Timor-Leste passport holders need an ETA approved before they fly, usually by way of Bali and a South-East Asian hub. It allows 30 days in Sri Lanka and two entries, and the whole application is completed online.
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 Timorese visitor to Sri Lanka will notice the surnames first. De Silva, Fernando, Pereira and Costa are as common in Colombo as they are in Dili, a legacy of the Portuguese who reached both islands in the sixteenth century. The ramparts at Galle began as a Portuguese fort, and Catholic churches line the coast north of Colombo.
Travel between the two countries is still rare. The Timorese who go are mostly students and officials on regional programmes, church groups drawn to shrines such as Madhu and St Anthony's in Kochchikade, and young people already working or studying elsewhere in Asia who add Sri Lanka to a wider trip.
All of them need the same thing before leaving: an Electronic Travel Authorisation. It is what Portuguese speakers would look up as a visto para o Sri Lanka, and English searches call it a Sri Lanka visa. The authorisation is granted online and held against the passport number, so nothing is stuck in the passport itself.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes, Timorese citizens need an ETA to enter Sri Lanka for a short stay. Timor-Leste does not appear among the 40 countries whose citizens have had the government charge waived since 25 May 2026. The standard government rate therefore applies to a Timorese passport, along with our service fee, both reflected in the live prices shown on this page.
Many Timorese also hold a Portuguese passport. Portugal is not in the waiver group either, so the choice between the two documents makes no difference to the government charge. What matters is consistency: apply with the passport you will show at every airport on the route, and make sure it is the one with six months to spare.
For a holiday, a visit to friends, a pilgrimage made privately or a course of Ayurvedic treatment, the tourist ETA is correct. Delegates to a conference, a workshop, a religious symposium or training of less than a month should select the business option. Parish groups should think about which description fits their programme.
Employment is a separate matter. Timorese workers are used to labour schemes in other countries, but nothing comparable operates through the ETA, and neither paid nor voluntary work is allowed on it. Reporting for a news outlet or working for an NGO in Sri Lanka requires clearance arranged in advance through official channels.
Stay & validity
On a tourist ETA a Timorese traveller may spend 30 days in Sri Lanka, with the count beginning at the first arrival. Two entries are allowed within that time. Someone who flies out to the Maldives for a long weekend returns on the original allowance, less the days already used, not on a new one.
The approval remains open for six months after it is issued, which gives room for the changes that itineraries out of Dili often suffer. If your flights move by a few weeks, the same ETA still works, provided the first arrival falls inside that period and the conditions printed on it are met.
Your Timorese passport must still have six months to run on the date of arrival. Timorese passports are issued in Dili, and citizens living in Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland or Australia who rely on a consulate for renewal should start early. A replacement passport carries a new number, and the ETA must be requested again for it.
A stay longer than the period granted is only possible with an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration at Battaramulla, outside Colombo. Plan the trip to fit the 30 days, and treat an extension as something to request in person if circumstances change, not as part of the booking.
Pricing
Live fees for Timorese 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 Timor-Leste
Requirements
Everything Timorese 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.
ETA decisions for Timorese applicants generally arrive within a day or two, though no time is guaranteed. Apply three to five days before you leave at the very least. Because the trip from Dili involves separate tickets more often than not, a delayed approval can unravel several bookings at once, so a week or two of margin is wiser.
Dili is three and a half hours ahead of Colombo. The Sri Lankan working day starts around midday Timor time, which means a morning application is usually seen the same day. Sri Lankan Poya holidays fall each full moon and can slow things slightly.
Home internet in Timor-Leste can be slow, particularly outside the capital. Photograph the passport page in good daylight, keep the file small, and send the application from a dependable connection. Afterwards, store the approval on your phone and print a copy in Dili before you travel.
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
Reaching Sri Lanka from Timor-Leste takes two connections in most cases. The busiest way out of Dili is the short flight to Denpasar in Bali, from where frequent services run to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and both of those cities have daily flights to Colombo. The alternative is to fly south to Darwin and work back north through Singapore, which rarely saves time.
Best time to go
Timor-Leste has a long dry season from about May to November and a wet one over the turn of the year. Sri Lanka is more complicated, with two monsoons striking opposite coasts. The practical upshot is that there is always a dry side, and you choose your beach according to the month.
Christmas and Easter are the main holidays in a strongly Catholic country, and both fall in the good season for Colombo, Negombo, Galle and the hills. Negombo has such a concentration of churches that locals call it Little Rome, and Timorese visitors will find Christmas services and Holy Week processions that feel familiar.
The mid-year months, including the weeks around the 20 May independence holiday, suit the east coast. Trincomalee and Pasikudah are calm from May to September, and the pilgrimage to the Madhu shrine draws its biggest crowds for the August feast. Kandy's Esala Perahera takes place in July or August as well.
October and November are in-between months with showers on both coasts, while the proclamation of independence holiday on 28 November comes just before the south-west turns reliably dry. Time in the hill country is cooler than anything in lowland Timor, closer to an evening in Maubisse.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Timor-Leste — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Online forms tempt people to shorten dos Santos to Santos or to move da Silva's particle into the given names. Enter the full surname as it stands on the passport, particles included, and keep multiple surnames in their printed order.
Dual nationals sometimes switch documents mid-journey because one is more convenient for Indonesia or Singapore. The Sri Lankan authorisation only recognises the passport number it was issued for.
Characters such as ã, ç and é are not part of the machine-readable zone. Use the unaccented spelling printed in the two lines at the foot of the photo page.
Dili to Denpasar is frequently sold separately from the onward flights. A late departure can mean arriving in Colombo a day later than the date on the application, so allow an overnight buffer in Bali or Singapore.
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 has no embassy or consulate in Dili, and the closest mission is its embassy in Jakarta. Timorese applicants for an ETA never need to contact it, because the authorisation is requested and issued online. It is the place to ask about work, study or other purposes the ETA excludes.
FAQs
The questions Timorese passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Timorese citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the online approval widely referred to as a Sri Lanka visa, before travelling. A tourist ETA permits 30 days and two entries, and you apply over the internet.
Yes, the application is made online, so you can complete it in Dili, in the districts, or from another country where you are living. There is no office to visit in Timor-Leste and no passport to hand in.
Use whichever you will actually travel on for the entire journey and which has six months of validity at arrival. Neither nationality is in the waiver group, so the government charge is the standard rate in both cases.
Copy it from the passport. Put all surnames in the surname field in their printed order, with particles such as de, da and dos, and leave out accents. Do not shorten it to the one surname you use day to day.
No. The nearest Sri Lankan mission is the embassy in Jakarta. For a normal tourist or business ETA you do not need it, since everything is handled online.
Most people fly Dili to Denpasar, continue to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, and take a flight to Colombo from there. Check the entry or transit rules of each stop for your passport as well as the ETA.
A group visiting shrines and churches privately is travelling for tourism. If the trip is to take part in an organised religious event or symposium, the business option applies instead. Each member needs their own details entered.
A Timorese child under 12 is not charged the government fee for a tourist ETA of up to 30 days. They still have to be included in an application with their own passport information.
Your nationality is already set to Timor-Leste. 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.
