Surinamese visitors reach Sri Lanka by way of Amsterdam and a Gulf hub, and need an ETA approved before the first flight. The tourist authorisation covers 30 days and two entries on a single Surinamese passport.
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
A Surinamese traveller walking the ramparts of Galle Fort may feel an odd sense of recognition. The Dutch East India Company built those walls, left a Reformed church and gabled warehouses behind, and gave Sri Lanka's Burgher families surnames that would not look out of place in Paramaribo. Add Hindu temples, mosques and a rice-and-curry kitchen, and the island has plenty of echoes for visitors from Suriname.
Entry is by Electronic Travel Authorisation. Dutch speakers usually search for a visum or e-visa for Sri Lanka, and the ETA is what those searches lead to. It is requested online in English, tied to the number of your paspoort and issued without any visit to an embassy.
Suriname is not included in the forty-country waiver of Sri Lanka's government charge, which means the standard rate applies to Surinamese applicants, and a service fee is payable for our assistance. Consult the live prices shown on this page for the current totals.
At a glance
Eligibility
Surinamese nationals need an ETA for every short visit. The airline at Johan Adolf Pengel airport will want to see that it has been granted, and so will the carrier that takes you onward from Europe, so it should be arranged well before you leave Zanderij.
Holidaymakers, people visiting friends or relatives, guests at an Ayurveda or yoga retreat and those attending a sports tournament or cultural performance apply for the tourist type. Hindustani Surinamese visiting temples and sites associated with the Ramayana are tourists for this purpose too.
If the visit is commercial, the tourist ETA is the wrong document. Meetings and negotiations, conferences and seminars, and training lasting less than a month come under the business option. Journalism, political activity and work for NGOs need clearance from the Sri Lankan government beforehand and are not handled through the ETA.
Many people of Surinamese origin are Dutch citizens, and some hold both passports. The Netherlands is covered by the waiver of the government charge and Suriname is not, so the passport you choose affects what you pay. It also fixes which booklet you must carry, since the authorisation is attached to one number only.
Stay & validity
A Surinamese tourist is allowed 30 days, starting on the date of first arrival. The ETA permits a second entry, perhaps after a few days in the Maldives, but that return falls within the same 30 days and uses up only the time remaining.
From the day it is issued the approval is usable for six months. Surinamese travellers booking the long journey through Schiphol months ahead can apply as soon as plans are firm, and should read the conditions on the approval itself, which take precedence over any general description.
Six months of passport validity beyond arrival is compulsory. If your Surinamese paspoort is renewed after the ETA is granted, the authorisation is lost with the old number and a new application and payment are required. Should you want more time on the island, the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla deals with extensions.
Pricing
Live fees for Surinamese 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 Suriname
Requirements
Everything Surinamese 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 Surinamese applicants tend to arrive within a day or two. That is usual but not assured, and an unclear passport scan or a name entered differently from the document can slow things down.
Allow at least three to five days between applying and flying. During the grote vakantie in August and September, around Owru Yari at the turn of the year and in the weeks of Holi Phagwa and Divali, flights to Amsterdam are full and a late approval is hard to recover from, so apply sooner.
Paramaribo is eight and a half hours behind Colombo throughout the year, as neither country changes its clocks. An application sent in the Surinamese afternoon reaches Sri Lanka around midnight, and the answer generally appears the next morning.
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
Almost every journey from Suriname to Sri Lanka begins with the overnight flight from Paramaribo to Amsterdam. From Schiphol there is no nonstop to Colombo, so travellers continue with a Gulf or Turkish airline and one more change. The alternative, through the Caribbean or Panama to the Americas and then east, is longer and rarely cheaper.
Best time to go
Suriname lies just north of the equator and has no cold season to flee, so the choice of dates is about Sri Lanka's two monsoons. Between December and March the south and west coasts and the central highlands have their finest weather.
That period includes the Surinamese year-end holidays, and it is the right time for Galle and its Dutch fort, the Wolvendaal church in Colombo, the beaches at Bentota and Mirissa and the train through the tea estates to Ella. Blue whales and dolphins are seen off Mirissa in those months.
The main school holiday, from mid-August through September, comes at the tail of the south-west monsoon. Rain is frequent in Colombo and the south, but the east coast around Trincomalee and Pasikudah is dry, and Arugam Bay's surf season is still running. The Kandy Esala Perahera sometimes falls in early August.
Surinamese visitors used to a calendar of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Javanese holidays will find Sri Lanka's just as mixed. Vesak in May, New Year in mid-April and the monthly Poya full-moon days are all public holidays, and on Poya days alcohol is not sold anywhere.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Suriname — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Dutch-style prefixes cause more trouble than any other part of a Surinamese name. Writing Van Dijk under given names, or closing up van der Kooye into one word, produces an ETA that differs from the passport. Follow the machine-readable lines letter by letter.
Dual nationals sometimes apply with whichever passport is nearest to hand. The charge and the authorisation both depend on the passport entered, and arriving with the other one leaves you without a valid ETA. Decide before you start and keep to it.
Surinamese citizens need a visa to enter the Netherlands, and rules for staying airside can differ from those for a stopover with friends in Amsterdam or Rotterdam. Clarify what your connection requires before paying for an ETA you may be unable to use.
If you have handed in your paspoort for renewal, wait for the new booklet. An ETA granted on the outgoing number is useless once the replacement arrives, and the government charge paid for it is not returned.
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 embassy in Paramaribo. Suriname is looked after from a mission elsewhere in the region, with the embassy in Brazil the nearest, so ask there which office currently holds responsibility. An ETA applicant has no need of either address, as nothing is submitted in person and the decision is sent by email.
FAQs
The questions Surinamese passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Surinamese citizens must obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation before travelling, which is the online permit generally called a Sri Lanka visa. As a tourist you receive 30 days and may enter twice within that period.
The form is completed in English, not Dutch. The questions are straightforward, and the essential thing is that names and numbers are copied from your Surinamese passport exactly, including prefixes such as van or de in the place the passport puts them.
Apply with the passport you will travel on. A Dutch passport falls within the waiver of the government charge and a Surinamese one does not, so the cost differs. Whichever you pick, that booklet has to be the one you show on arrival in Colombo.
Fly to Amsterdam with KLM or Surinam Airways, then continue with Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad or Turkish Airlines through their home hubs. The whole trip usually takes about a day. Check the Dutch entry or transit rules that apply to Surinamese nationals first.
Surinamese adults are charged the standard government rate plus our service fee, because Suriname is not on the list of forty waiver countries. We do not print amounts in this guide; the live prices shown on this page are always the current ones.
At least three to five days, and longer ahead of the grote vakantie and the year-end period. Most decisions come within a day or two, but timing is not guaranteed and seats out of Paramaribo are limited if you have to rebook.
Only with an extension, which must be requested from the Department of Immigration and Emigration at Battaramulla before the initial stay ends. A tourist ETA cannot be used to take a job, work for yourself or settle on the island through consecutive visits.
Each child must be included in an application and hold an individual Surinamese passport. Sri Lanka does not collect its government fee for travellers under 12 on a tourist ETA of up to 30 days. The six-month passport rule applies to children just as it does to adults.
Your nationality is already set to Suriname. 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.
