Russian travellers heading to Sri Lanka for the winter season need an ETA approved before the flight. A tourist ETA gives 30 days and two entries on a foreign-travel passport, and Sri Lanka waives its government charge for Russian citizens.
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 Russian citizens
Russia is on the list of 40 countries for which Sri Lanka has charged no government fee on tourist ETAs since 25 May 2026. An approved ETA is still required for every Russian traveller.
Overview
For Russian travellers, Sri Lanka is above all a winter destination. When Moscow is under snow, the south coast between Hikkaduwa and Tangalle is in its dry season, and a direct flight delivers you there in under nine hours with almost no jet lag. Over the past few years the island has become one of the most popular warm-weather escapes from Russia, drawing package tourists on charter flights, independent surfers in Weligama and Ahangama, and families who settle into Unawatuna for several weeks.
Whatever the style of trip, the entry requirement is the same. Sri Lanka expects every foreign visitor to hold an Electronic Travel Authorisation before arrival, and Russian citizens are no exception. Russian tour operators and forums usually refer to it as the Sri Lanka visa or electronic visa. The good news for Russian passport holders is that since 25 May 2026 the Sri Lankan government has not charged for the tourist version.
Several practical details matter more for Russians than for most other nationalities: which of your two passports the application uses, how your name is spelled in Latin letters, how to pay when Russian bank cards do not work abroad, and what the 30-day limit means for anyone hoping to spend the whole winter by the ocean. Each is covered below.
At a glance
Eligibility
Russian citizens need an ETA for any short visit to Sri Lanka. There is no visa-free agreement to rely on, and a voucher from a tour operator does not replace the authorisation. If you have bought a package, ask the operator in writing whether the ETA is included for each traveller; if the answer is unclear, apply yourself, because airline staff at Sheremetyevo or Koltsovo will look for it before check-in is completed.
Beach holidays, sightseeing tours, visits to friends, Ayurveda programmes, yoga retreats and taking part in sporting competitions all come under the tourist ETA. That covers what the great majority of Russian visitors do, from a ten-day package in Bentota to a month of surfing lessons as a student.
The line is crossed when a visitor starts earning. Teaching surfing or yoga for payment, guiding fellow Russian speakers, running a guest house or cafe, and similar activity count as employment or self-employment, none of which a tourist ETA permits. The same applies to trade and commercial dealings. Meetings, conferences and short training need the business option instead.
Russians living outside Russia, in the Emirates, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia or elsewhere, apply on the same terms, since the waiver attaches to Russian nationality and not to where you live. If you hold a second citizenship, use the passport you will actually present in Colombo and select that nationality; mixing the two is a common cause of trouble at the airport.
Stay & validity
A tourist ETA allows Russian visitors to stay 30 days from first arrival and to enter twice within that time. The second entry is handy for a side trip to the Maldives, a short flight from Colombo, but it does not add days: come back on day 22 and eight remain. Plan both arrivals inside the same 30-day span.
The approval remains usable for travel for six months from the date it is issued, which gives plenty of room for early-booking deals on winter packages. What the officer in Colombo applies are the conditions printed on your approval, so read them when the email arrives and not on the plane.
Only the foreign-travel passport, the zagranpasport, can be used; the internal passport is not a travel document for Sri Lanka. It must be valid for six months from the day you land. Russians hold either the ten-year biometric version or the older five-year one, and the five-year type runs out sooner than people remember. If you keep two valid foreign passports, as Russian law allows, apply with the one you will hand over at the border and travel on that same booklet.
The 30-day stay is where many Russian plans meet the rules. Spending the winter in Sri Lanka, known at home as zimovka, means going beyond the initial period, and that requires an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration at its head office in Battaramulla near Colombo. Apply before your 30 days expire. Leaving and re-entering again and again to remain on the island is specifically not allowed on a tourist ETA.
Pricing
Live fees for Russian 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 Russia
Requirements
Everything Russian 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.
Russian applications are normally approved within a day or two. No fixed time can be promised, so apply at least three to five days ahead, and do not leave it to the evening before a charter flight. A charter seat missed in high season is very hard to replace at short notice.
Demand from Russia is concentrated between November and April, and it spikes for the long New Year holidays in the first days of January, when the whole country is off work at once. If you are flying between late December and mid-January, apply two weeks or more in advance. The same advice holds for the February and March long weekends and the May holidays.
Give yourself extra time if payment could be an obstacle. Sorting out a foreign-issued card, or asking a relative abroad to pay on your behalf, can take longer than the application itself. Before paying, compare the Latin spelling of every name with the passport one more time, because an error discovered after payment means starting a new application.
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
Russia is connected to Sri Lanka by a mix of scheduled and charter flights that changes from one winter to the next. Aeroflot has operated nonstop services from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Colombo in season, and charter carriers such as Azur Air and Red Wings fly tour-operator programmes from Moscow and regional cities including Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Kazan to Colombo and to Mattala in the south. Outside those programmes, the usual route is a single connection in the Gulf or Istanbul.
Best time to go
Sri Lanka is two and a half hours ahead of Moscow throughout the year, as neither country changes its clocks. From Yekaterinburg the gap shrinks to thirty minutes, and Novosibirsk is actually ahead of Colombo by an hour and a half. Compared with a flight to Thailand or Vietnam, the adjustment is slight, which is part of the island's appeal for families with young children.
The Russian winter and the Sri Lankan dry season on the south-west coast overlap almost perfectly. From December to March the sea is calm at Hikkaduwa, Unawatuna and Mirissa, blue whales pass close to the south coast, and the surf at Weligama suits beginners. The New Year holidays are the absolute peak: accommodation prices are at their highest and the better villas are reserved by early autumn.
By the May holidays the picture has changed. The south-west monsoon is arriving, the sea on the popular southern beaches turns rough and many surf schools move east. Travellers flying from Russia between May and September should base themselves on the east coast, at Trincomalee, Pasikudah or Arugam Bay, where the summer is dry and the waves are at their best.
April and October are transitional. Mid-April brings Sinhala and Tamil New Year, a family holiday when transport is crowded and small businesses shut for a few days. October and November see short, heavy showers across the island before the charter season begins in earnest. On the monthly Poya full-moon days alcohol is not sold anywhere, including in beach bars, so plan celebrations around them.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Russia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Russians carry two passports and the internal one is the document used for everything at home. Its number and Cyrillic spelling have no place on a Sri Lankan application. Take every detail from the foreign-travel passport, and if you own two of those, from the one you will travel with.
Russian transliteration rules have changed several times, so the same person may be Yulia on a bank card, Julia on an old passport and Iuliia on the current one. Only the current passport's spelling counts. Typing the version you are used to creates an authorisation that does not match your document.
Cards issued by Russian banks, whether Mir, Visa or Mastercard, do not go through on international payment pages. Applicants often complete the whole form and then cannot pay. Arrange a card from a non-Russian bank beforehand, or have someone abroad you trust make the payment.
Thirty days is the stay granted, and a second entry only uses up what remains of it. People who plan three or four months on the south coast need an extension from the immigration department in Battaramulla, applied for in good time. Working informally to fund a long stay breaches the conditions of the ETA.
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 Russia is in Moscow. Tourists from Russia do not have to go there, send in a passport or book an appointment for an ETA, as it is applied for and delivered online. Contact the embassy for anything outside the ETA's scope, such as residence, employment or permission for journalistic work.
FAQs
The questions Russian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Russian citizens must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), often called the Sri Lanka electronic visa, before they travel. For tourism it gives a stay of 30 days with two entries. Sri Lanka does not collect a government charge on it from Russian passport holders.
The government charge on the tourist ETA has been waived for Russians since 25 May 2026, but applying is still obligatory. Our service fee for assistance with the application applies separately; see the live prices shown on this page for the current figure.
A tourist ETA grants 30 days from the first arrival. You may enter twice, yet the second entry continues the same 30 days. For a longer stay you must apply to the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla for an extension before the initial period ends.
Not on the ETA alone. It covers the first 30 days, and anything beyond that depends on an extension granted in Sri Lanka. Repeatedly leaving and returning in order to live on the island is not permitted, and neither is paid work of any kind.
The foreign-travel passport. It needs six months of validity from your arrival date, and the ETA is linked to its number. If you have two foreign passports, apply and travel with the same one. A replaced passport means applying again.
Copy the Latin spelling from your foreign-travel passport letter for letter. Leave out the patronymic, which is printed only in Cyrillic. Do not adjust the spelling to match a bank card or a previous passport, even if the passport version looks unusual to you.
No. Mir cards, and Visa or Mastercard cards issued by Russian banks, are not accepted by international online payment systems. You need a card issued outside Russia. The cardholder does not have to be the traveller, so a friend or relative abroad can pay for you.
Sometimes, but never assume so. Ask the operator to confirm in writing that an ETA has been issued for every traveller, with the passport numbers shown. If it is not part of the package, apply yourself at least several days before your charter departs.
Your nationality is already set to Russia. 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.
