Mongolian citizens need an ETA before travelling to Sri Lanka, whether for a winter beach break or a Buddhist pilgrimage to Kandy and Anuradhapura. The tourist authorisation allows 30 days and two entries, and is applied for entirely online.
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
Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city on earth, and by January much of Mongolia is looking for somewhere warm. Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan take most of that traffic, but Sri Lanka draws a particular kind of Mongolian traveller: those who want beaches with something more attached, and above all Buddhists for whom Kandy's Temple of the Tooth and the sacred Bodhi tree at Anuradhapura are places of real significance.
Whatever the reason for the trip, the entry requirement is the same. Mongolian passport holders must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation, loosely called a Sri Lanka visa, before they leave. Mongolia is not on the list of countries for which Sri Lanka waives its government charge, so the standard rate is what applies.
Mongolian names, with a father's name where other countries put a family name, do not sit easily in foreign forms, and the journey itself takes planning because it involves at least one change of aircraft in East or South-East Asia. Both subjects get detailed treatment here, along with timing and validity.
At a glance
Eligibility
Mongolians do need the ETA. There is no arrangement between Ulaanbaatar and Colombo that removes it for ordinary passport holders, and a traveller connecting in Seoul, Hong Kong or Bangkok will be asked for it at the first check-in counter.
On the question of cost, Mongolia falls into the standard band. The exception concerns age, not nationality: Sri Lanka does not collect its government fee for children under twelve on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days, which is welcome news for families travelling during the school winter break. The live prices shown on this page tell you what is payable now.
Pilgrimage on your own account, sightseeing, beach holidays, Ayurveda and meditation retreats, and visits to friends are all covered by the tourist option. Organised religious events and symposiums are classed differently and come under the business option, as do conferences and trade meetings, so monks and lay delegates invited to a formal gathering should not apply as tourists.
A considerable number of Mongolians live in South Korea, Japan and elsewhere and may fly to Colombo from there. Your country of residence does not change anything: you apply as a Mongolian citizen with your Mongolian passport, and an alien registration card from Seoul is not a substitute for the ETA.
Stay & validity
The tourist ETA lets a Mongolian citizen stay for 30 days. It is good for two entries, but the thirty days are a single block starting at your first arrival, and a second entry draws on what remains of it.
Approval does not oblige you to travel at once. You have six months from the issue date, so a traveller who books Tsagaan Sar flights in the autumn can settle the authorisation at the same time. Read the conditions on the approval when it arrives, as those govern.
Your passport must have at least six months to run on the day you land in Sri Lanka. Check the expiry date early, because replacing a Mongolian passport from abroad takes time and an ETA cannot be moved to the new one. For a retreat or study of Buddhism lasting more than thirty days, an extension has to be obtained from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, close to Colombo.
Pricing
Live fees for Mongolian 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 Mongolia
Requirements
Everything Mongolian 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.
Most Mongolian applicants hear back within a day or two. As the process is online, living outside Ulaanbaatar is no disadvantage; an applicant in Erdenet, Darkhan or Khovd is in the same position as one in the capital.
Apply no later than three to five days before you fly, and considerably earlier for departures around Tsagaan Sar or in late December. Those dates fall in Sri Lanka's peak season, flights through Seoul and Bangkok fill up, and rebooking a long multi-leg itinerary because of a paperwork delay is costly.
If you are travelling as a pilgrimage group, collect passport photo pages from everyone first and enter each person's data from the document, not from a typed list. Group lists are where transposed digits and swapped names most often creep in, and a paid application cannot be edited.
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 between Mongolia and Sri Lanka, and there is no Gulf shortcut either: the sensible routes all run through East or South-East Asia. Seoul, Hong Kong and Bangkok are the three connection points worth pricing, with Chinese hubs as a further possibility.
Best time to go
The extremes could not be further apart. In January Ulaanbaatar can be at minus thirty while Colombo is at plus thirty, and this is precisely the season, December to March, when the south and west coasts and the hill country of Sri Lanka are dry. Leave room in your luggage for the winter coat you will take off in the aircraft.
Tsagaan Sar, the lunar new year in late January or February, is a family holiday that many Mongolians now extend into a trip abroad once the visiting is done. It coincides with good whale-watching off Mirissa and settled weather across the Cultural Triangle, so Sigiriya, Dambulla and Polonnaruwa can be combined with the coast.
Summer is Mongolia's own best season, with Naadam in July, and few people want to leave. Those who do should aim for the east coast around Trincomalee, or time a visit to Kandy for the Esala Perahera in July or August, when the tooth relic's casket is paraded through the streets, an event of special meaning to Buddhist visitors.
Sri Lanka is two and a half hours behind Ulaanbaatar, enough to have you awake before dawn for the first few days, which suits early temple visits. Vesak, the May full moon marking the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and passing, is celebrated on a grand scale, and every monthly Poya is a public holiday on which alcohol is not sold.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Mongolia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Mongolians carry a clan name, a patronymic and a given name, and foreign forms offer only two boxes. The passport has already made the choice for you. Whatever it labels Surname goes in the surname field, even though at home nobody would call it that.
The civil registration number is the identifier Mongolians use for everything from banking to voting, and it is printed in the passport. Sri Lanka links the ETA to the passport number, a separate figure on the same page.
Visiting temples privately is tourism. Being invited as a delegate to a religious conference or ceremony programme is treated as a business-category purpose. Pick the option that fits the invitation you hold.
On a ticket through Incheon or Hong Kong, staff in Ulaanbaatar look at the requirements for the final destination. Without the Sri Lankan approval you may not get as far as the transit airport.
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's embassy in Beijing looks after relations with Mongolia, there being no mission in Ulaanbaatar. Mongolian tourists and pilgrims obtain the ETA online and have no need to contact Beijing unless their purpose falls outside what the online system can issue.
FAQs
The questions Mongolian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Mongolians need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), Sri Lanka's online pre-travel permission, which is widely described as a visa. It must be approved before departure and allows a 30-day tourist stay.
The one your passport lists under Surname. For most Mongolian passports that is your father's or mother's name, written in Latin letters. Your own name goes under given name, and the clan name is not entered unless the passport prints it there.
A private pilgrimage to sites such as Kandy, Anuradhapura and Mihintale is ordinary tourism and fits the tourist ETA. Taking part in an organised religious event or symposium is listed under the business option instead.
There is not. The usual connections are Seoul, Hong Kong or Bangkok, and the complete journey generally takes between thirteen and seventeen hours depending on the layover.
No, Mongolia is not included in the 40-country waiver, and the standard government rate applies to Mongolian passports. Mongolian children under 12 are spared the government fee on a tourist stay of up to 30 days.
You can apply online from Korea in the same way as from Mongolia. Use your Mongolian passport details. Your Korean residence status is not requested and does not replace the authorisation.
Two weeks or more ahead is prudent for the Tsagaan Sar period, even if the typical decision comes in a day or two. Since the approval can be used for six months, there is no drawback to applying early.
Yes, one re-entry is allowed on the tourist ETA. It must take place within 30 days of your original arrival, and you will be admitted for the remaining days only.
Your nationality is already set to Mongolia. 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.
