Moldovan passport holders travelling to Sri Lanka need an ETA approved in advance. It allows a 30-day stay with two entries, is requested online in English, and is checked before boarding in Chișinău or at your connecting airport.
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
Sri Lanka reached Moldovan travellers largely through the Russian- and Romanian-language travel press, and the island has a modest but loyal following in Chișinău. Winter sun is the main draw. Tour operators sell it from late autumn as an alternative to Egypt or the Emirates, and a number of Moldovan remote workers and yoga enthusiasts have found their way to the south coast independently.
Entry depends on an Electronic Travel Authorisation, known in everyday Romanian and Russian usage simply as the Sri Lanka visa. It is not a sticker and involves no consulate. You apply online, the approval is logged against your passport number, and airline staff confirm it before you are allowed on the aircraft.
Moldova does not appear among the 40 countries whose government charge was waived from 25 May 2026, so a Moldovan application is charged at the standard rate. Use the live prices shown on this page for the figure. Because so many Moldovans hold a second passport, the question of which document to use comes up more often here than almost anywhere.
At a glance
Eligibility
Moldovan citizens do need an ETA. Biometric Moldovan passports have allowed visa-free Schengen travel for over a decade, and that convenience can create the impression that advance permission is a thing of the past. For Sri Lanka it is not, and the rule covers every foreign national regardless of passport.
Tourism in the broad sense is what the standard ETA is for: beaches, national parks, heritage sites, visits to friends, Ayurvedic treatment and yoga courses. A winemaker attending a trade seminar or an IT firm sending staff to client meetings should take the business option. Doing actual work for a Sri Lankan employer or client is not allowed on a tourist ETA, nor is self-employment.
Romanian citizenship is widespread in Moldova, and Bulgarian, Russian and Ukrainian passports are also common. Russia is inside the waiver of the government charge; Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine are not. The practical rule is simple. The nationality and passport number you enter must belong to the passport you physically travel with, and each nationality's terms are set out on its own page.
Family members each need to be entered, including infants. Sri Lanka does not charge its government fee for under-12s on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days, which reduces the cost for families but not the paperwork.
Stay & validity
Thirty days is the stay granted to a Moldovan tourist, running from the first entry. The ETA allows a second entry within the same period, useful for travellers who add Malé or a short visit to South India. Days spent outside Sri Lanka still count, and the second arrival is given the remaining balance only.
After issue, the approval stays usable for six months, with the conditions shown on the approval taking priority. Moldovans who escape for several winter weeks should plan carefully, because repeated or back-to-back visits intended as a way of residing in Sri Lanka are outside what the tourist ETA allows.
Your passport needs six months of validity at the moment you arrive. Check this early, as renewal at the Public Services Agency can take time in busy periods and citizens living abroad depend on consular appointments. An ETA granted on a passport that is then replaced cannot be moved to the new one.
For a stay longer than 30 days the route is an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, requested before the first period ends. It is not something to count on when booking a non-refundable return flight.
Pricing
Live fees for Moldovan 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 Moldova
Requirements
Everything Moldovan 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.
Decisions on Moldovan applications tend to arrive within a day or two. The entire exchange is electronic, so there is nothing to courier to an embassy in another country. A minority of cases take longer, and approval is at the discretion of the Sri Lankan authorities.
Apply a minimum of three to five days before you leave. Winter departures from Chișinău are concentrated between late December and the Orthodox Christmas holiday on 7 and 8 January, a stretch when Moldova largely shuts down, so get the ETA settled before the festive season begins.
The time difference is modest by long-haul standards: Sri Lanka is three and a half hours ahead of Moldova in winter and two and a half in summer. Messages sent during the Colombo working day will mostly reach you in the morning, which makes it easy to respond the same day if a clearer passport image is requested.
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
Chișinău has no flights to Sri Lanka, and the natural gateway is Istanbul, about an hour and a half away, with a Turkish Airlines connection to Colombo. Other travellers begin by going overland or by air to Bucharest, which has Gulf carriers, or connect through a European hub such as Vienna or Frankfurt. Moldovans working in Italy, Germany or France usually depart from where they live.
Best time to go
A Moldovan winter is long, and that is exactly when Sri Lanka's most visited regions are dry. From December to March the south and west coasts have reliable sun, and the hill country is clear and mild. Leaving Chișinău in sleet and arriving to thirty-degree heat takes a day or two of adjustment.
Many Moldovans celebrate Christmas twice, on 25 December and again on 7 January, and the school holidays span both. That fortnight is the most expensive time to fly. Travelling from mid-January, or using the public holiday on 8 March to anchor a late-winter week, gives the same weather with more seats available.
Easter and Paștele Blajinilor a week later create a spring break in April or May, which often overlaps with Sinhala and Tamil New Year or the approach of Vesak. Conditions in the south-west are hot and increasingly humid by then, while the east coast season is just getting under way.
The summer holidays and the late-August pairing of Independence Day and Limba Noastră suit Trincomalee, Pasikudah and Arugam Bay, where it is dry from May to September. Leave Galle and Colombo for another year if August is your only option, and note that Poya days each month are alcohol-free public holidays.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Moldova — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Dual citizens frequently book flights with one passport and fill in forms with the other. The ETA will only be found under the passport number entered. Decide before you start, and enter that same nationality and number everywhere.
Moldovans use the buletin for almost everything at home, and its number is the one people know by heart. Sri Lanka needs the number of the travel passport. Take it from the booklet itself, checking each character.
A name such as Țurcanu or Mîndru must be entered as TURCANU or MINDRU, matching the machine-readable lines. Where an older document spelled the name differently, ignore it and follow the passport you now hold.
Spending the cold months abroad is popular among Moldovan freelancers. A tourist ETA gives 30 days and does not permit self-employment in Sri Lanka or residence through successive visits. Plan the length of stay around what the document allows.
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 embassy in Moldova, where it is represented by a non-resident ambassador based in another capital. The closest Sri Lankan embassy geographically is in Bucharest. Neither plays any role in a tourist ETA, which Moldovan applicants complete online without submitting a passport to anyone.
FAQs
The questions Moldovan passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Moldovan citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation before they travel, which is the online permit generally referred to as the Sri Lanka visa. The tourist version allows a stay of 30 days and two entries.
No, Moldova is not one of the 40 countries in the waiver that took effect on 25 May 2026. Moldovan passports are charged the standard government rate, with no government fee for children under 12 on a tourist ETA. Check the live prices shown on this page.
Use the one you will actually travel with. Both nationalities are charged at the standard rate, so the decision usually comes down to which passport has the longer validity. The details in the application must match that passport exactly.
Most people connect in Istanbul, which has frequent flights from Chișinău and a Turkish Airlines service to Colombo. Going via Bucharest and Doha is another option. The trip takes approximately 11 to 13 hours on the faster connections.
Not on the ETA alone. It grants 30 days, and any longer stay requires an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration. Leaving and returning repeatedly to live on the island is specifically outside the tourist conditions.
Usually between one and two days, though this is not guaranteed. Applying at least three to five days in advance is recommended, and before mid-December if you are travelling over the winter holidays.
Sri Lanka keeps UTC+5:30 throughout the year. That puts it three and a half hours ahead of Moldova in winter and two and a half hours ahead when Moldova is on summer time, so jet lag is mild.
Yes. Children of every age must be included in an application with their own passport details. The government fee is not charged for those under 12 on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days.
Your nationality is already set to Moldova. 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.
