Saint Lucian passport holders need an ETA before departing for Sri Lanka, wherever in the world they live. The tourist authorisation gives 30 days and two entries, and names must match the passport to the letter.
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
Saint Lucia and Sri Lanka are both mountainous tropical islands with a famous peak on every postcard, and there the resemblance in scale ends. Sri Lanka is roughly a hundred times larger, and a Saint Lucian visitor can spend three weeks there travelling between rainforest, tea estates, dry-zone ruins and long surf beaches without retracing a step. For anyone raised beneath the Pitons, the rock of Sigiriya and the pilgrim trail up Adam's Peak hold an obvious appeal.
The entry formality is an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Saint Lucians looking for a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa will find that the ETA is the document in question, issued online in advance and connected to the passport number. The process is the same whether you apply from Castries, Vieux Fort or a home overseas.
That last point matters, because Saint Lucian passports are held by a widely scattered group: islanders at home, a large diaspora in Britain, North America and the French islands, and citizens who acquired nationality through the investment programme and live elsewhere. This page is for all of them, and it deals with the passport, the name fields, the routes and the seasons in turn.
At a glance
Eligibility
Anyone travelling on a Saint Lucian passport needs an ETA to visit Sri Lanka. Saint Lucia is not one of the nations to which the government fee waiver extends, so the standard government rate is payable by adults, alongside our service fee. Consult the live prices shown on this page for the figures that apply today.
Tourism in the sense Sri Lanka uses it is broad. A Saint Lucian going for a holiday, a honeymoon, a visit to friends, a yoga or Ayurveda stay, or to attend a sporting or cultural event is covered by the tourist ETA.
It does not include work or trade. Saint Lucian citizens who run businesses abroad, a description that fits many investment-programme passport holders, should use the business option when the visit involves meetings, negotiations, a conference or a short training course. Employment, self-employment and attempts to live in Sri Lanka through back-to-back visits are excluded from the tourist authorisation.
A Saint Lucian child needs to be included in the application from birth onwards. No government fee is charged for a child under twelve on a tourist stay of up to 30 days. Families whose members hold different nationalities should apply for each person on the passport that person will carry, because the charge is assessed passport by passport.
Stay & validity
The stay granted to a Saint Lucian tourist is 30 days, beginning on arrival. From the eastern Caribbean the outward journey takes a day and a night, so a visit of two to three weeks is usual and fits well within the period allowed.
Within the 30 days you may enter twice. A Saint Lucian who breaks the holiday with a few nights in the Maldives or southern India can return to Sri Lanka on the same authorisation, but will be admitted for the outstanding balance only. A second entry made on day 25 leaves five days, not another thirty.
You have six months from the date of approval in which to travel, and the terms stated on the approval take precedence over anything else. Visitors who want to stay longer must obtain an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration, headquartered at Battaramulla near Colombo, before their current permission lapses.
Pricing
Live fees for Saint Lucian 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 Saint Lucia
Requirements
Everything Saint Lucian 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 Saint Lucian applications mostly arrive within a day or two. Nobody can promise a time, and applicants on the island should allow three to five days at the least, bearing in mind that Colombo's working day is largely over before Castries wakes up.
Citizens living outside Saint Lucia should apply from wherever they are, but with the Saint Lucian passport in front of them. Applications typed from a scan saved years ago occasionally carry an old number, because a passport renewed through a high commission or consulate abroad arrives with a new one.
Seasonal demand is worth watching. Saint Lucians travelling over Christmas, or around Independence Day on 22 February, are heading into Sri Lanka's busiest months, when hotels and flights fill and applications rise.
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
Saint Lucia's long-haul flights leave from Hewanorra International at Vieux Fort in the south of the island, not from the smaller airport beside Castries. The cleanest path to Sri Lanka is the nonstop to London followed by SriLankan Airlines to Colombo. North American routings through Miami, New York or Toronto and a Gulf hub are the alternative.
Best time to go
Saint Lucia's own dry season runs from December to May, and Sri Lanka's south-west shares the first half of it. Between December and March the beaches from Bentota to Tangalle are settled, the hill country is clear, and Adam's Peak is in its pilgrimage season, when the overnight climb to the summit for sunrise is at its most atmospheric.
Many Saint Lucians travel in July and August, after Carnival and during the school holidays. Those months favour the east coast, with Arugam Bay drawing surfers and Pasikudah offering shallow, sheltered water for children. Inland, the Kandy Esala Perahera brings nightly processions.
May is a pleasant in-between choice for those who would otherwise stay home for the Jazz and Arts Festival. Vesak, at the May full moon, covers Sri Lankan towns in lanterns and free food stalls. Jounen Kwéyòl in late October falls during the inter-monsoon period, when showers are likely across Sri Lanka and prices are lower.
Saint Lucia does not change its clocks and neither does Sri Lanka, so the nine-and-a-half-hour gap between UTC-4 and UTC+5:30 never varies. The Atlantic hurricane season from June to November can affect departures from Hewanorra.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Saint Lucia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Jn Baptiste and St Rose are legal spellings in Saint Lucia, and the passport prints them that way. Writing Jean Baptiste or Saint Rose on the form, however correct it feels, produces a record that does not match the document.
Saint Lucians with a second nationality, whether by descent, residence abroad or investment, sometimes apply with one booklet and pack the other. The authorisation is attached to a single number and cannot be read from a different passport.
George F. L. Charles Airport near Castries handles regional services only. Transatlantic flights use Hewanorra, well over an hour away by road, and a missed first leg can unravel connections all the way to Colombo.
A Saint Lucian entrepreneur meeting suppliers or attending a trade seminar in Colombo is not a tourist for those days. Selecting the business option at the outset avoids a breach of conditions that no later correction can fix.
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
There is no Sri Lankan High Commission or consulate in Castries, and official contact with Saint Lucia is handled from outside the island. Saint Lucian tourists are unaffected, since an ETA is requested and delivered online with no appointment and no passport handed in. A mission becomes relevant only for activities that require prior government approval.
FAQs
The questions Saint Lucian passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Saint Lucian citizens must hold an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the online permission often called a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa, before they travel. A Saint Lucian's tourist ETA allows 30 days and two entries. Entry itself is decided by immigration when you land.
Copy it from the machine-readable zone on the photo page of your Saint Lucian passport. If the passport shows JN BAPTISTE, enter that, and do not expand it to Jean Baptiste. The same applies to St Rose, St Omer and similar surnames.
Yes, if you travel to Sri Lanka on the Saint Lucian passport. The requirement follows the passport, not where you live or how citizenship was acquired. If you hold another nationality as well, apply with the passport you will actually present.
No. Saint Lucia falls outside the waiver, so the standard government rate applies to adults. Under-twelves are not charged the government fee for a tourist stay of up to 30 days. Up-to-date amounts are in the live prices shown on this page.
Fly from Hewanorra to London Gatwick, then connect to Colombo, either with SriLankan Airlines from Heathrow or with a Gulf airline from Gatwick. The whole journey takes about a day.
A tourist ETA gives 30 days from first arrival. You may leave and re-enter once during that time, receiving only the unused days on return. Longer stays need an extension from the immigration department in Sri Lanka.
Yes. There is no Sri Lankan mission on the island, and none is needed. The application is completed online from Castries, Soufrière or anywhere else, and the approval is emailed to you.
Three to five days before departure is the minimum, and two or three weeks is better for Christmas and February travel. Approval generally comes within a day or two and remains valid for travel for six months.
Your nationality is already set to Saint Lucia. 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.
