Saudi nationals fly direct to Colombo from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, and need an ETA approved first. The tourist ETA allows 30 days with two entries, and Sri Lanka's government charge is waived for Saudi passports.
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
Saudi outbound travel has widened well beyond the traditional summer in Cairo, Istanbul or London, and Sri Lanka is one of the places benefiting. It offers what a Riyadh or Qassim family looks for in July: rain, mountains, cool evenings and space for a large group, roughly five hours away on a direct flight.
Entry is straightforward but not automatic. Saudi citizens must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation before departure — the document most people simply search for as a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa. It is requested online, decided without a visit to any office, and attached electronically to the number of your Saudi passport.
Saudi Arabia appears on the list of 40 countries for which Sri Lanka lifted its government charge on tourist ETAs from 25 May 2026. A service fee for our assistance still applies, and the current figures are in the live prices shown on this page. The guidance below is for Saudi nationals; foreign residents of the Kingdom, whatever their iqama status, apply under the passport they carry.
At a glance
Eligibility
They do. No Saudi national may board for Colombo on a short visit without an approved ETA, and the fee waiver has not altered that. Airline staff at Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam look for the approval when you check in.
For most Saudi visitors the tourist type is the right one. It allows 30 days in the country and covers leisure travel, seeing friends or relatives, treatment at an Ayurveda or wellness centre, and attendance at sporting or cultural events. Many Saudi visitors also go to Adam's Peak, which Muslim tradition associates with the Prophet Adam, and visiting it as a sightseer is ordinary tourism for ETA purposes.
Commercial visits follow different rules. Saudi investors and traders attending meetings, negotiations, conferences or seminars in Colombo should choose the business option, as should anyone taking part in an organised religious event or symposium. Employment and self-employment are excluded from the tourist ETA altogether.
Saudi families frequently travel with domestic staff, and this is where nationality matters. Your own application falls under the waiver; a driver or housekeeper from Ethiopia, the Philippines or Kenya is assessed under that country's rules and may be charged the standard government rate.
Stay & validity
Thirty days is the period a Saudi passport holder receives, and the clock starts at the immigration desk on the first arrival. The ETA permits a second entry, which is useful for a side trip to the Maldives, but the return is admitted only for the days remaining from the original thirty.
Before travel, an approved ETA stays usable for six months from the date of issue. A family that applies in Shawwal for a trip planned in the school summer holiday is well within that window.
Passport term deserves a look. Saudi passports are issued for five or ten years, and many households have a mixture, with children's books expiring on different dates from their parents'. Sri Lanka's rule is six months of validity on the day of arrival. If you renew through Absher after the ETA has been granted, the new passport number is not covered and a fresh application is required.
Pricing
Live fees for Saudi 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 Saudi Arabia
Requirements
Everything Saudi 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.
Approvals for Saudi nationals generally arrive inside a day or two of submission. Build in more than that. Applying three to five days ahead is the minimum we would suggest, and a week is more comfortable for a party of eight or ten.
Demand from the Kingdom concentrates in a few windows: the two Eid holidays, the long school summer break, and the shorter breaks around Founding Day in February and National Day on 23 September. Have the ETA settled before you start comparing fares for those weeks.
There is also a time-of-week point. The Saudi weekend falls on Friday and Saturday while Sri Lanka's is Saturday and Sunday, so a query raised on a Thursday night may not be answered until the following week begins. If you are travelling at short notice, submit early in the Saudi working week.
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
Direct flights link the Kingdom's main gateways with Colombo, sustained partly by the large Sri Lankan workforce in Saudi Arabia and increasingly by Saudi holidaymakers heading the other way. Travellers from Abha, Tabuk, Madinah or Qassim usually connect domestically to Riyadh or Jeddah, or route through Dubai or Doha where the timings work better.
Best time to go
For Saudis the main travel season is summer, and summer in Sri Lanka means choosing your side of the island. Between May and September the east coast is dry: Trincomalee, Pasikudah and Arugam Bay have settled weather while the south-west receives its monsoon. Families who want beaches in July should look east.
Those who want the opposite of Riyadh in August — mist, rain and temperatures that call for a jacket — head for the hill country around Nuwara Eliya, Ella and Kandy. Showers are frequent on the western slopes then, which for many Gulf visitors is part of the attraction. The Kandy Esala Perahera usually falls in the same weeks.
The winter months suit the classic circuit. From December to March the south and west coasts are at their best, the Cultural Triangle sites at Sigiriya and Dambulla are comfortable to walk, and the Adam's Peak pilgrimage season is under way. A Founding Day break in late February lands squarely in that period.
Colombo is two and a half hours ahead of Riyadh and Jeddah throughout the year. Prayer facilities and halal restaurants are easy to find, thanks to a Sri Lankan Muslim community that is centuries old.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Saudi Arabia — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Saudi documents and daily life use both calendars, and it is easy to enter a birth year from the wrong one. The ETA form works in Gregorian dates only. A Hijri year produces a record that cannot match the passport, and the only remedy after payment is a new application.
A Saudi passport typically carries a given name, father's name, grandfather's name and family name. Airline bookings often shorten this to first and last. For the ETA, enter the full sequence as printed in Latin letters, in the order shown, because the approval is compared with the passport and not with your ticket.
The waiver of the government charge belongs to Saudi nationality. It does not extend to an employee travelling on another country's passport. Enter each employee with their own passport details and nationality.
Renewal is quick and often done on impulse when a reminder arrives. If it happens between ETA approval and departure, the approval remains attached to the old number and cannot be moved. Renew first, then apply.
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
The embassy in Riyadh and the consulate general in Jeddah deal chiefly with Sri Lankan nationals working in the Kingdom and with visa categories that fall outside the online system. A Saudi tourist applying for an ETA does everything online and never needs an appointment at either.
FAQs
The questions Saudi passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Saudi citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, often called a Sri Lanka e-visa, approved before they travel. Since 25 May 2026 the Sri Lankan government charge for a tourist ETA has been waived for Saudi nationals, but the authorisation itself remains a condition of boarding.
Sri Lanka has removed its own government charge on tourist ETAs for Saudi passport holders. If you apply through us there is still a service fee for the assistance provided, and you will find it in the live prices shown on this page. The waiver is specific to the tourist ETA.
A tourist ETA allows a Saudi national 30 days, starting on the day of first entry. Two entries are possible within that span. Staying longer requires an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, requested while the original permission is still running.
No. Residence in the Kingdom has no bearing on the ETA. You apply with your own passport and the government charge depends on your nationality: some, such as Indian, Pakistani and Indonesian citizens, are on the waiver list in their own right, while others are not.
Gregorian. Use the date printed in the Gregorian calendar on your passport photo page for date of birth, issue and expiry. Hijri dates should not be entered anywhere on the application.
Yes. Visiting or climbing the mountain is sightseeing and sits within the tourist ETA. Only participation in an organised religious event or symposium is treated as a business-category purpose. The climbing season runs roughly from December to May.
Each child needs to be included in an application with their own passport details, regardless of age. Make sure every child's passport has six months left on the arrival date.
Yes. Colombo is served nonstop from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, with a flying time of around five to six hours depending on the city. Confirm the current timetable with the airline before fixing dates.
Your nationality is already set to Saudi Arabia. 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.
