Mauritanian passport holders must secure an ETA before travelling to Sri Lanka. Learn how the 30-day double-entry stay works, how to enter names containing Ould or Mint, and which connections link Nouakchott with Colombo.
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
A Mauritanian arriving in Sri Lanka swaps the Sahara for an island where it rains enough to grow tea on mountainsides, and tea is perhaps the best bridge between the two countries. The three small glasses poured in every tent and salon from Nouakchott to Néma are green tea, but anyone raised on that ritual will find the estates around Nuwara Eliya and Ella worth the journey.
Before any of that, there is a formality. Sri Lanka requires all visitors, Mauritanians included, to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation ahead of their flight. In Arabic and French searches it is usually labelled a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa; the official term is ETA, and it is issued electronically against your passport number, with no sticker or stamp sent to you.
Travel between the two countries is modest, made up mostly of businesspeople with Gulf connections, students, officials and a growing number of young Mauritanians who have already seen Morocco, Turkey and Dubai and want somewhere further.
At a glance
Eligibility
Mauritanian citizens need an ETA to enter Sri Lanka for tourism, and it must be approved before you leave. Mauritania is not one of the countries exempted from the government charge, so a Mauritanian adult pays the standard rate, and the live prices shown on this page tell you what that comes to today.
Tourism is defined generously. Holidays, visits to friends or family, Ayurveda and other medical stays, and attendance at sporting or cultural events are all inside the tourist option. Mauritanian Muslims who wish to climb Adam's Peak, a mountain honoured by several faiths, do so as ordinary tourists and need nothing extra.
Commerce is a different matter. Mauritanian traders are active across West Africa and the Gulf, and some travel to Colombo to discuss tea, textiles or fish exports. Negotiations and meetings of that kind require the business option. Formal religious conferences and symposiums are also classed on the business side, unlike a personal visit to a mosque or shrine.
Families should note that every child needs to be named in an application, even a baby. Sri Lanka does not collect its government fee for under-twelves on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days, which eases the cost for the big households typical of Mauritania.
Stay & validity
On a Mauritanian passport the tourist ETA allows 30 days and two entries. Think of it as one block of thirty days that begins when you first land. Leave for Malé on day ten, come back on day fifteen, and you have fifteen days left, not another thirty.
The approval can be used for a first arrival at any point in the six months after it is issued, which lets Mauritanians apply early and fix flights later. Your own approval notice sets out the conditions that apply to you, and where it differs from a general guide such as this one, the notice wins.
Passport validity is counted from arrival: six months must remain on the day you reach Colombo. Check this before paying, because government charges are neither refunded nor transferred, and a Mauritanian who renews a passport after approval has to make a completely new application with the new number.
Pricing
Live fees for Mauritanian 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 Mauritania
Requirements
Everything Mauritanian 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 day or two is the normal wait for Mauritanian applicants, with some decisions arriving within hours and a few taking longer. Since no timeframe is promised, send the application at least three to five days before you fly out of Nouakchott, and earlier for travel between December and March.
Religious holidays shape Mauritanian travel more than any school timetable. Many people fly in the days after Eid al-Fitr or around Eid al-Adha, when banks and offices in Nouakchott are closed. If your card needs activating or your passport needs renewing, do it before the holiday begins, then apply while everything is still open.
Keep the approval where you can produce it quickly. Airline staff at Oumtounsy airport will want to see it before issuing boarding passes through to Colombo, and a screenshot stored on your phone is safer than depending on airport wifi to open your mail.
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
Nouakchott has no direct flight to South Asia. The neatest itinerary is with Turkish Airlines through Istanbul, changing once for Colombo. Many Mauritanians instead begin with Royal Air Maroc to Casablanca and pick up a Gulf airline there, and some travel via Paris. All of these arrive at Bandaranaike International, north of Colombo.
Best time to go
Mauritania's pleasant months, November to February, match the prime season on Sri Lanka's south and west coasts and in the hills. If you can travel then, you get dry days in Galle and Bentota, whales off Mirissa and clear mornings on the pilgrim path up Adam's Peak, whose climbing season runs from December to around May.
From April the heat builds across Mauritania, and by June Nouakchott is hot and windy while the interior is fiercer still. Escaping in June, July or August takes you into Sri Lanka's south-west monsoon, so choose the east: Trincomalee, Pasikudah and the surf town of Arugam Bay enjoy their best weather exactly then.
Coming from one of the driest countries on earth, do not write off the rain entirely. Showers on the island are usually short and warm, the forests and waterfalls are at their fullest, and October and November, the inter-monsoon months, bring lower visitor numbers to Sigiriya and Kandy.
Sri Lanka is five and a half hours ahead of Mauritania in every season. Halal food is widely available, particularly in Colombo, Galle Fort and the eastern towns with large Muslim communities. Monthly Poya days are public holidays on which alcohol sales stop, a restriction that will hardly trouble visitors from an Islamic republic.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Mauritania — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Older Mauritanian documents include Ould or Mint between names, while many newer passports leave them out or fuse them differently. Applicants who write the name the way they say it, instead of the way the passport prints it, create a mismatch. Read the Latin line on the photo page and reproduce it without adjustment.
The same Arabic name can become Mohamed, Mohamedou, Mouhamed or Mohammed in Latin letters, and Cheikh may appear as Sheikh. The Mauritanian civil registry chose one version for your passport. Typing a different but equally valid transliteration counts as an error, and an approved ETA with the wrong spelling cannot be amended.
A full Mauritanian name may run to four or five elements covering father and grandfather. The form has only surname and given names. Use the passport's own division between the two; do not move the last element into the surname box simply because forms elsewhere expect a family name there.
Because the ouguiya circulates only at home, cards from Mauritanian banks frequently need specific authorisation for foreign online purchases. People discover this at the weekend or during Eid, when no one can help. Confirm the card works abroad during ordinary banking hours.
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
Mauritanians do not visit any embassy for an ETA, since the request and the decision are both electronic. Sri Lanka has no mission in Mauritania; for other consular matters contact one of the resident embassies above and ask which currently holds responsibility for Mauritanian nationals, as accreditation can change.
FAQs
The questions Mauritanian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Mauritanian citizens need prior authorisation, which for short visits is the ETA applied for online and often referred to as a visa. The tourist version gives 30 days and two entries. Mauritania is not covered by the fee waiver, so the standard government charge applies.
Only as your passport shows it. If the Latin line of the passport includes Ould or Mint, type it in the same position. If the passport omits it, leave it out, even though your identity card or everyday usage includes it.
Yes, and it is the only practical way, as there is no Sri Lankan mission in Mauritania. You will need your passport, an image of the photo page, an email address and a card that can make international online payments.
You have six months from the issue date in which to make your first arrival. Once you enter, the stay is 30 days, and a second entry is allowed only inside those same 30 days. Staying beyond that needs an extension from the immigration head office in Battaramulla.
Turkish Airlines via Istanbul usually involves just one change between Nouakchott and Colombo. Going through Casablanca and then Doha or Dubai means two changes but can offer more convenient dates.
Very much so. Sri Lanka has a long-established Muslim community, mosques in every sizeable town and halal restaurants throughout Colombo and the east coast. Adam's Peak is a site many Muslim visitors choose to climb.
No. Meetings, negotiations and trade discussions belong to the business option. The tourist ETA is limited to leisure, family visits, medical treatment and similar purposes, and using it for commercial activity breaks its conditions.
Children of any age must be included in an application with their own passport details. The government fee is not charged for those under twelve on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days, but approval is still required for each child before the family travels.
Your nationality is already set to Mauritania. 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.
