Salvadorans need an approved ETA before leaving San Salvador for Colombo. It allows 30 days and two entries, is linked to your passport number rather than your DUI, and carries the standard 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
Overview
Salvadorans know good waves, and that is often what first puts Sri Lanka on their radar. The point breaks of Arugam Bay and the gentler beach breaks at Weligama and Hikkaduwa are spoken of in the same circles as Punta Roca and El Zonte. Around the surf there is a whole country to see, roughly three times the size of El Salvador, with tea-covered mountains, national parks and some of the oldest Buddhist monuments in Asia.
No Salvadoran can board for Colombo without an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Most people look for it under the name visa para Sri Lanka or e-visa; officially it is the ETA. The application is made online, the approval is attached to your passport number, and you should have it in hand before leaving San Salvador.
The government charge on a tourist ETA has been lifted for 40 countries since 25 May 2026, but El Salvador is not on that list. Salvadoran passports therefore attract the standard rate, plus our service fee for preparing the application. For today's total, rely on the live prices shown on this page.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. The rule is universal: Sri Lanka requires an ETA from every foreign visitor, and Salvadorans are no exception. Travelling around Central America on a DUI is so routine that some people forget a passport is needed further afield, never mind an advance authorisation.
Surf trips, beach holidays, tours of the interior, visits to friends, yoga and Ayurveda programmes, medical treatment and taking part in sporting competitions are all tourist purposes. A Salvadoran entering a surf contest at Arugam Bay is covered. One working as a surf coach or camp host, paid or in exchange for board, is not.
Travel for meetings, trade negotiations, conferences, workshops or training of under a month calls for the business option. Filming, reporting, political activity and NGO work cannot be done on an online ETA at all; they depend on prior approval from the Sri Lankan government.
Families should add each child to the application using the child's own passport. Under-12s are not charged the government fee on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days.
Stay & validity
Thirty days and two entries: that is what the tourist ETA gives a Salvadoran citizen. The period is counted once, from the first landing. Break the trip with four nights in the Maldives and the days spent there are deducted from your allowance in Sri Lanka, leaving the remainder for your second entry.
An ETA may be used for six months after it is issued, on the conditions stated in the approval. Someone applying in May for the vacaciones agostinas, or in October for a December departure, has no reason to worry about the authorisation expiring first.
Check that your Salvadoran passport will still have six months to run on the day you arrive. If it will not, renew it through the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, or at a consulate if you live abroad, before applying. The ETA belongs to a passport number, and a replacement passport requires a replacement ETA. Visitors who wish to stay longer than 30 days must seek an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, a suburb of Colombo.
Pricing
Live fees for Salvadoran 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 El Salvador
Requirements
Everything Salvadoran 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.
Salvadoran applicants generally hear back within a day or two. Now and then an application is set aside for further review and takes longer, and there is no guaranteed turnaround. Our advice is to apply no later than three to five days before your flight, and well ahead of that for Semana Santa, the August holidays and Christmas.
When it is noon in San Salvador it is half past eleven at night in Colombo. That eleven-and-a-half-hour offset, constant all year, means messages cross overnight. A surfer who books a last-minute ticket to catch a swell should apply the same day and not leave the ETA until the eve of departure.
Corrections are not possible once the application is paid for. If you notice a transposed digit or a missing name afterwards, the only remedy is a fresh application, and the government charge for the first one stays spent because it cannot be refunded or transferred.
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
San Salvador is better connected than most Central American capitals, which helps. Iberia flies from Monseñor Romero International to Madrid, and from there Qatar Airways and Emirates reach Colombo through Doha and Dubai. Avianca's hub at San Salvador also feeds several US cities, though changing planes in the United States requires a visa for Salvadoran passport holders. No airline reaches Sri Lanka from here without at least two stops.
Best time to go
For surfers the answer depends on the coast. Arugam Bay on the east works from May to September, which matches El Salvador's own swell season, so going means trading good waves at home for good waves abroad. The south-west — Weligama, Midigama, Hikkaduwa — is best from December to March, when the Salvadoran Pacific is smaller and the trip makes more sense.
The vacaciones agostinas in the first week of August are short, but combined with leave they open the east coast at its peak, and the Kandy Esala Perahera often falls close by. The south and west are wet then.
School holidays from mid-November to January suit the classic circuit: Colombo, the Cultural Triangle, Kandy, the train through tea country to Ella, then the southern beaches. December to March is also when whales are seen off Mirissa.
Semana Santa generally arrives before the south-west monsoon and gives a dry week on that coast, with the Sinhala and Tamil New Year following in mid-April. Sri Lanka also observes a Poya holiday at every full moon, when bars close and alcohol is not sold.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from El Salvador — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
The DUI number is requested for everything in El Salvador, from bank accounts to phone contracts. The ETA application wants the passport number, which is different and far less familiar.
Salvadorans living in the United States sometimes travel on a Salvadoran passport and sometimes on an American one. The ETA must be issued for the passport you will use, and the charge depends on that passport's nationality.
Surf travellers like to arrive without bookings and follow the forecast. The application still asks for an address on the island, and officers may ask where you are staying. Reserve at least the first nights and enter that guesthouse or hotel.
Long trips through Asia are often booked leg by leg. Sri Lankan immigration can ask for a return or onward ticket and proof that you can pay your way, and airlines may ask at check-in too. Have an onward booking out of Sri Lanka dated within your 30 days.
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
El Salvador has no Sri Lankan embassy or consulate. The embassies in Havana and Washington DC are the nearest resident missions, the latter convenient for Salvadorans who live in the United States. None of this matters for a tourist ETA, which is requested online and issued by email.
FAQs
The questions Salvadoran passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Salvadorans need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) before travelling to Sri Lanka; it is the online document often described as a Sri Lanka visa. Once approved it is linked to your passport number and allows 30 days as a tourist, with two entries.
Yes. El Salvador is not included in the 40-country waiver of the government charge that began on 25 May 2026, so the standard rate applies to Salvadoran passports. Salvadoran children under 12 are spared the government fee on a tourist ETA.
Yes. Surfing holidays and entry in sporting competitions are both tourist purposes. What the tourist ETA does not allow is employment, so instructing, guiding or working at a surf camp, whether for pay or in return for accommodation, is not permitted.
Apply at least three to five days before you leave San Salvador. Most approvals come through in a day or two, but that is not guaranteed, and the time difference with Sri Lanka slows any correspondence.
Use the passport you will travel on from start to finish. The ETA is tied to one passport number and cannot be switched to another document. The United States is one of the countries whose government charge is waived, while El Salvador is charged the standard rate, so the choice also affects the price.
There are no direct flights. The most straightforward route is Iberia from San Salvador to Madrid and then Qatar Airways via Doha or Emirates via Dubai to Colombo. Routes through the United States need a US visa.
A tourist ETA gives Salvadorans up to 30 days, counted from the first arrival. You can leave and re-enter once within that period, receiving only the days still remaining. To stay beyond 30 days you must apply for an extension at the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla.
Yes. Each child must be included in the application with details from their own Salvadoran passport. The government fee is not charged for children under 12 on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days, but the authorisation itself is still required for them.
Your nationality is already set to El Salvador. 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.
