility
Guyanese citizens do need an ETA, and it has to be in hand before the journey starts at Cheddi Jagan International. Commonwealth membership brings no exemption here, a point that sometimes surprises travellers used to easier entry elsewhere in the Caribbean Community.
Supporters following the West Indies on tour, families visiting the Seetha Amman temple near Nuwara Eliya and other places linked to the Ramayana, couples on a beach holiday and patients booked into an Ayurveda clinic all fall under the tourist ETA. So does a stay with friends or relations.
Guyana's fast-growing energy and services sectors mean more business travel than in the past. Attending meetings, a conference, a workshop or a short training course calls for the business option. Media assignments, political activity and NGO work are different again, requiring advance approval from Colombo that the online ETA does not provide.
A large share of Guyanese live in New York, Toronto or London and hold American, Canadian or British passports as well. Those three nationalities benefit from the waiver of the government charge. If you travel on one of them, apply on it; if you travel on your Guyanese passport, the standard rate applies.
Stay & validity
On a tourist ETA a Guyanese visitor may spend 30 days in Sri Lanka. Two entries are permitted, which suits a cricket itinerary that hops to India or the Maldives between matches, though both must fall inside the single 30-day period that begins when you first land.
The authorisation can be used at any point in the six months following its issue. That allows you to apply as soon as a tour schedule or family date is fixed, and leave the flights from Georgetown to be finalised afterwards.
Your Guyanese passport needs six clear months of validity on the day you arrive. Check the expiry page before applying, because a passport renewed after approval takes a new number and the ETA does not follow it. For any stay longer than the period granted, an extension has to be sought from the Department of Immigration and Emigration at Battaramulla.
Pricing
Live fees for Guyanese 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 Guyana
Requirements
Everything Guyanese 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.
Guyanese applicants usually hear back within a day or two. Treat that as a guide and not a commitment, since an application occasionally takes longer if a detail has to be verified.
Three to five days before departure is the latest we would recommend applying. Build in extra time before the August school holidays, at Christmas, and whenever a West Indies series in Sri Lanka sends demand up, because the transit visa for your connection may take far longer than the ETA and the two need to be ready together.
Sri Lanka is nine and a half hours ahead of Georgetown all year. By the time the working day begins in Guyana it is already evening in Colombo, so an application sent in the morning is generally looked at overnight and answered by the following day.
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
Guyana has no service to South Asia or the Gulf, so the journey to Colombo runs through North America or Europe. New York is the busiest gateway from Georgetown and offers onward flights with all three large Gulf airlines. London is the alternative, with SriLankan Airlines flying from Heathrow to Colombo, but check which London airport your Georgetown flight uses.
Best time to go
Guyana's two rainy seasons, roughly May to July and December to January, do not match Sri Lanka's, so it pays to plan around the island's calendar and not your own. The south and west coasts and the hills are driest from December to March or April.
A Christmas or Mashramani trip therefore lands in the best weather for Galle, Bentota, Mirissa and the tea country, and in the months when international cricket is most often played in Colombo, Galle and Kandy. Whales are seen off the south coast throughout that season.
The August holidays coincide with the south-west monsoon, which soaks Colombo and the southern beaches. The east coast is the place to be then, around Trincomalee, Pasikudah and Arugam Bay, and Kandy's Esala Perahera, with its drummers, dancers and decorated elephants, is held in July or August.
Guyanese visitors who mark Phagwah and Diwali at home will find Sri Lanka's festival year equally full. Sinhala and Tamil New Year falls in mid-April and Vesak at the May full moon. Every monthly Poya is a public holiday on which bars close and shops do not sell alcohol.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Guyana — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Guyanese travellers are admitted to many Commonwealth and CARICOM states with little formality and may expect the same of Sri Lanka. It makes no such exception, and an airline will not carry a passenger to Colombo without an approved ETA on record.
Guyanese with American, Canadian or British citizenship often keep both passports in the same wallet. The ETA is bound to the number entered on the form, and showing the other booklet at immigration means the officer finds no authorisation at all.
Routing through New York requires a United States visa even to change planes, and switching between London airports means entering the United Kingdom. Sort out those permissions first, as they are slower to obtain than the ETA and decide whether the itinerary works.
Older Guyanese records sometimes spell the same family name in two or three ways. Use the passport version everywhere, on the ETA and on the ticket alike, because a mismatch between them is noticed at check-in and is awkward to fix at the counter.
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 a high commission in Georgetown, and Guyana is served from a mission abroad; the embassy in Brasília is the closest and can tell you which office is currently accredited. Guyanese applying for an ETA never need to contact it, because no interview, appointment or original document is asked for.
FAQs
The questions Guyanese passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Guyanese citizens must hold an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the online permit widely described as a Sri Lanka visa, before they travel. The tourist version permits a 30-day stay and two entries, and is linked to the passport you apply with.
Yes. Watching or taking part in sporting events is one of the purposes a tourist ETA covers, along with sightseeing and visiting friends. Guyanese travelling as accredited journalists or broadcasters are in a different position and need prior government approval that the ETA does not give.
It is completed in English from start to finish, so Guyanese applicants need no translation. Enter names, dates and the passport number just as they are printed, and review them before paying, since a paid application cannot be amended.
Apply at least three to five days ahead, and sooner for Christmas, August and major cricket fixtures. Most approvals take a day or two, though this is not guaranteed. Remember that a United States or United Kingdom visa for your connection will take considerably longer.
No. The scheme that removes the government charge applies to forty listed countries, and Guyana is not one of them. Guyanese adults pay the standard government rate and our service fee, while children under 12 are spared the government fee on tourist stays of up to 30 days.
That depends on which passport you travel on. Canada is included in the waiver of the government charge, so an application made on your Canadian passport is treated accordingly. You must then enter Sri Lanka on that same Canadian passport, not the Guyanese one.
The usual options are via New York and a Gulf hub, or via London and SriLankan Airlines from Heathrow. Each takes roughly a day or more. Look carefully at the visa requirements of the transit country before you commit to a fare.
Once, yes. The tourist ETA is double entry, so a side trip to the Maldives or southern India is possible. The second entry must take place within the original 30 days and you are admitted only for the balance of them.
Your nationality is already set to Guyana. 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.
