Tuvaluans visiting Sri Lanka must have an ETA approved before they leave Funafuti. One online application covers a 30-day stay with two entries, and it can be completed from Fiji, New Zealand or home.
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
Tuvalu and Sri Lanka are both island states of the Commonwealth, and that is roughly where the similarity ends. One is nine low atolls and reef islands with a population that would fit inside a Colombo cricket ground; the other is a mountainous country of more than twenty million. For a Tuvaluan, a visit means temples, tea-covered hills, elephants and trains, none of which exist at home.
The number of Tuvaluans who go is tiny, and most are not setting out from Funafuti at all. They are students in Suva, families settled in Auckland or Brisbane, seafarers on leave, and officials whose work on climate and ocean issues takes them to meetings across Asia.
Sri Lanka requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation from every foreign national, which is what people usually mean when they search for a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa. Below you will find how the rule applies to a Tuvaluan passport, what the application asks for, and why the scarcity of flights from Funafuti should shape your timing.
At a glance
Eligibility
A Tuvaluan passport does not exempt its holder from anything on the Sri Lankan side. An ETA must be approved before you travel, whether you are going for a fortnight on the beach, to stay with friends made at university in Fiji, or to follow a course of Ayurvedic treatment.
On charges, Tuvalu sits in the standard category. Sri Lanka's waiver of the government fee covers a fixed list of forty countries and Tuvalu is not on it, so the standard government rate is payable in addition to the service fee for our help with the application. The live prices shown on this page set both out clearly.
Where you live makes no difference to that category. A Tuvaluan resident in New Zealand or Australia who still travels on a Tuvaluan passport applies as a Tuvaluan and is charged accordingly. If you also hold a New Zealand or Australian passport and intend to travel on that one, apply with its details instead, because the authorisation follows the document and not the person.
Purpose matters as much as passport. Holidays, family visits, sport and cultural performances belong under the tourist option. A government officer attending a seminar, or a pastor of the Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu invited to a religious symposium, should select the business option, which exists for exactly those short professional visits.
Stay & validity
The stay granted to Tuvaluan visitors is 30 days, beginning on the date of first arrival. The authorisation can be used at any point in the six months after it is issued, which gives useful breathing space when your departure hinges on a seat becoming available on one of the few weekly flights to Fiji.
It is a double-entry permission, but the two entries share a single 30-day allowance. Tuvaluans who tack Sri Lanka onto a trip to India, a common pairing for those travelling for medical care or study, can step out and back in once, and will be given only the unused balance at the second arrival.
Should a month not be enough, the place to ask for more is the Department of Immigration and Emigration at Battaramulla, on the edge of Colombo, and the request has to be made before your permitted stay ends.
Pricing
Live fees for Tuvaluan 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 Tuvalu
Requirements
Everything Tuvaluan 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.
Decisions on Tuvaluan applications generally come back within one or two days. That is a typical experience and not a commitment.
Sri Lanka's general advice is to apply three to five days ahead; from Tuvalu that is cutting it far too fine. Aim to have your approval before you board the first sector to Fiji, and if you live on Nanumea, Nui, Vaitupu or another outer island, before you take the ship to Funafuti, because the voyage alone can use up several days.
Tuvalu time runs six and a half hours ahead of Sri Lanka's all year, as neither country changes its clocks. If we email a question during the Colombo working day it will land in the Tuvaluan evening, so check your inbox last thing at night and first thing in the morning while the application is open.
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
Funafuti's only regular international link is with Fiji, so every journey to Sri Lanka from Tuvalu begins with a Fiji Airways flight to Suva or Nadi. From Nadi the simplest onward path is the nonstop to Singapore, followed by a four-hour hop to Colombo.
Best time to go
Tuvalu's wet and cyclone-prone months run from about November to April, which happens to be exactly when Sri Lanka's south and west are driest. Leaving Funafuti in January for the beaches below Galle or the hill railway to Ella swaps humid squalls for clear mornings, and the long Tuvaluan school holiday falls in the same window.
The middle of the year reverses the picture. Between May and September the south-west monsoon soaks Colombo and the southern resorts, and the east coast around Trincomalee and Pasikudah takes over as the place to swim.
Independence Day on 1 October is the fixed point of the Tuvaluan calendar, and few people want to be away for it. Travelling straight afterwards puts you in Sri Lanka's inter-monsoon weeks of October and November, when afternoon showers are common across the island.
For a visitor from islands that rise only a few metres above the sea, the Cultural Triangle and the central highlands are the real novelty. Evenings in Nuwara Eliya are cold by any Pacific standard, so bring something warmer than you would ever wear on Fongafale.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Tuvalu — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
A Tuvaluan who discovers a problem with the authorisation on the day of departure cannot simply rebook for tomorrow. Seats out of Funafuti are limited and the next service may be days away. Finish the application early enough that an error can be put right with a fresh submission before your original flight.
Plenty of Tuvaluans hold a second nationality through New Zealand or Australia. Trouble starts when the application is made with one passport and the other is shown at the airport. Decide which document you will travel on for the entire trip and enter that one only.
Everyday Tuvaluan usage often drops a middle name, adds a matai-style title or swaps the order used on official papers. The system compares your entry with the passport, not with how the village knows you. Copy the photo page character by character, in the same sequence.
Graduates of the maritime school on Amatuku serve on ships worldwide and sometimes pass through Colombo. A few days ashore as a visitor is one thing, but joining a vessel there is employment and sits outside what a tourist ETA allows. Ask your manning agency how the crew change is being arranged.
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
No Sri Lankan diplomatic post operates in Tuvalu. That has no bearing on a tourist ETA, which is applied for online and never involves an appointment or a stamped sticker. The offices in Canberra and Melbourne are the nearest resident Sri Lankan posts for Tuvaluans who happen to be in Australia.
FAQs
The questions Tuvaluan passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Tuvaluans need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, the online permission widely referred to as a Sri Lanka visa, approved before departure. For tourists it grants 30 days with two entries. The application is made on the internet, and nothing needs to be sent to or collected from an embassy.
They do. Tuvalu is not one of the forty countries covered by Sri Lanka's waiver, so the standard government charge applies, plus a service fee for our assistance. Under-12s are the exception, as the government fee is not levied on them for tourist stays of up to 30 days.
Not a direct one. You fly from Funafuti to Fiji, continue from Nadi to Singapore, and take a further flight to Colombo. With the layovers involved the trip normally spreads over two calendar days.
The rules for whichever passport you travel on. If you fly on your Tuvaluan passport, you apply as a Tuvaluan and the standard charge applies. If you have become a New Zealand citizen and use that passport, apply with it; New Zealand is on Sri Lanka's waiver list for the government charge.
As early as your plans allow, and ideally two weeks or more before the flight to Fiji. The approval stays valid for travel for six months, so nothing is lost by being early, whereas being late on a route with so few departures can end the trip before it starts.
The Sri Lankan side allows it. Your ETA permits two entries, so you could arrive, go to India and return, as long as everything happens within 30 days of your first landing in Sri Lanka. India's own entry requirements are separate and need to be met independently.
Renew it before applying. Sri Lanka wants six months of validity remaining on the day you arrive, and an authorisation issued against the old passport number cannot be moved to a new book. Applying first and renewing later means paying for the application twice.
Possibly. Officers can ask Tuvaluan visitors, like anyone else, for a return or onward ticket and evidence of enough money for the stay. Keep the hotel booking, the ticket home and a copy of the approval email saved on your phone.
Your nationality is already set to Tuvalu. 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.
