Malawian passport holders need an ETA in place before starting the journey to Colombo from Lilongwe or Blantyre. It is issued online for a 30-day stay with two entries, with no documents to post and no mission to visit.
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
Tea is the thread that connects Malawi and Sri Lanka. The estates of Thyolo and Mulanje were planted in the same era and on the same model as those above Kandy, and Malawians in the industry travel to Sri Lanka to see how Ceylon tea is grown, plucked and auctioned. Others come as pilgrims, students on short programmes, or holidaymakers curious about an island with salt water where Malawi has its lake.
The numbers are small, and so is the amount of practical information written with Malawians in mind. What you need to know first is that Sri Lanka operates an Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme covering all foreign nationals. A Malawian passport holder must apply online and have the approval before setting out.
Because the journey from Malawi takes two or three flights, usually on more than one airline, this page pays particular attention to timing, to passport condition and validity, and to making an international card payment from a Malawian bank account.
At a glance
Eligibility
Malawians do need an ETA for Sri Lanka. No waiver of the requirement exists for any country, and Malawi has no special arrangement. What friends or forums call a Sri Lanka visa is, for a visit of up to a month, this online authorisation.
On cost, Malawi is treated as a standard-rate country. The government charge has been waived only for a defined group of states elsewhere. Families benefit from the general rule that no government fee is collected for tourists aged under 12, but those children must still be on the application.
Be honest with yourself about why you are going. A holiday, a visit to friends, medical or Ayurvedic care, or a cultural or sporting event is a tourist purpose. A study visit arranged by a tea company, a trade meeting or a short professional course is business in Sri Lanka's terms, and the business option exists for exactly that.
Malawians who live in South Africa or the United Kingdom apply in the same way as those at home, using the Malawian passport. Your residence permit is a matter between you and the country you live in; Sri Lanka asks only about the passport.
Stay & validity
The stay granted to a Malawian tourist is 30 days from first arrival. Because of the travel time, a two-week visit is the practical minimum worth planning, and three weeks allows a full circuit of the hills, the ancient cities and one coast.
You can enter twice on one ETA. Should you leave for a few days, perhaps to visit India, you may return on the same authorisation as long as you are still inside the thirty days. The officer will give you the days outstanding and no more.
Once issued, the ETA can be used for six months. Check that your passport clears the six-month validity rule on your arrival date, and act early if it does not: obtaining a new Malawian passport from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services has at times involved long waits. The ETA should be applied for only when the passport you will travel with is in your hands.
Pricing
Live fees for Malawian 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 Malawi
Requirements
Everything Malawian 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.
A decision for a Malawian applicant usually takes a day or two. Please do not read that as a reason to apply late. Three to five days ahead is our minimum advice, and in Malawi's case two weeks is better, because payment difficulties are the usual source of delay and take time to resolve with a bank.
If you plan to travel in the December and January peak, when Sri Lanka's southern beaches are busiest, apply before the end of November. The long break in the Malawian school year in the middle of the calendar is a quieter time for applications, though not for flights through Johannesburg.
Sri Lanka is three and a half hours ahead of Lilongwe and Blantyre the whole year. Submitting first thing in the morning, Malawi time, means your form arrives before the Colombo afternoon is over.
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
Neither Emirates nor Qatar Airways flies to Malawi, so two connections are normal. The simplest route is Airlink or Malawi Airlines from Lilongwe or Blantyre to Johannesburg, then a Gulf carrier to Colombo. Kenya Airways via Nairobi and Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa offer a northern alternative, each needing a further change in Dubai or Doha.
Best time to go
If tea is your interest, the hill country between Nuwara Eliya, Hatton and Haputale is at its clearest from January to March. Factories run tours all year, but mist and rain make the estates harder to walk during the middle months. People from Thyolo will recognise the landscape at once and notice how much steeper the slopes are.
December is the favourite for a seaside holiday. The south coast is dry, the sea is calm enough for children, and Galle Fort is lively in the evenings. For Malawians it falls in the rainy season at home, so you leave green, wet countryside for sunshine.
The long school break around July and August, which takes in Independence Day on 6 July, points to the east coast. Trincomalee offers snorkelling at Pigeon Island and warm shallow bays, an easy step for anyone who learned to swim at Cape Maclear or Nkhata Bay, with the added novelty of salt.
May is worth considering for the Vesak festival at the full moon, when Buddhist Sri Lanka commemorates the Buddha with lanterns, illuminated displays and roadside stalls handing out free meals. Kamuzu Day on 14 May can help with leave. Note that bars close and alcohol is not sold on Vesak and other Poya 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 Malawi — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Malawian banks set tight ceilings on foreign-currency card transactions and sometimes switch online international use off entirely. Applicants reach the payment page and cannot complete it. Speak to your bank first and confirm that an international online payment will be honoured.
Some travellers apply on the old passport to save time while waiting for the new one. The ETA would then belong to a document you are no longer carrying. Wait for the new passport, then apply with its number.
A name written Thokozani on the passport and Tokozani on the ticket, or a surname with and without an initial M, is a small difference to a person and a failed match to a computer. Use the passport spelling everywhere, starting with the ETA.
Buying the Lilongwe to Johannesburg leg separately from the long-haul is common and can be cheaper. Leave several hours between them and carry your ETA approval in your hand luggage, as the long-haul airline will check it again when you collect your boarding pass.
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
No Sri Lankan mission operates in Lilongwe, and Malawi falls within the remit of the High Commission in Pretoria. Malawians travelling as tourists can ignore this, since the ETA is handled online from start to finish. The High Commission is the contact point only for special categories of visit.
FAQs
The questions Malawian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Malawian citizens must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation, generally known as a Sri Lanka visa, before departure. The tourist ETA gives a stay of 30 days and permits two entries during that time.
No, and you do not need one. Malawi is covered from Pretoria, but the ETA is applied for online and sent by email. You never have to hand over your passport to anyone.
You need a credit or debit card that is enabled for international online payments. Because Malawian banks restrict foreign-currency transactions, confirm with yours before you start that the payment will be allowed.
Most are approved in a day or two, without any guarantee of a specific time. We suggest applying about two weeks before you travel so that any payment or data problem can be put right.
A casual factory tour as part of a holiday is tourism. An organised professional visit, training course or meeting with a tea company is a business purpose and calls for the business option instead.
We do not quote fares. In practice most travellers compare a Johannesburg connection onto Emirates or Qatar Airways with a northern routing through Nairobi or Addis Ababa, and choose by total journey time as much as cost.
Yes. Every traveller, including an infant, must be included with their own passport information. The government fee is not charged for tourists under 12, yet the authorisation itself remains compulsory.
No. Paid and unpaid employment are both excluded, and work for a non-governmental organisation needs government approval in advance that the online ETA does not provide.
Your nationality is already set to Malawi. 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.
