Haitian passport holders in Haiti and across the diaspora need an ETA before travelling to Sri Lanka. A tourist authorisation covers 30 days and two entries, and the online application requires no embassy visit or posted documents.
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
Most Haitians who travel to Sri Lanka do so from somewhere other than Haiti. They set out from Montréal, Miami, New York, Paris or Santo Domingo, as students, aid professionals on leave, church groups or couples on a long-planned holiday. Wherever home is, the document that decides the entry rules is the Haitian passport.
On that passport you need an Electronic Travel Authorisation. French speakers usually look for a visa Sri Lanka or e-visa, and the ETA is the answer to that search. The form is online and in English, the approval is stored against your passport number, and no embassy has to see the booklet.
Haiti is not one of the forty states for which Sri Lanka has removed its government charge on tourist ETAs. The standard rate applies to Haitian nationals, and we charge a service fee for assisting with the application. Current amounts are given in the live prices shown on this page.
At a glance
Eligibility
Haitian citizens need an ETA whatever the length or reason of a short visit. It has to be granted before departure, because every airline on the route will verify it, beginning with the first one you board.
The tourist ETA suits a holiday, a visit to friends or relatives, medical treatment including Ayurveda and yoga programmes, and participation in sporting competitions or cultural performances. A Haitian footballer in a tournament or a musician invited to perform at a festival would come under those headings.
Travel for work is treated separately. Business meetings, conferences, workshops, seminars, religious events and training shorter than a month fall under the business option. Haitians employed by NGOs and news organisations should note that NGO work, journalism and political activity all need prior approval from the Sri Lankan government, which the ETA does not supply.
Many Haitians abroad have become Canadian, American or French citizens. Canada, the United States and France are each on the waiver list for the government charge, while Haiti is at the standard rate. The passport you put on the form determines the treatment, and it is also the only passport the approval will work with.
Stay & validity
A tourist ETA lets a Haitian national remain in Sri Lanka for 30 days from first arrival. It allows two entries, but there is one 30-day period, not two, and a traveller who leaves and returns is admitted for the days outstanding.
After it is issued, the ETA can be used for six months. Given how often Haitian travel plans have to be rearranged at short notice, it helps that a postponed trip can still go ahead on the same approval if it starts within that time.
The passport must be valid for six months from the date of arrival. Renewing a Haitian passport can be slow, both in Port-au-Prince and at consulates abroad, so check the expiry long before booking. A renewed passport needs a new ETA. Requests to stay longer go to the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla.
Pricing
Live fees for Haitian 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 Haiti
Requirements
Everything Haitian 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.
Haitian applications are mostly approved within a day or two. We cannot give a fixed time, and now and then a file takes longer when the passport image or a name has to be reviewed.
We recommend applying at least three to five days before you travel, and considerably earlier around the July and August school holidays, Christmas and the New Year. For Haitians the ETA is seldom the bottleneck: a visa for the connecting country takes much longer, and both must be ready on the same day.
Haiti observes daylight saving time, so Sri Lanka is ten and a half hours ahead of Port-au-Prince in winter and nine and a half in summer. An application sent in the Haitian morning arrives in the Sri Lankan evening and is usually dealt with by the next 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
Commercial flying from Haiti has been heavily disrupted, with services at Port-au-Prince suspended for long periods and Cap-Haïtien carrying much of the remaining traffic. Many travellers therefore begin in Santo Domingo, Miami or another city where they live or can connect. From those gateways the way to Colombo runs through Europe or the Gulf, and schedules should be confirmed close to departure.
Best time to go
Haiti's climate is close enough to Sri Lanka's that heat and humidity will not be a shock. The differences lie in the rains, which in Sri Lanka come as two monsoons affecting opposite sides of the island, and in the absence of a Caribbean-style hurricane season.
The period from December to March is the best for the south and west coasts and the central hills. Haitians travelling after the Independence Day celebrations on the first of January, or around Kanaval in February, will have dry days for Galle Fort, the southern beaches and the tea estates near Ella.
School holidays in July and August line up with the east-coast season. Trincomalee, Pasikudah and Arugam Bay are sunny while the south-west is wet, and the Kandy Esala Perahera, one of Asia's great religious processions, is held in July or August.
Visitors from the diaspora leaving a Montréal or New York winter will feel the contrast most sharply and should allow a day or two to adjust to the heat. Note that the monthly Poya full-moon day is a public holiday without alcohol sales, and that mid-April's New Year brings closures and crowded transport.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Haiti — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Haitian paperwork commonly lists the family name first, and applicants carry that order onto the form. Put the surname in the surname field and the given names in theirs, as the passport's machine-readable lines separate them, or the ETA will not match.
Jean-Robert entered as Jean alone, or as Jean in one box and Robert treated as a middle name the passport does not show, is a frequent source of mismatches. Copy the given names as a unit, the way your passport prints them.
A Haitian passport needs a visa to connect through the United States, Canada or the Schengen area. Because the ETA's government charge is not refunded, secure the transit permission first, or at least be sure you qualify, before paying for the authorisation.
With renewals taking time, some Haitians apply on a booklet they are in the middle of replacing. The ETA does not move to the new number. Wait until the new passport is in your hands, then apply once.
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 has no diplomatic mission in Haiti, and its embassy in Cuba is the closest; contact it to learn which office is accredited to Haiti. Members of the diaspora may find the Sri Lankan missions in Ottawa, Washington or Paris easier to reach. For an ETA none of them is required, because the process is entirely electronic.
FAQs
The questions Haitian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Haitian citizens must have an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the online permit often referred to as a Sri Lanka visa, approved before they travel. The tourist ETA provides for a 30-day stay and two entries.
Yes. You can apply online from any country, and living abroad does not change the process. A Haitian passport is charged the standard government rate wherever its holder resides; a Canadian, American or French passport is treated under the waiver instead.
No. The nearest Sri Lankan embassy is in Havana, and the country has larger missions in Ottawa, Washington and Paris. Haitian tourists do not need any of them for an ETA, which is applied for and issued online.
No. Haiti is outside the forty-country waiver, so the standard government rate applies to adults, along with our service fee. The exception is children under 12, who are not charged the government fee on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days.
Follow the two machine-readable lines at the bottom of your passport's photo page. They show which words are the surname and which are given names, and how hyphens and accents are handled. Enter the name in that form, in capital or ordinary letters as the form allows.
It depends on which airports are operating when you travel. Many Haitians leave through Cap-Haïtien or Santo Domingo, connect in Miami or Madrid and continue with a Gulf airline to Colombo. Check flight status and transit visa rules shortly before booking.
Six months from the date of issue. Within that time you may travel, and on arrival the 30-day stay begins. If your plans slip beyond the six months, or your passport is replaced, a new application will be needed.
No. The ETA is permission to travel, and the immigration officer in Colombo makes the final decision. Carry your return ticket, hotel booking and proof of funds, and make sure the purpose you describe matches the type of ETA you hold.
Your nationality is already set to Haiti. 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.
