Sri Lanka introduced a new e-visa in April 2024. The country also announced that the cost of a regular tourist visa would increase to almost 100 USD. Various actors from the tourism sector in Sri Lanka complained about the high price, leading to the introduction of an e-visa with a significantly lower price.
Sri Lanka replaces the ETA with an e-visa
In April 2024, Sri Lanka announced that the ETA would be replaced with an e-visa. The ETA was a travel authorisation intended for short vacations or business trips to Sri Lanka. One could apply for the ETA online, and it was usually issued within a few days. However, there were also some issues with the ETA, as the application procedure was often unclear, and the systems were not always reliable. This made Sri Lanka to create a new system for the issuance of travel authorisations. The new travel authorisation is called an e-visa, short for electronic visa.
Complaints about the e-visa cost
The e-visa is supposed to make applying for a travel authorisation for Sri Lanka easier, but the e-visa also turned out to be significantly more expensive than the ETA. The consular fees of a regular tourist visa were increased from around 50 USD to almost 100 USD. This increase was explained by the fact that the new tourist e-visa allowed its holders to stay in Sri Lanka for 60 days, compared to the 30 days that holders of an ETA were allowed to stay in Sri Lanka for. Nevertheless, travellers and spokespersons from the tourism industry were shocked by the enormous increase in the visa price. The industry feared that a visa cost of 100 USD would deter many travellers from travelling to Sri Lanka.
The e-visa fees were reduced
The e-visa was introduced on 17 April 2024. From this day onwards, travellers could no longer apply for the cheaper ETA, but had to use the e-visa for a significantly higher cost. Only a few weeks later, on 7 May 2024, Sri Lanka introduced a new, cheaper e-visa, allowing tourists to spend no more than 30 days in Sri Lanka. The consular fees of the new tourist e-visa that is valid for 30 days lie at around 50 USD. This corresponds with the earlier price of an ETA.
Higher cost was a technical error
Sri Lanka outsourced the processing of e-visa applications to the organisation VFS Global. This organisation claims that the higher cost of the tourist visa was a technical error, and that they were always planning to offer a cheaper visa for a stay of up to 30 days. It was only due to technical reasons that this cheaper visa was not available at the launch of the e-visa. This error has recently been solved, allowing tourists to apply for a Sri Lanka e-visa for a lower price. Business travellers did not receive an option to apply for a visa with a shorter validity period, however. This means that business travellers from most countries still need to pay at least 100 USD for a Sri Lanka visa.
Visa on arrival Sri Lanka only for emergencies
Next to the electronic visa, Sri Lanka also offers a visa on arrival. Travellers can apply for this visa at an airport in Sri Lanka, which allows them to stay in the country for up to 30 days. However, the Sri Lankan embassy mentions that the visa on arrival is only meant to be used in emergencies. It advises travellers to apply for an e-visa online before departing for Sri Lanka. If you want to apply for a visa on arrival regardless, you should expect longer waiting times on arrival, as well as higher visa costs.