Hungarian passport holders must have an ETA approved before flying to Colombo. It covers a 30-day tourist visit with two entries at the standard government rate, and the form needs your names in passport order, not Hungarian order.
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
Hungarian interest in Sri Lanka has grown quietly through word of mouth: travel vloggers from Budapest filming the train to Ella, yoga teachers running winter retreats near Weligama, and couples choosing the island for a honeymoon because it delivers jungle, culture and coast in one trip. With Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines all serving Liszt Ferenc airport, getting there is no longer complicated.
The administrative side is equally manageable once you know the rules. Sri Lanka asks every Hungarian visitor to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation in advance, a document that Hungarian-language sites usually call a vízum and English ones a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa. It is issued electronically and attached to your útlevél number.
Hungary is not part of the 2026 fee waiver, and Hungarian naming habits create a specific risk on any foreign form. Both points are covered below, together with routes, timing and the documents an officer at Bandaranaike may want to see.
At a glance
Eligibility
An ETA is compulsory for Hungarian citizens on a short stay, with no exception for package tourists, cruise-style group tours or travellers who have visited before. The személyi igazolvány, perfectly good for a weekend in Vienna, cannot be used for the flight or the application.
Sri Lanka's waiver of its government charge applies to 40 named countries, and Hungary is not on that list even though Austria is. A Hungarian passport is therefore processed at the standard government rate; our live prices shown on this page set out what is payable at the moment.
Many Hungarian citizens live outside Hungary, whether in Transylvania, southern Slovakia, Vojvodina, Germany or the United Kingdom, and some hold another nationality as well. Where you reside makes no difference to the ETA. What matters is the passport you enter on the form, which must be the one you hand to the airline.
Choose the tourist category for sightseeing, beach holidays, visiting relatives, medical or Ayurveda treatment and amateur sporting events. Hungarian companies sending staff to negotiations, exhibitions with a commercial purpose or short professional training should use the business option, since conducting trade on a tourist ETA breaches its terms.
Stay & validity
After issue, you have six months in which to make your first arrival. Hungarians who book early to catch reasonable winter fares can therefore apply well in advance, as long as the passport will not be replaced in the meantime.
The permitted stay is 30 days and the ETA may be used for two entries. Think of it as one 30-day allowance with a pause button that does not actually pause: leave for a week in the Maldives and the days continue to count, leaving you the remainder when you come back through Colombo.
For those planning a sabbatical-length trip, an extension must be requested from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla before the initial period ends. An approved ETA also does not guarantee admission; the officer at the border makes the final decision.
Pricing
Live fees for Hungarian 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 Hungary
Requirements
Everything Hungarian 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.
Decisions on Hungarian applications generally come through in a day or two. We recommend applying a minimum of three to five days before you fly, and we never describe any timeframe as certain because the Sri Lankan authorities control it.
Peak pressure comes around the Hungarian winter school break, which runs from before Christmas into early January, and again at the long weekends created by 15 March and Easter. If your trip falls then, a fortnight's lead time is a comfortable cushion.
Applications are completed in English. If you are helping an older relative who is not confident in the language, sit with their passport open in front of you and copy each field directly instead of relying on how the family normally writes the name.
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
Budapest has no nonstop flight to Sri Lanka, but it does have direct links to three of the main transfer hubs, which keeps the journey to a single change. Travellers from Győr and Sopron sometimes prefer Vienna, while those in the east of the country generally travel to Budapest first.
Best time to go
Hungary's continental climate makes the appeal of a tropical January obvious. The classic season for the south-west beaches, the tea country around Nuwara Eliya and the Cultural Triangle runs from December to March, exactly when the Great Plain is at its coldest.
The autumn school break at the end of October, wrapped around the 23 October national holiday and All Saints' Day, tempts some families to go early. That is inter-monsoon time in Sri Lanka, with short heavy showers possible on either coast, so keep plans flexible and expect lush scenery in place of guaranteed sunshine.
During the long Hungarian summer holiday from mid-June to the end of August, weather favours the east. Trincomalee and Arugam Bay are at their best, and the Esala Perahera in Kandy, usually in July or August, is one of Asia's great processions.
Sri Lanka is four and a half hours ahead of Budapest in winter and three and a half in summer. Hungarians who mark 20 August or Christmas abroad should also note the local calendar: Sinhala and Tamil New Year in mid-April closes many businesses for several days.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Hungary — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Because Hungarians naturally write Nagy Katalin, it is easy to type Nagy into the given-name box when a form lists that field first. Check each box against the labels on the passport data page before submitting.
Ő and ű have no place in the machine-readable zone, and writing OE or UE instead is a habit borrowed from German. Use the single unaccented letter the passport itself shows.
Hungarians who fly from Vienna alongside Austrian friends sometimes assume identical treatment. Charges depend on nationality, not on the departure airport, and Hungary sits in the standard-rate group.
If your útlevél is close to expiry and you plan to renew it before the trip, wait for the new one. The authorisation cannot be moved to a replacement passport and the government charge is not refunded.
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 resident embassy in Budapest, and Hungary falls under its embassy in Vienna. That mission is not involved in ordinary tourist ETAs, so Hungarian holidaymakers can complete everything from home without travelling to Austria.
FAQs
The questions Hungarian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Hungarians need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the online permission often called a Sri Lanka visa, before they travel. A tourist ETA allows 30 days and two entries.
No. Hungary is outside the 40-country waiver that began on 25 May 2026, so the standard government rate is charged. What a Hungarian applicant pays today is listed in the live prices shown on this page.
Ignore everyday Hungarian order and follow the form's labels. Put your family name in the surname field and your given names in the given-names field, spelled as in the passport's machine-readable zone.
There is no nonstop service. The usual routings change once in Dubai, Doha or Istanbul, and the whole journey commonly takes between eleven and fourteen hours.
It can be used to enter for six months from the date it is issued. Once you arrive, the stay is 30 days, and both permitted entries must fall within that period.
The application is online, so your country of residence does not matter. Apply with the passport you will travel on; if that is your Hungarian one, the rules on this page apply to you.
Yoga and Ayurveda programmes taken as a visitor come under the tourist ETA. Short professional training connected with business falls under the business option, and paid teaching work is not permitted on either.
Errors spotted before payment can be corrected on the review screen. After payment a new application is needed, and the government charge already paid is non-refundable.
Your nationality is already set to Hungary. 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.
