Travelling from one island nation to a much larger one, Maltese passport holders need an ETA approved before they leave Luqa. It allows 30 days and two entries, with the whole application completed in English.
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
Malta and Sri Lanka have more in common than their sizes suggest. Both are former British colonies and Commonwealth members, both drive on the left, and English is widely understood in each. A Maltese visitor finds the road signs legible and the plug sockets familiar, even if everything else is on a different scale.
Travel between the two is modest in volume but steady, made up of honeymooners, wildlife enthusiasts and a few cricket followers. All of them need the same thing first: an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the document sometimes advertised as a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa, approved before the journey begins.
Maltese nationals are charged the standard government rate for a tourist ETA, as Malta does not appear among the 40 countries granted a waiver in May 2026. The live prices shown on this page set out the full cost for a Maltese passport, service fee included.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. A Maltese passport holder cannot board for Colombo without an ETA, and because no flight from Malta goes there directly, the check is usually made at the transfer desk or gate of the connecting airline as well as at Luqa.
The tourist ETA is right for a holiday, a visit to friends, a spell at an Ayurveda resort, or a trip built around a sporting or cultural event. Maltese divers and photographers heading for the reefs and national parks need nothing beyond this.
Malta's financial services, gaming and maritime sectors generate some business travel to Colombo. Meetings, conferences and short training fall under the business option, and a tourist authorisation gives no right to work or trade. Reporting or filming for the media requires clearance that the online ETA cannot grant.
A sizeable share of Malta's residents are foreign workers, many from India, Nepal and the Philippines, alongside Italians and Britons. Each applies according to the passport held, and a Maltese residence card has no bearing. Maltese-Australian and Maltese-British dual nationals should apply with whichever passport they intend to travel on.
Stay & validity
Thirty days is the stay granted to a Maltese tourist, and the count begins on first arrival. Given the travel time from Malta, most visitors stay at least two weeks, which fits comfortably and leaves a margin if flights are rescheduled.
The authorisation covers two entries within that month. Maltese travellers sometimes pair Sri Lanka with the Maldives or a few days in Dubai on the way back; leaving and re-entering Sri Lanka is fine, but the second visit is limited to the unused portion of the 30 days.
An approved ETA stays usable for six months from its issue date. Booking far ahead is common in Malta because long-haul itineraries need planning around limited connections, and applying a couple of months early is perfectly workable. The approval document states the conditions that bind you.
Pricing
Live fees for Maltese 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 Malta
Requirements
Everything Maltese 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.
For Maltese applicants a decision typically arrives within a day or two. Allow three to five days at minimum, and bear in mind that approvals cannot be promised to a deadline, which matters when your itinerary depends on a once-daily departure from Malta.
Summer school holidays in Malta are long, running from late June to late September, and families who travel then should apply well before the Santa Marija week in mid-August, when the island more or less shuts and flights are full. Christmas is the other pinch point.
Check the passport expiry date at the time of booking. If it needs renewing, do that first and apply with the new number, since an authorisation issued against the old passport cannot be transferred and the government charge would be paid twice.
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
Nothing flies nonstop from Malta to Sri Lanka, and choices from Luqa are narrower than from a mainland hub. The simplest routings use Emirates through Dubai, on a service that calls at Larnaca on the way, or Turkish Airlines through Istanbul. Otherwise Maltese travellers connect in Rome, Frankfurt or London onto a second long-haul carrier, which makes two changes.
Best time to go
Malta's winters are mild, but they are also windy and damp, and the sea is too cold for most. Between December and March Sri Lanka's southern and western beaches offer warm water and dependable sun, and the tea country around Nuwara Eliya is at its clearest.
The long Maltese school summer points families towards July and August. Those months bring monsoon rain to the south-west, so choose the east coast: Pasikudah has shallow, calm water suited to children, and Trincomalee offers diving that experienced Maltese divers will find very different from Gozo.
Kandy's Esala Perahera, held in July or August, is a good centrepiece for a summer trip and will feel recognisable in spirit to anyone brought up on village festas, though the elephants and fire dancers are on another scale entirely.
Sri Lanka is four and a half hours ahead of Malta in winter and three and a half hours ahead in summer. Poya days, the monthly full-moon holidays, close bars and stop alcohol sales island-wide, which is 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 Malta — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Names such as Żammit, Buġeja or Ħili contain letters the passport's coded lines render without dots or bars. Enter ZAMMIT, BUGEJA and HILI. Using the special characters can cause the approval to differ from what the airline scanner reads.
Many Maltese families hold a second passport from Australia, Britain or Canada. Swapping between them mid-journey breaks the link between traveller and ETA. Decide which passport is making this trip and use it from application to arrival.
With every route from Malta involving a change, your documents are examined more than once. Keep the approval email saved offline, because the transfer airport may be where you are asked for it and roaming data is not always available.
The Maltese ID card number is quoted for everything locally, from banking to prescriptions. It has no place on an ETA application, which needs the passport number and nothing else in that field.
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 resident mission in Valletta; Malta is served by the embassy in Rome. Maltese tourists need not contact it for an ETA, since the application is made online from start to finish and nothing is posted or stamped. It is there for consular questions that fall outside the electronic authorisation.
FAQs
The questions Maltese passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Maltese citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, often referred to as a Sri Lanka visa, before travelling. It is obtained online, linked to the passport number and, for tourists, allows 30 days with two entries.
No. Malta is not one of the 40 countries covered by the waiver introduced on 25 May 2026, so Maltese adults pay the standard government charge. Children under 12 are not charged it on a tourist ETA. Current totals for a Maltese passport are in the live prices shown on this page.
No. You will need at least one connection, most conveniently in Dubai or Istanbul. Journeys generally take between 13 and 16 hours, and routings through a European hub involve two changes.
Use the plain Latin equivalents shown in the machine-readable lines at the bottom of your passport's photo page. Ċ becomes C, Ġ becomes G, Ħ becomes H and Ż becomes Z, so Farruġia is typed as FARRUGIA.
No. Only a passport is accepted, and it must have six months of validity remaining when you arrive. The ETA is issued against the passport number, so the identity card plays no role.
Up to 30 days from the first entry. A second entry is permitted inside that period but does not extend it. To remain longer you would have to apply for an extension at the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla.
Whichever one you will actually travel on, used consistently throughout. The government charge is set by the nationality of the passport in the application, so it may differ between your two passports; compare them in the live prices on this page.
December to March for the south and west coasts and the hills, which is also when Malta is at its coolest. Families restricted to the summer school break should plan around the east coast, which is dry from May to September.
Your nationality is already set to Malta. 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.
