A Mozambican passaporte needs an ETA approved before the flight to Colombo. The form is in English and strict about names, so this guide explains how Portuguese surnames and accents should be entered for a 30-day, double-entry stay.
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
Mozambique and Sri Lanka face each other across the same ocean, and both were shaped by Portuguese sailors who reached Sofala and Colombo within a few years of one another. Sri Lankans named Fernando, Perera and de Silva are a reminder of that shared chapter. For a Mozambican traveller the beaches will feel familiar; the surprise is everything behind them, from Buddhist dagobas to tea slopes at altitude.
Very few people make the trip, which means reliable guidance in Portuguese is scarce and travel agents in Maputo may not have handled it before. The key fact is simple. Sri Lanka does not admit foreign visitors without an Electronic Travel Authorisation, obtained online ahead of travel, and Mozambican citizens are included.
This guide concentrates on what is particular to applicants from Mozambique: completing an English-language form with a Portuguese-style name, the routing out of Maputo, and choosing dates that avoid both the cyclone months at home and the monsoon on the island.
At a glance
Eligibility
Mozambican citizens are required to hold an ETA for any visit to Sri Lanka. In Portuguese you would naturally search for a visto, and English-language sites speak of a Sri Lanka visa; for short stays the ETA performs that function and is the only thing a tourist needs to arrange.
The rate that applies to Mozambique is the standard one. Sri Lanka has waived its government charge for a set of other countries, none of them in Lusophone Africa. As everywhere, children who have not reached 12 are spared the government fee on a tourist ETA while still needing to be declared.
Mozambicans with Portuguese nationality as well should pause before starting. The application reflects one passport, and the result is attached to that passport's number. Decide between the Mozambican and the Portuguese document, then keep to it from the form through to the immigration officer.
A tourist ETA is right for leisure travel, visits to friends, wellness treatment and attendance at cultural or sporting occasions. Representatives of companies in the gas, port or cashew trades travelling for talks, and anyone attending a seminar, should request the business option. The Bilhete de Identidade cannot be used for any of this.
Stay & validity
With a tourist ETA a Mozambican citizen is admitted for 30 days. Day one is the day of arrival at Bandaranaike, whatever date the authorisation itself was granted. Since reaching the island from Maputo takes the best part of a day, itineraries of twelve to eighteen nights are typical.
Two entries are included. Travellers sometimes use the second after a detour to the Maldives or to Goa, another corner of the old Portuguese world reachable from Colombo via Mumbai. The second stay is deducted from the same thirty days; it is not an additional month.
The ETA should be used within six months of issue. The passport must be valid for six months counted from your arrival, and because a replacement passaporte from the Serviço Nacional de Migração is not issued overnight, it is wise to look at the expiry date before buying tickets. A renewed passport has a new number and would require a new ETA.
Pricing
Live fees for Mozambican 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 Mozambique
Requirements
Everything Mozambican 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.
Applications by Mozambican passport holders are usually settled in one to two days. Allow three to five days at the very least between applying and flying, and more if you are not comfortable completing forms in English and may want someone to check your entries first.
The busiest weeks are those around Christmas and the new year, when Mozambican schools and many offices are closed and Sri Lanka's south coast is in high season. Applications for that period are best made in November. Remember that 25 December is Family Day at home and a normal working day for parts of Sri Lanka's administration, while Poya days are the reverse.
Colombo is three and a half hours ahead of Maputo, with no clock changes in either place. A form submitted during a Maputo morning is received in the early afternoon there, which gives it the best chance of being seen the same day.
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
From Maputo the most direct pattern is Qatar Airways to Doha and a second flight to Colombo; check whether your date operates straight to Doha or with a stop on the way. The alternative is a one-hour flight to Johannesburg with LAM or Airlink followed by Emirates through Dubai. Travellers from Beira, Nampula and Pemba generally reach Johannesburg directly with Airlink.
Best time to go
January to March is cyclone season in the Mozambique Channel and the wettest part of the year from Maputo to Cabo Delgado. Those same months are the driest on Sri Lanka's south-west coast. Leaving one side of the Indian Ocean for the other at this time means calm seas at Bentota and Mirissa while storms are tracking past Beira.
The long school holiday in December and January is the obvious family window. Book early, because you will be competing for rooms with visitors from Europe. Whale-watching from Mirissa runs through these months, as it does off Tofo, though here the star is the blue whale.
A trip around Independence Day on 25 June meets the south-west monsoon if you head for Galle. Go east instead. Trincomalee and Pasikudah are dry and sunny, and anyone who surfs Tofinho will want to see the long right-hand point at Arugam Bay.
September, with the holiday on the seventh, is a good compromise month. Rain is easing in the west, the east is still fine, and the tea country around Ella and Haputale is green and cool. Mozambicans used to sea-level heat should pack a jersey for evenings at altitude.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Mozambique — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Someone named Ana Paula Macuácua Nhantumbo may be known simply as Ana Nhantumbo, but the passport lists both family names and the ETA has to as well. Leaving one out is the most frequent cause of a mismatch for Portuguese-style names.
Characters such as ã, ç, é and ô are not carried in the part of the passport that machines read. Use the unaccented spelling printed in capitals at the foot of the page. Trying to keep the accent can cause the system to reject or distort the name.
With four or five names it is tempting to guess where the given names end. The passport settles it: the Apelidos line holds the surnames and the Nomes line the given names. Follow those labels and do not rearrange them.
Applicants working in a second language sometimes choose business because the trip is important, or tourist because it is short. The choice depends on what you will do. A holiday is tourist; meetings, conferences and short training are business.
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
Mozambique has no Sri Lankan embassy; the High Commission in Pretoria is accredited to Maputo. A Mozambican tourist applying for an ETA does not need its involvement. It becomes relevant for visits the online ETA cannot authorise, for example reporting assignments or work with a non-governmental organisation.
FAQs
The questions Mozambican passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Mozambican citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, which is what a Sri Lanka visa or visto means for short visits, and it must be approved before travel. Tourists from Mozambique receive 30 days and may enter twice.
The details have to be entered in English and in Latin letters without accents. The questions are short and mostly ask for facts from your passport and ticket. If you are unsure, have an English speaker read the review screen with you before paying.
Put every surname from the Apelidos line of your passport in the surname field, in the same order, including da, de or dos. Put the names from the Nomes line in the given-names field. Leave out accents.
The one you will travel on. Each ETA is tied to a single passport number and the charge depends on that passport's nationality. Use the same passport for the airline reservation and at arrival in Colombo.
Most people connect once in Doha with Qatar Airways, or fly first to Johannesburg and continue with Emirates through Dubai. No airline operates between Mozambique and Sri Lanka without a stop.
Yes. Mozambique is subject to the standard government rate, and we charge a service fee for handling the application. Tourists under 12 are not charged the government fee. Refer to the live prices shown on this page.
No. An identity card is not a valid travel document for Sri Lanka. You need a passport with six months of validity remaining on arrival, and the ETA is linked to it.
A week ahead is comfortable and three to five days is the least we recommend. The result normally arrives in a day or two, and the approval remains valid for travel for six months, so applying early has no drawback.
Your nationality is already set to Mozambique. 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.
