Mauritian passport holders need an ETA approved before they set off for Colombo, usually by way of Dubai or Mumbai. It grants 30 days and two entries, and Mauritius pays the standard government rate.
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
Important for Mauritian citizens
Mauritius is outside both the 40-country waiver and the reciprocal arrangements, so the standard government rate applies to Mauritian passports. Current totals are in the live prices shown on this page.
Overview
Mauritius and Sri Lanka are both Indian Ocean islands built on sugar or tea, cricket-era colonial towns and a mix of faiths, yet surprisingly few Mauritians have visited. Those who do tend to go for reasons that run deeper than a beach: Hindu families following the Ramayana trail to Sita Eliya and Trincomalee, Tamil Mauritians visiting the temples of the north, Buddhists of Chinese descent heading for Kandy, and couples adding a week to a trip to India.
Whatever the motive, a Mauritian citizen has to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation before travelling. On forums and in French-language searches it is usually called a visa or e-visa for Sri Lanka, and the ETA is what those terms refer to. It is requested online, decided before you leave, and linked to your passport number instead of being stamped on a page.
Mauritians are used to travelling widely on their passport with little formality, so two points are worth stating early. Sri Lanka makes no exception for Mauritius, and the government charge that was lifted for 40 nationalities in May 2026 still applies in full to Mauritian applicants.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes, without exception. Mauritian nationals need an approved ETA for any short stay, whether they arrive from Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport or from a third country.
Pilgrimage, sightseeing, visiting relatives, an Ayurveda programme or attending a cultural performance all sit within the tourist ETA. That covers most Mauritian itineraries, including temple circuits organised by socio-cultural associations and holidays combined with a stop in Chennai or the Maldives.
Mauritius is a business-minded island, and plenty of travel to Colombo is commercial: textile and garment sourcing, financial services meetings, port and logistics conferences. Those visits need the business option. Organised religious events and symposiums are also classed on the business side, so a delegation attending a formal religious conference should not assume the tourist option fits simply because the subject is spiritual.
Minors must be listed individually with their own Mauritian passports. Sri Lanka does not take its government charge for children under 12 on a tourist stay of up to 30 days, a useful saving for the multi-generation groups in which Mauritian families often make a pilgrimage.
Stay & validity
The tourist ETA lets a Mauritian visitor remain for 30 days and enter twice. Everything is measured from the first arrival. If your tour begins in Sri Lanka, continues to Tamil Nadu for ten days and returns to Colombo for the flight home, the second entry uses up the remainder of the original 30 days.
Approval stays usable for a first entry for six months from the day it is issued, and the terms shown on your approval notice take precedence. Because the authorisation is recorded against one passport number, a Mauritian who renews at the Passport and Immigration Office in Port Louis after applying will need to apply again with the new book.
A Mauritian passport must still have six months to run on the day you land in Colombo. Anyone hoping to stay past 30 days, for an extended Ayurveda course for instance, has to ask the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla for an extension while the original stay is still running.
Pricing
Live fees for Mauritian 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 Mauritius
Requirements
Everything Mauritian 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 on a Mauritian application generally comes through within a day or two. We read each form against the passport scan before sending it, paying particular attention to the order of surname and given names, which is the usual source of trouble for Mauritian applicants. Timings are typical and cannot be promised.
Submit at least three to five days ahead of your flight. Colombo is one and a half hours ahead of Port Louis, so office hours overlap and replies tend to land during the Mauritian working day. A request sent late on a Friday may still wait until Monday.
Allow longer before the end-of-year holidays and around major Hindu festivals, when group pilgrimages are organised and several dozen applications from the same association may be going in at once.
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
No airline flies directly between Mauritius and Sri Lanka, so the journey always involves a change of aircraft. The most frequent option is Emirates to Dubai and on to Colombo, although that means flying north-west before turning back east. Air Mauritius to Mumbai, with a short onward flight to Colombo on SriLankan Airlines or an Indian carrier, is more direct on the map; check whether you need an Indian visa if you plan to leave the airport there.
Best time to go
Mauritius sits in the southern hemisphere and Sri Lanka just north of the equator, so the seasons do not mirror each other neatly. The Mauritian summer, from November to April, is hot and brings the cyclone risk; those same months from December onwards are the dry season on Sri Lanka's west and south coasts and in the hill country.
The long school holiday at the end of the Mauritian year is therefore the natural window, and it suits the Ramayana sites around Nuwara Eliya, which are at their clearest from January to March. Tamil Mauritians who observe Thaipoosam Cavadee at home in January or February will find the festival marked in Sri Lanka's Hindu temples too.
During the Mauritian winter break in July and August, the south-west of Sri Lanka is in its monsoon. Go east instead, to Trincomalee with its Koneswaram temple and to the beaches of Pasikudah, or plan around the Esala Perahera in Kandy.
Divali falls in the inter-monsoon weeks of October and November, when showers are frequent across Sri Lanka, so most families stay home for it and travel later. Remember that each full moon is a Poya holiday on which alcohol is not sold, and that the mid-April New Year closes much of the country for a few 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 Mauritius — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Mauritian passports list the surname first, and many Indo-Mauritian given names are long enough to be mistaken for a family name. Applicants regularly put them in the wrong boxes, or leave out a second given name that the passport includes. Follow the labels on the photo page, not the order you write your name in at work.
A woman known socially by her husband's surname may still hold a passport in her maiden name, sometimes with the married name noted separately. The ETA must follow the primary name field in the passport, and the flight booking should agree with it.
Mauritians quote their national identity card number so often that it gets typed into the passport number field by reflex. The two are unrelated, and an authorisation issued against the wrong number cannot be matched when you present your passport.
Many Mauritians also hold French or British citizenship, both of which fall within Sri Lanka's waiver of the government charge. Selecting France or the United Kingdom on the form while travelling on the Mauritian passport produces a mismatch. Apply under the nationality of the passport you will actually carry.
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 Port Louis; Mauritius falls under its High Commission in Seychelles. None of that affects an ETA, which Mauritian travellers obtain online without sending documents abroad or attending in person. Contact with the High Commission is only needed for things the ETA does not cover, including longer stays and work requiring prior approval.
FAQs
The questions Mauritian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Mauritian citizens must hold an Electronic Travel Authorisation, commonly described as a Sri Lanka visa, before they travel. For a Mauritian tourist it allows 30 days and two entries. Mauritius is not covered by the fee waiver, so the standard government rate is charged.
No. The waiver introduced on 25 May 2026 lifts the government charge for 40 named countries, and Mauritius is not one of them. Mauritian adults pay the standard government rate plus our service fee, while under-12s are spared the government portion on a tourist stay. See the live prices shown on this page for the totals.
You may use either, as long as you then travel on it throughout. French passports benefit from the waiver of the government charge and Mauritian ones do not, so the French passport will normally work out cheaper. The passport named in the ETA has to be the one shown at check-in and in Colombo.
Yes. Visiting temples and sacred sites as a pilgrim or sightseer is ordinary tourism and fits the tourist ETA. Only organised religious events and symposiums are treated as a business-category purpose.
With one stop, most often in Dubai on Emirates or in Mumbai on Air Mauritius. There is no nonstop service. Depending on the connection, expect a total journey of around 11 to 15 hours to Bandaranaike International Airport near Colombo.
At least three to five days before departure, and earlier for group pilgrimages or the December holidays. Most decisions arrive within a day or two, but that is a pattern and not a promise.
Yes, each child needs their own entry, whatever their age. Sri Lanka does not take the government charge for children under 12 staying up to 30 days as tourists. The child's passport must also have six months of validity remaining at arrival.
You can, because the tourist ETA permits two entries. Both must fall within 30 days of your first arrival, and the second gives only the days that are left.
Your nationality is already set to Mauritius. 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.
