Pakistani passport holders must have an approved ETA before boarding in Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad. It allows 30 days and two entries, and Pakistan is among the 40 countries whose tourist ETA carries no government charge.
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 Pakistani citizens
Pakistan is on Sri Lanka's list of 40 countries whose tourist ETA has carried no government charge since 25 May 2026. The ETA itself remains compulsory, and our service fee still applies; see the live prices shown on this page.
Overview
Few long-haul passports open as many doors for Pakistanis as they would like, which is part of why Sri Lanka has become a favourite. It is under four hours from Karachi, the food is halal-friendly across much of the island, and honeymooners from Lahore and Islamabad can pair beaches at Bentota with cool tea country around Nuwara Eliya in a single week.
Cricket adds another pull. Pakistan's national side tours the island regularly, and supporters who followed the team to Colombo and Galle tend to come back with their families. Whatever brings you, the paperwork is an Electronic Travel Authorisation, which Pakistani travel agents usually sell as a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa.
The good news for Pakistani applicants is that Colombo stopped levying its own charge on tourist ETAs for 40 nationalities in May 2026, and Pakistan made the list. The authorisation is still required before you fly. Below we set out who needs it, how long it lasts, and the points on a green passport that most often cause trouble.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. Every Pakistani citizen needs an ETA approved in advance for a short stay, and SAARC membership does not remove that step. Airline staff at Jinnah International and Allama Iqbal International check for it at the counter, so arrange it before you leave home and not on the way to the airport.
A tourist ETA fits the reasons most Pakistanis travel: a honeymoon or family holiday, staying with relatives or friends, an Ayurveda programme, or following a cricket series. Traders from Sialkot, Faisalabad or Karachi going to meet buyers under the two countries' free trade agreement need the business option, as do delegates attending a conference or a short training course.
Working for a Sri Lankan employer, freelancing while you are there or settling in through back-to-back visits are all outside what the tourist authorisation allows. Reporting for Pakistani news channels, political activity and NGO work require clearance from Colombo first.
Children travel on their own passports in Pakistan, and each child needs a separate line in the application. Under-12s were already spared the government charge on a tourist stay of up to 30 days, so the 2026 waiver mainly changed things for the adults in a Pakistani family group.
Stay & validity
For Pakistanis the tourist ETA means 30 days from the day you land and two entries inside that window. A side trip to Malé from Colombo is a popular add-on from Karachi, and it works, but when you return you receive only the days left over from the original 30.
After approval you have six months in which to make your first arrival, so an ETA obtained in September will cover a December wedding-season getaway.
Pakistani passports are issued for five or ten years, and Sri Lanka wants six months left on the day you arrive. Check the expiry before paying for anything. A renewal through the passport office or the online portal produces a new booklet with a new number, and the authorisation cannot be carried over to it.
Pricing
Live fees for Pakistani 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 Pakistan
Requirements
Everything Pakistani 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.
Pakistani applications generally come back within a day or two. Before submitting, we compare what you typed against the passport scan, because a CNIC digit in the wrong box is far easier to fix at that point than after payment. No one can guarantee a turnaround, so plan around the typical timing and leave a cushion.
Give yourself three to five days before departure. Colombo is only half an hour ahead of Pakistan Standard Time, so office hours overlap almost completely, but Friday afternoons and the weekend are still a poor moment to start an application for a Sunday flight.
Apply earlier still if you are travelling over either Eid, during the June to August school break or in late December, when flights from Karachi and Lahore fill up and Sri Lanka's own high season is under way. Anyone waiting on a renewed passport should hold off until the new booklet is in hand.
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
Pakistan is one of the few countries in this region with its own nonstop link to Colombo: SriLankan Airlines serves both Karachi and Lahore, and the Karachi sector is short enough to feel like a domestic hop. Travellers from Islamabad, Peshawar, Multan or Sialkot usually connect through the Gulf instead, using Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah, which roughly doubles the journey but offers daily departures.
Best time to go
December to March is the classic window for Pakistanis. While fog grounds flights across Punjab and Karachi turns pleasantly cool, the sea at Bentota, Hikkaduwa and Mirissa is calm and the hill stations are dry. The winter school break in late December and the wedding season that follows make this the busiest period for honeymoon bookings from Lahore.
The long summer holiday, which runs from June into August in most provinces, coincides with the south-west monsoon around Colombo and Galle. Families escaping forty-degree heat in Multan or Sukkur do better on the east coast then, at Trincomalee or Pasikudah, or up in Kandy when the Esala Perahera fills the streets in July or August.
Because Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha move earlier each year, they can land in any Sri Lankan season. Look at which coast is dry for your dates before booking a resort. Mid-April brings the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, when much of the island shuts for a few days, and Vesak in May lights up Colombo with lanterns.
October and November are inter-monsoon months with showers on both coasts, though they suit the Cultural Triangle and a safari at Yala or Wilpattu well enough.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Pakistan — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
The photo page of a Pakistani passport shows two numbers, and the identity card number is the one most people know by heart. Enter it by mistake and the authorisation is issued against a passport that does not exist. Use the shorter passport number instead.
Many Pakistanis have no family name in the Western sense, and the passport may show Muhammad Ali Khan with everything on one line and a father's or husband's name printed separately. Do not move words around to fill an empty box, and do not add the father's name. Mirror the passport.
A large number of Pakistanis also carry British, Canadian or American passports. All of those are on the waiver list too, so there is no saving either way, but you must apply with the passport you will actually hand over in Colombo. An ETA on the green passport is invisible when you present the other one.
Banks in Pakistan often ship debit cards with international and e-commerce use disabled. The payment then fails at the last step. Activate international online transactions with your bank before you start.
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 keeps a High Commission in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave and a Consulate General in Karachi. Pakistanis applying for an ETA have no reason to visit either, send a passport by courier or book an appointment, as the process is online from start to finish. Those offices matter for longer-term visas and for activities that need Colombo's approval beforehand.
FAQs
The questions Pakistani passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, Pakistani citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), the online permission that most people call a Sri Lanka visa, and it has to be approved before travel. On a tourist trip it allows 30 days and two entries. Pakistan is one of 40 countries for which the government charge is waived.
The government charge on a tourist ETA has been waived for Pakistani passports since 25 May 2026, but the authorisation is still mandatory and our service fee for handling the application applies. You can see what you would pay in the live prices shown on this page.
Thirty days, starting from your first arrival. You may enter twice, but a second entry only uses up the remainder of those 30 days. For a longer stay an extension has to be sought from the immigration department in Battaramulla before your permitted time ends.
Yes. The whole application is completed online from anywhere in Pakistan, and nothing is stamped in your passport beforehand.
The ETA follows your passport, not your place of residence. A Pakistani with an iqama or an Emirates ID applies as a Pakistani national and benefits from the same waiver of the government charge.
Every child needs to be included in an application with their own passport details. Under-12s are not charged the government fee for a tourist stay of up to 30 days, and with the waiver in place the same now applies to older Pakistani travellers.
No. Meetings, trade negotiations, conferences, seminars and short training courses fall under the business option. Choose it if your visit from Karachi or Sialkot involves buyers or suppliers.
It stops being usable, because the authorisation is tied to the old passport number. Once your new passport arrives you would need to make a fresh application with the new details.
Your nationality is already set to Pakistan. 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.
