Samoa sits seven and a half hours ahead of Sri Lanka and two or three flights away. Samoan passport holders need an ETA approved before departure from Faleolo, covering 30 days and two entries.
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
Samoa and Sri Lanka are separated by eleven thousand kilometres and, until recently, by almost no direct contact. That has begun to change. Samoa hosted the Commonwealth heads of government in 2024, Sri Lanka's envoy presents credentials in Apia, and rugby has carried Samoan players and coaches to clubs across Asia, Colombo and Kandy among them.
Samoans who travel to Sri Lanka today are mostly officials, church delegates, athletes, students on scholarships in South Asia and members of the large overseas community in Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane. A few go simply because it is somewhere no one in the aiga has been, with elephants, tea estates and temples older than anything in Polynesia.
Before the trip can happen, a Samoan passport needs an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Travel agents in Apia may call it a Sri Lanka visa, and the effect is similar: permission obtained online in advance and connected to your passport number, which the airline confirms before letting you fly to Colombo.
At a glance
Eligibility
Samoan citizens do need an ETA, and there is no stay short enough to avoid it. Samoa is not part of the 40-country group whose tourist applications have carried no government charge since 25 May 2026, so the standard government rate applies alongside our service fee. Consult the live prices shown on this page.
Do not confuse the position with American Samoa. People from Pago Pago travel on United States passports, and the United States is in the waiver group. A passport issued by the Independent State of Samoa is a different document under different terms, even within the same extended family.
The same applies to Samoans who are also New Zealand or Australian citizens, as a great many are. Both of those passports qualify for the waiver. You may apply with whichever passport you hold, but the booking, the ETA and the document you hand over in Colombo must all be the same one.
A tourist ETA covers holidays, visits to friends, medical or Ayurveda treatment and playing in or watching a sporting competition. A church conference, a seminar or training of under one month comes under the business option. Taking up a contract with a Sri Lankan rugby club is employment and cannot be done on either.
Stay & validity
For Samoan passport holders the tourist ETA means 30 days in Sri Lanka, beginning when you first pass immigration. It can be used twice. A touring team that plays in Colombo, travels to India for a fixture and returns is still on the first 30 days, and the second arrival is granted what remains.
The first arrival must take place within six months of the ETA being issued. That suits Samoan travellers, who commonly book months ahead to line up flights through Auckland or Nadi. Whatever the approval notice says about conditions is what applies to you.
You need six months left on the passport when you land. Samoan passports are renewed in Apia or through missions overseas, and Samoans living in New Zealand often let them lapse because they travel on the other one. If you renew after approval, the ETA has to be applied for again under the new number.
Pricing
Live fees for Samoan 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 Samoa
Requirements
Everything Samoan 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.
An ETA for a Samoan passport is normally decided in a day or two. Give it three to five days before you leave Apia at a minimum. Teams and church groups should apply together and early, checking each member's passport number against the document itself instead of a typed list.
With Samoa seven and a half hours ahead, the Colombo working day starts in the late afternoon in Apia. An application sent on Friday afternoon Samoan time may not be handled until Monday there. Sundays in Samoa are for church and to'ona'i, so plan to finish the form on a weekday.
December is the month to be most careful. Thousands of overseas Samoans fly home for Christmas, flights through Auckland are full in both directions, and a ticket lost to a late approval is hard to replace. Timings are never guaranteed, so apply before the rush.
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
Faleolo International has no services towards Asia, so Samoans begin by flying to Auckland or Nadi. From Auckland the usual continuation is Singapore, with a final leg to Colombo. From Nadi, Fiji Airways' Singapore flight does the same job with a shorter first sector. Travellers visiting relatives in Australia can instead join SriLankan Airlines' nonstop services from Sydney or Melbourne.
Best time to go
Samoa's wet season, from November to April, matches the dry season on Sri Lanka's most visited coasts. A trip in January or February swaps cyclone watches for steady sunshine in Galle, Bentota and Mirissa. The Christmas weeks are an exception for many families, who would not consider being away from home.
The middle of the year is Samoa's dry, cooler period, with Independence celebrations at the start of June and the Teuila Festival in September. On Sri Lanka's side, those months favour the east coast. Pasikudah and Nilaveli are sheltered then, while Colombo sees regular monsoon rain.
Sports tours tend to follow the local season, not the weather. Rugby in Sri Lanka is played mainly in the middle of the year, and Kandy, the heart of the game there, is in the hills, where afternoons are warm and evenings mild. Kandy's Esala Perahera in July or August may overlap with a tour.
White Sunday in October keeps most Samoan families at home. Travel soon afterwards arrives during Sri Lanka's inter-monsoon rains, a time of short, heavy showers. Poya days, held every full moon, close bars and many shops, which will seem familiar to anyone used to a Samoan Sunday.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Samoa — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
A title conferred after the passport was issued is part of who you are but not part of the document. Enter only what is printed. If the title is on the passport, include it in the position shown there.
Dual citizens sometimes apply using the Samoan passport number out of habit and then travel on the New Zealand passport because it is the one in date. The authorisation will not be found against the second document.
Leaving Apia on a Tuesday evening rarely means reaching Colombo on Wednesday. With two connections and a seven and a half hour time difference, read the arrival date off the last boarding pass on your itinerary.
A player invited to train with a Sri Lankan side with a view to signing is not on holiday. Tourist ETAs allow taking part in competitions as a visitor, not working for a club, paid or unpaid.
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 High Commissioner to Australia is also accredited to Samoa, and there is no Sri Lankan office in Apia. Samoan applicants for an ETA deal with none of this, since approval is electronic. Contact Canberra only about employment, long stays or activities needing prior clearance.
FAQs
The questions Samoan passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Samoan citizens must have an Electronic Travel Authorisation, often referred to as a Sri Lanka visa, before travelling. It is requested online, and the tourist version allows 30 days with two entries.
The ETA requirement is the same, but the passport is not. American Samoans travel on United States passports, which are covered by the waiver of the government charge. Passports of the Independent State of Samoa are charged the standard rate.
You can use either. The New Zealand passport benefits from the waiver of the government charge and the Samoan one does not. Whichever you choose, use it for the ticket, the application and the border.
Only if it is printed in your passport. The application has to mirror the passport, so a title that appears there goes in, and one that does not stays out.
Fly from Apia to Auckland or Nadi, continue to Singapore, and take a connecting flight to Colombo. Allow the best part of two days, and check transit rules for New Zealand, Fiji or Singapore as they apply to your passport.
Taking part in sporting events and competitions is a permitted tourist purpose, so a visiting amateur side can travel that way. Players or coaches being paid by a Sri Lankan club need a different permission arranged by the club.
Thirty days from first arrival, with a second entry allowed inside that period. A longer stay requires an extension granted by the immigration department at Battaramulla near Colombo.
Not the government fee, if they are under 12 and travelling on a tourist ETA. Each child must still be entered on an application with their own Samoan passport, and the live prices on this page show what else applies.
Your nationality is already set to Samoa. 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.
