Citizens of North Macedonia need an ETA before travelling to Sri Lanka. It is applied for online using the Latin spelling in your passport, covers 30 days and two entries, and should be approved before you leave Skopje.
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
Travel from North Macedonia to Sri Lanka is a niche, but a growing one. Skopje agencies advertise occasional escorted tours around the Cultural Triangle and the south coast, usually timed for the January holidays, and younger Macedonians who have already done Thailand or Zanzibar are starting to look at the island as the next long-haul option.
To enter, a Macedonian citizen needs an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Local agencies and search results commonly refer to it as a visa for Sri Lanka, or an e-visa, and both phrases point to the same thing. The application is made in English over the internet, and the approval is stored against the number of the passport you will carry.
North Macedonia does not benefit from the waiver of the government charge that Sri Lanka introduced in 2026, so applicants pay the standard rate. The live prices shown on this page give the amount. Two matters deserve particular attention for this passport: the Latin transliteration of Cyrillic names, and the age of the passport itself.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes, they do. Macedonians travel without a visa across the Schengen states and to Turkey, the most common foreign destinations from Skopje, and long-haul formalities are less familiar. Sri Lanka requires an ETA from all foreign nationals, so a North Macedonia passport on its own will not get you past the check-in desk.
Choose the tourist ETA for sightseeing, beach holidays, visiting acquaintances, yoga or Ayurvedic treatment, and attendance at sporting or cultural events. Wine exporters, IT contractors meeting clients and anyone attending a seminar or negotiation need the business option.
Many Macedonian citizens have also acquired Bulgarian passports. Bulgaria is not on Sri Lanka's waiver list, so the government charge does not change with the document you pick. Decide which passport you will travel on, check that it has enough validity, and use it alone from application to arrival.
Children must be entered in the application with their own passports. Those younger than 12 are not charged the government fee for a tourist ETA of up to 30 days. From the twelfth birthday that exemption no longer applies.
Stay & validity
The stay allowed is 30 days from the first arrival in Sri Lanka, and the ETA can be used for two entries during that time. An escorted tour that flies out to the Maldives for a beach extension and returns through Colombo uses both. Re-entry gives only the remainder of the original 30 days.
From the day it is issued, the approval may be used to travel for six months. If the wording on your approval differs in any respect, follow the approval. This lead time lets Macedonian travellers apply as soon as the agency confirms the group, without waiting for the last fortnight.
Passport age is the critical point for this nationality. Booklets issued under the country's former name stopped being valid for international travel in February 2024, so only a passport bearing the name Republic of North Macedonia can be used. It must also have six months left on arrival, and because the ETA follows the passport number, any replacement issued afterwards requires a fresh application.
Pricing
Live fees for North Macedonia 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 North Macedonia
Requirements
Everything North Macedonia 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.
Macedonian applications are usually decided in a day or two. Nothing has to be sent abroad, which is helpful given that the Sri Lankan embassy responsible for the country sits in Germany. As with any immigration decision, the timing is not guaranteed and approval cannot be assumed.
Apply three to five days before departure at the very least. Agency groups leaving around New Year and Orthodox Christmas on 7 January should have everyone's ETA approved by mid-December, since one traveller with a misspelled surname can hold up a whole group at Skopje airport.
In winter Sri Lanka is four and a half hours ahead of Skopje, and three and a half once Europe moves to summer time. Emails about an application may therefore arrive overnight. Look at your inbox each morning until the approval has come through, and save it as a PDF on your phone.
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
Skopje has no direct air link with South Asia. The quickest routing is through Istanbul, a flight of about an hour and a half, where Turkish Airlines connects to Colombo. Dubai is the second choice, reached with flydubai. Residents of Bitola and Ohrid generally travel up to Skopje, and some in the east of the country find Sofia or Thessaloniki just as close.
Best time to go
January is when most Macedonians go, and it is a good choice. Skopje in midwinter is cold and often blanketed in polluted fog, while Sri Lanka's south and west are in their dry season from December through March. The school winter break, which begins at New Year and runs into the third week of January, covers the best of it.
Spring holidays offer a shorter window. Orthodox Easter and the May Day holiday can be linked into a week, by which time the south-west is turning humid ahead of the monsoon. It is still a reasonable moment for the Cultural Triangle, where Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa are drier than the coast.
July and August, when Macedonians traditionally head for Ohrid or the Greek beaches, are monsoon months in Colombo and Galle. The island's east coast is the place to be instead. Ilinden on 2 August falls close to the Kandy Esala Perahera, a procession of drummers, dancers and elephants that is worth building a summer trip around.
Autumn is the least predictable season. The Independence Day holiday on 8 September still catches good weather in the east, but October and November bring inter-monsoon showers almost everywhere. If those are your only free weeks, plan for wildlife in Yala or Wilpattu and expect rain in the afternoons.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from North Macedonia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
A Macedonian name can be written in Latin letters several ways. Ѓорѓи may appear as Gjorgji in one place and Gorgi or Djordji in another. Only the spelling in the passport counts, and the version in the machine-readable lines is the safest one to copy.
Some people who rarely travel still have a booklet with the old country name that looks unexpired. It is no longer accepted for travel. Applying with it wastes the payment, because the replacement will have a new number and need a new ETA.
When an agency or one family member completes the form for several travellers, a digit is easily transposed. Ask for a copy of each approval and compare it with the passports before the group meets at the airport.
Small exporters and chambers of commerce from North Macedonia sometimes add a few days of holiday to a working trip. If the journey centres on a seminar, a conference or commercial meetings, the business option applies, and the tourist type would not match the real purpose.
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 an embassy in Skopje, and North Macedonia is handled from Berlin. Tourists applying for an ETA never need to deal with the embassy, as nothing in the online application passes through it. It is relevant mainly for journalists and others whose activities require clearance in advance.
FAQs
The questions North Macedonia passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Citizens of North Macedonia must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation before travelling to Sri Lanka. It is applied for online, functions as the entry visa for short visits, and permits a tourist stay of 30 days with two entries.
No. Those passports ceased to be valid for international travel in February 2024. You need a passport issued under the name Republic of North Macedonia, and it must have at least six months of validity left when you arrive.
Exactly as your passport spells it in Latin letters. Do not convert the Cyrillic yourself, because several transliteration systems are in everyday use and only the passport's own version will match at the airline desk and at immigration.
It is not. The waiver in force since 25 May 2026 applies to 40 named countries, and North Macedonia is not included. The standard rate is charged, except that children under 12 are not charged the government fee on a tourist ETA.
Via Istanbul for most people, since the first flight is short and Turkish Airlines sells the whole journey on one ticket. Flying through Dubai is the usual alternative. Either way there is one stop and a total of roughly 11 to 14 hours.
Not for the charge, as Bulgarian citizens are on the standard rate too. It only matters that you apply with the same passport you will show when travelling. Choose one document and keep to it for the entire trip.
Three to five days is the minimum sensible margin, and two to three weeks is wiser for a January departure. Approval usually takes a day or two but cannot be promised, and peak-season volumes can slow things.
Only with an extension granted by the Department of Immigration and Emigration, which has its head office at Battaramulla near Colombo. The request has to be made while your initial 30 days are still running.
Your nationality is already set to North Macedonia. 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.
