Whether you live in Port Vila, Luganville or abroad, a Vanuatu passport needs an approved ETA for Sri Lanka. The tourist authorisation gives 30 days and two entries, and the application is made 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
Vanuatu passport holders fall into two quite different groups, and both end up on this page. The first are Ni-Vanuatu living in the islands, for whom Sri Lanka is a distant place visited for a Commonwealth meeting, a training course or the occasional adventurous holiday. The second are citizens by naturalisation who live in Asia, the Gulf or Europe and travel often.
For the islanders the journey is long and the destination unfamiliar, though not as foreign as it sounds. Sri Lanka is another coconut-growing island nation with a volcanic-looking interior, village cricket and a coastline of fishing canoes. For the overseas group, Colombo is a short regional flight and the question is purely about paperwork.
The paperwork is identical in either case. Sri Lanka requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation from every Vanuatu citizen, known in everyday searches as a Sri Lanka visa and in French simply as a visa pour le Sri Lanka. It exists electronically, tied to the passport number, with nothing to collect in person.
At a glance
Eligibility
Vanuatu citizens need an ETA before travelling to Sri Lanka, with no exception for short stays. Vanuatu is outside the 40-country waiver that took effect on 25 May 2026. A Vanuatu passport is therefore charged the standard government rate as well as our service fee, and the live prices shown on this page are the reference.
How you became a citizen makes no difference to the application. A passport issued through Vanuatu's citizenship programme is assessed in the same way as one held from birth, and where you currently live has no bearing either. The form asks for the document you will travel on, and that is what the authorisation attaches to.
Tourist ETAs cover holidays, visits to friends, wellness and Ayurveda stays, and sporting or cultural events. Meetings with a supplier, property or investment discussions, trade fairs and conferences are business activity, and many overseas-resident Vanuatu citizens travel for exactly those reasons. They should choose the business option at the start.
The ETA is no route to residence. Repeated or back-to-back visits used to live in Sri Lanka are specifically ruled out, as are employment and running a business on the ground. A layover of up to two days on the way elsewhere fits the transit option, which carries no government charge but needs proof of onward travel.
Stay & validity
The tourist ETA allows 30 days in Sri Lanka from the date a Vanuatu passport holder first enters. Two entries are included. A frequent traveller based in Dubai or Singapore who visits Colombo twice in three weeks is using one allowance across both trips, and the second visit ends when the original 30 days do.
An issued ETA can be used for a first arrival during the six months that follow. For Ni-Vanuatu booking a once-in-a-decade trip, that leaves plenty of room. The exact terms are those written on the approval, and they take priority over any summary.
Passport validity of six months from arrival is compulsory. Vanuatu passports are renewed through Port Vila, and holders living abroad often wait some weeks for a replacement to reach them. Because the authorisation is locked to one passport number, a renewal after approval means a second application and a second set of charges.
Pricing
Live fees for Vanuatu 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 Vanuatu
Requirements
Everything Vanuatu 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 Vanuatu passports mostly come back within one or two days. Apply at least three to five days ahead, and more if you are starting from the islands, where a missed connection in Brisbane or Nadi can already put a tight schedule under pressure. No turnaround is guaranteed.
Port Vila is five and a half hours ahead of Colombo, so Sri Lankan offices begin work in the early afternoon Vanuatu time. Applicants resident in the Gulf or South-East Asia are in roughly the same half of the day as Colombo and tend to see replies during their own working hours.
Cyclone season in Vanuatu, from November to April, is a reason to finish the application early. Power and internet outages after a storm can last days, and flights are rearranged at short notice. With an ETA already approved and saved offline, a changed departure date is one less thing to fix.
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
Port Vila has no flights to Asia, so the trip to Colombo starts with a hop to a larger Pacific gateway. Brisbane and Sydney, served by Australian airlines, give the widest choice of onward connections through Singapore. Nadi is the other option, linking with Fiji Airways' Singapore flight. From Espiritu Santo, travellers connect through Port Vila or fly directly to Brisbane when that service operates.
Best time to go
From the islands, the natural time to go is the Vanuatu wet season, roughly November to April. It is hot, stormy and quiet at home, and those months bring the finest weather to Sri Lanka's south and west coasts. Mirissa has whales offshore, Galle is dry, and the tea hills above Ella are clear.
The cooler, drier months in Vanuatu run from May to October and include Independence Day on 30 July, when most people prefer to be home. If you do travel then, aim for Sri Lanka's east. Arugam Bay has its surf season from May to September, and Trincomalee's beaches are at their calmest.
Vanuatu citizens living in the Gulf often treat Sri Lanka as a long-weekend escape from summer heat. July and August are humid on the west coast but far cooler than Dubai or Doha, and the Kandy Esala Perahera, a ten-night procession of drummers, dancers and elephants, falls in that period.
Whenever you go, the interior will feel different from anything in the archipelago. Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa are open, exposed sites best seen early in the morning. Nuwara Eliya sits high enough for cold nights. On monthly Poya days bars close and alcohol is not served.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Vanuatu — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Vanuatu citizens with a second nationality sometimes complete the form with one document and check in with the other. Sri Lanka's system looks up the number presented at the desk, and a different passport means no ETA is found.
A visit to meet partners, view an investment or attend a trade event is business, even if a few days at the beach are added. Selecting tourist for convenience puts you outside the conditions of the authorisation.
Naturalised citizens whose names were transliterated for the Vanuatu passport should use that spelling and order, not the version on an older foreign document. Small differences are enough for an airline to query the match.
Some long-stay travellers intend to leave and re-enter indefinitely. The 30 days and two entries are a fixed allowance, and successive visits used as residence are excluded. A longer stay means asking the immigration department in Battaramulla for an extension.
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 is represented in Vanuatu from its High Commission in Canberra and keeps no office in Port Vila. That is irrelevant to an ETA, which involves no consular step. Vanuatu citizens resident elsewhere should likewise apply online instead of approaching the Sri Lankan embassy where they live.
FAQs
The questions Vanuatu passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Vanuatu citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the online permission usually called a Sri Lanka visa, before they travel. For tourists it allows a 30-day stay with two entries.
Not for the ETA. The application is based on the passport itself, and all Vanuatu passports are treated alike. Enter your details as printed and give your true country of residence where asked.
Yes. The process is online and does not depend on being in Vanuatu. Use the passport you will travel with, and check that it has six months of validity on your arrival date.
No. Vanuatu is not among the 40 waiver countries, so the standard government rate applies. If you also hold a passport from a waiver country, the charge depends on which passport you apply and travel with.
Fly to Brisbane or Sydney, connect to Singapore and then to Colombo, or go through Sydney for the SriLankan Airlines nonstop. Check Australia's transit requirements for your passport before buying the ticket.
No. Meetings, negotiations and conferences require the business option. A tourist ETA is limited to leisure, family and friends, medical treatment, and cultural or sporting events.
Twice, and both entries have to fall inside the 30 days counted from the first. A third trip, or any arrival after the 30 days have run out, needs a new authorisation.
Every child has to be included in an application with their own passport details. Those under 12 are not charged the government fee for a tourist ETA, but the requirement to hold one still applies.
Your nationality is already set to Vanuatu. 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.
