Polish travellers need an approved ETA before flying to Colombo, whether on a winter charter or a scheduled connection. It allows 30 days with two entries, and Poland has been exempt from the government charge on tourist ETAs since 25 May 2026.
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
Within a few years Sri Lanka has gone from a niche choice to a fixture of the Polish winter holiday market. The big tour operators sell it alongside Zanzibar and Thailand as a place to find sun between November and March, and direct charter flights in the winter season have put the beaches south of Colombo within a single flight of Warsaw. Polish is now heard regularly in Bentota, Beruwala and Hikkaduwa.
Independent travel has grown just as fast. Younger Poles arrive with a backpack and a loose plan: Sigiriya, the train from Kandy to Ella, a safari, then surf lessons at Weligama or Ahangama. Polish travel blogs and video channels cover the island in detail, and that is where much of the advice on formalities circulates, some of it out of date.
The formality that matters is the Electronic Travel Authorisation. Poles usually call it the wiza, and package brochures list it as a visa too. It is an online approval linked to your passport number, obtained before departure, and it applies equally to a charter passenger on a package and to someone travelling on their own ticket through Istanbul.
At a glance
Eligibility
Polish citizens need an ETA for any short visit. Poland was included among the 40 countries for which Sri Lanka dropped its government charge on tourist ETAs from 25 May 2026, and the headline in Polish media was that the wiza had been lifted. The charge was lifted and the requirement stayed, which is a distinction a check-in agent at Chopin Airport will apply strictly.
Package travellers should not assume the tour operator has handled it. Some operators arrange the ETA, some offer it as an extra and some leave it entirely to the customer, and the wording in the booking conditions varies. Read your own contract. Being part of a group on a charter gives no exemption if your name is not on an approved authorisation.
A tourist ETA is right for a package holiday, an independent round trip, a surf camp, a yoga or Ayurveda stay or a visit to friends. Poles travelling for trade talks, a conference or a company training course lasting less than a month need the business option, including the many who work in IT and outsourcing firms with South Asian partners.
It gives no right to work. Seasonal jobs in hostels or surf schools in exchange for board, popular with long-term travellers, count as unpaid employment and are not allowed. Polish journalists, vloggers on commissioned media assignments and volunteers with aid organisations need approval from Sri Lankan authorities that the online ETA does not give.
Stay & validity
Poles are granted 30 days from the date of first arrival and two entries. A package of one or two weeks sits well inside that, and independent travellers on a three- or four-week trip should count the days carefully, since the day you land is the first day. The second entry is for a side trip, typically to the Maldives, and brings back only the remaining days.
The ETA can be used for travel for six months from approval. Polish holidaymakers who buy first-minute offers in summer for a winter departure should time the application so that the travel date falls inside those six months. If a charter is rescheduled past that point, a new application is needed.
Six months of passport validity on arrival is compulsory. Polish adult passports last ten years and those for children under 12 last five. A temporary passport, the paszport tymczasowy, is issued for a much shorter period and may well fall short of the six-month requirement, so it is a poor basis for this trip.
Poles spending the winter working remotely or simply travelling slowly sometimes want more than 30 days. That needs an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, outside Colombo, requested before the first period ends. Remember that remote work itself sits outside what a tourist ETA is granted for.
Pricing
Live fees for Polish 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 Poland
Requirements
Everything Polish 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.
Polish applications are generally approved in a day or two. Sri Lanka is four and a half hours ahead of Poland in winter and three and a half in summer, so an application sent in the afternoon will normally be looked at the next Sri Lankan working day. This is the usual pace and should not be read as a promise.
Apply at least three to five days before departure. Last-minute offers are a large part of the Polish holiday market, and a package bought on Thursday for a Sunday flight leaves almost no margin. If you are booking late, complete the ETA the same day and check your inbox, including the spam folder, before you travel to the airport.
The Polish peak coincides with Sri Lanka's own. Christmas, New Year and the ferie zimowe in January and February, which are staggered by voivodeship, are exactly when the south-west coast is busiest. Applications submitted for those weeks should go in earlier than the minimum.
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
Poland is unusual in Central Europe in having direct charter flights to Colombo during the winter season, operated for the major tour operators from Warsaw and, in some seasons, from regional airports such as Katowice. Outside the charter programme, and for independent travellers all year, the journey involves one connection in Dubai, Doha or Istanbul.
Best time to go
The Polish season for Sri Lanka runs from November to March, and for good reason. Those are the months when Poland is at its darkest and coldest and when the south and west coasts of Sri Lanka are dry and calm. The charter programme is built around that window, and prices are highest over Christmas and Sylwester.
The ferie zimowe are the family peak. Each voivodeship has its two weeks at a different time between mid-January and the end of February, and all of them fall in good weather for Bentota, Galle and the hill country. Whale-watching boats run from Mirissa throughout, which makes it an easy addition to a beach stay.
The majówka in early May is less suitable for the south-west, where the monsoon is setting in. A summer trip in July or August can still work well if you turn east: Trincomalee, Nilaveli and Arugam Bay have their dry season while Polish schools are on wakacje. There are no charters then, so expect a connecting flight.
Arriving from a Polish winter means a temperature jump of thirty degrees or more in half a day. Take the first afternoon slowly, drink plenty of water and be wary of the midday sun, which is far stronger this close to the equator than on any Baltic beach in July.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Poland — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Polish package travellers often believe the wiza is included in the price. Sometimes it is, often it is not. Check the contract and, if in doubt, apply yourself well ahead. A group on a charter is checked passenger by passenger, and one missing ETA means one person left behind.
Ł, ą, ę, ó, ś, ż and ź do not appear in the machine-readable zone of a Polish passport, where they are replaced by plain L, A, E, O, S and Z. Enter the name as those lines show it. Wójcik becomes WOJCIK, not WUJCIK or Wójcik.
When a parent fills in the application for everyone, it is easy to paste the same surname into each entry. Polish surnames change with gender, so a father named Nowakowski may have a wife and daughter named Nowakowska. Each entry must follow the individual passport.
A paszport tymczasowy obtained in a hurry is valid for a limited time and frequently for less than the six months Sri Lanka demands on arrival. Poles who lose a passport shortly before a holiday should check the expiry date of any replacement before applying for the ETA with it.
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 Warsaw covers Poland. Polish tourists do not have to send a passport there or attend in person for an ETA, because approval is given online. The embassy is relevant for purposes the ETA excludes, such as media projects, and for consular questions that an online application cannot settle.
FAQs
The questions Polish passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Polish citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for Sri Lanka, which is the online approval Poles generally call the wiza. It must be approved before departure. The government charge on tourist ETAs was waived for Poland on 25 May 2026, but the ETA is still compulsory.
It depends on the tour operator and the specific offer. Some include it, others charge separately or leave it to you. Check your booking conditions, and if the ETA is not clearly included, apply yourself in good time.
No. What changed is that Sri Lanka no longer collects its government charge from Polish citizens applying for a tourist ETA. You still have to apply and be approved. A service fee for our assistance applies, and the live prices are shown on this page.
No. The dowód osobisty is a travel document within the European Union only. Sri Lanka requires a passport with at least six months of validity on arrival, and the ETA is issued against that passport's number.
Use the spelling in the two machine-readable lines at the bottom of your passport's photo page, where diacritics are removed. Ł becomes L, ż and ź become Z, ą becomes A and so on.
Thirty days counted from first arrival, with two entries. That comfortably covers a one- or two-week package and most independent trips. A longer stay needs an extension granted in Sri Lanka.
Often yes, as most approvals arrive within a day or two, but there is no guaranteed timescale. Apply the moment you book, use an email address you check constantly, and do not leave for the airport without the approval.
Yes. Each child travels on their own passport and must be included in an application. For children under 12 no government fee is charged on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days. Remember that passports for Polish children under 12 expire after five years.
Your nationality is already set to Poland. 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.
