I-Kiribati travellers need an approved ETA before the long journey from Tarawa to Colombo. It gives 30 days and two entries, and the whole application is handled online without sending a passport overseas.
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
Kiribati sits astride the equator and the date line, and Sri Lanka lies almost a third of the way round the globe to the west. Few I-Kiribati make the trip in any year: church delegations, officials bound for regional meetings, seafarers on leave between contracts, and a handful of families curious about somewhere very unlike an atoll.
Whatever the reason, the paperwork starts with an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Sri Lanka asks every foreign visitor to hold one before boarding, and a Kiribati passport is no exception. You may see it described online as a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa; for a holiday of up to 30 days it is the same thing, requested on a screen instead of at a counter.
This page is written for travellers starting from Tarawa, Kiritimati or the outer islands. It covers which charge category Kiribati falls into, how I-Kiribati names should be typed, how long the journey really takes, and when to apply given how thin the flight schedule is.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. Kiribati citizens need an approved ETA before travelling to Sri Lanka for tourism, and there is no exemption based on Commonwealth membership or Pacific island status. The authorisation is requested online and recorded against the passport number, so nothing has to be posted from Tarawa and no sticker is placed in the passport beforehand.
Kiribati is not among the forty countries whose tourist ETA carries no Sri Lankan government charge, nor is it covered by a reciprocal or SAARC arrangement. I-Kiribati applicants therefore pay the standard government rate together with our service fee for handling the application. Both appear in the live prices shown on this page before you commit to anything.
Families get one piece of relief. A child under 12 travelling on a Kiribati passport is not charged the government fee for a tourist stay of up to 30 days, though the child must still be entered on an application with their own passport details.
The tourist option suits holidays, visits to friends, sporting events, cultural performances and medical or Ayurvedic treatment. Delegates attending a conference, workshop or religious symposium should choose the business option instead, which covers much of the travel that ministries and church bodies in Kiribati organise.
Stay & validity
A tourist ETA issued to a Kiribati passport holder allows a stay of 30 days, counted from the day you first land. Because an approved authorisation remains usable for six months from issue, you can apply well ahead of a trip that depends on infrequent flights out of Bonriki without the approval lapsing before you reach Colombo.
Two entries are permitted, which is useful if you plan a side trip to the Maldives or southern India while you are in the region. The second entry does not restart the clock. Someone who spends twelve days in Sri Lanka, leaves for a week and returns is admitted only for what remains of the original 30 days.
Given how far Kiribati is from South Asia, some visitors want longer than a month. Extra time has to be requested inside Sri Lanka from the Department of Immigration and Emigration, whose head office is at Battaramulla near Colombo, before the first period runs out.
Pricing
Live fees for Kiribati 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 Kiribati
Requirements
Everything Kiribati 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.
Most applications lodged for Kiribati passports are approved within a day or two, though no timing is promised and a query on a document can stretch that. What usually slows things down is not the Sri Lankan side at all but getting a clean passport image uploaded over a congested mobile connection on South Tarawa.
Treat three to five days before departure as the bare minimum, and in practice apply much earlier. With only a handful of international departures a week from Bonriki, a missed flight can cost you a week, so having the approval in your inbox a fortnight ahead is the sensible margin.
Remember the clock difference when you watch for the email. Tarawa is six and a half hours ahead of Colombo, and Kiritimati eight and a half, so a decision made during a Sri Lankan working afternoon reaches the Gilbert Islands late in the evening.
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
There is no direct service between Kiribati and Sri Lanka, and the journey takes at least three flights. The usual path from Tarawa runs south to Nadi with Fiji Airways, onward to Singapore, and then across the Bay of Bengal to Colombo. A second option goes through Nauru to Brisbane with Nauru Airlines and connects in Australia. Check the transit rules of every country on your itinerary as well as Sri Lanka's.
Best time to go
Kiribati's school year closes in December and resumes early in the new year, and that long break lines up neatly with the best weather on Sri Lanka's west and south coasts and in the hill country. From December to March the sea at Mirissa is calm, whales are offshore, and Galle Fort is dry underfoot.
A mid-year trip around the July independence celebrations works too, provided you head east. Trincomalee, Pasikudah and Arugam Bay are at their best from May to September, while the south-west is under monsoon rain.
Heat will not trouble anyone raised on an atoll, but altitude might. Nuwara Eliya and the tea estates around Ella sit high enough to feel properly cold at night to a visitor from Tarawa, where the temperature barely moves all year. Pack a warm layer.
Expect the body clock to need two or three days. Flying west across six and a half hours of time difference means waking very early at first, which suits dawn starts for Sigiriya or a Yala safari. Poya full-moon days are public holidays on which alcohol is not sold, worth knowing before you plan a celebration dinner.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Kiribati — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Many I-Kiribati have long given names and use a shortened form day to day, or carry a father's first name as the surname. The application must mirror the passport letter for letter. A shortened name produces an authorisation that does not match, and after payment the only cure is a new application and a second government charge.
Passport renewals are handled in Tarawa and can take time, particularly for people living in the outer Gilberts or the Line Islands. If yours will have under six months left when you reach Colombo, renew first. The ETA is bound to one passport number and does not carry over to the replacement book.
A large share of travel from Kiribati is for workshops, church symposiums and regional meetings. Those purposes fall under the business option, not the tourist one. Seafarers should also note that joining or working on a vessel is employment, which a tourist ETA does not permit; leave that to your crewing agent.
Some travellers plan to sort the authorisation out in Fiji on the way. A short layover and a card that declines an overseas payment can combine badly. Have the approval before you leave Bonriki so that staff at the very first check-in desk can see 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 has no embassy, high commission or consulate in Kiribati, and none is needed for an ETA. The application is completed online from Tarawa or wherever you have a connection, with no interview and no passport sent away. The missions in Australia are simply the closest resident Sri Lankan posts on the Brisbane routing.
FAQs
The questions Kiribati passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, and for I-Kiribati it takes the form of an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Kiribati citizens must hold an approved ETA, often called a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa, before travelling for a holiday. It allows 30 days and two entries and is applied for online, so there is no need to deal with a mission overseas.
No. Kiribati is outside the group of countries whose government charge is waived, so the standard rate applies along with our service fee. Children under 12 are not charged the government fee for a tourist stay of up to 30 days. The live prices shown on this page give the current figures.
With at least two connections. Most people fly Tarawa to Nadi, Nadi to Singapore and Singapore to Colombo, or travel via Nauru and Brisbane and connect onward from Australia. Allow well over a day in total.
Give us exactly what the photo page prints and do not invent a surname to fill a gap. Tell us when you apply that the passport carries a single name, and we will enter it the way the lines at the foot of the photo page present it, so the authorisation matches the document.
Thirty days from the first arrival on a tourist ETA. You may leave and come back once inside that period, but the return visit only uses up the days still left. Anyone wanting longer must ask the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla for an extension before the 30 days end.
Probably not. Conferences, workshops and religious symposiums are listed under business purposes, so the business option is the correct choice even when the event is run by a church. A purely private visit, such as sightseeing or staying with friends after the event has finished, is what the tourist option is for.
You can, but it is easier from Tarawa. Take the photograph in advance, keep the file size modest, and apply before you start travelling so that a dropped connection costs you an evening and not a flight.
Every child travelling on a Kiribati passport has to be included in an application with their own passport details, whatever their age. The difference for under-12s is the price: Sri Lanka does not charge them the government fee for a tourist visit of up to 30 days.
Your nationality is already set to Kiribati. 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.
