Sri Lanka travel "ETA" submission voided

The submission of the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) that is to be done for short trips to Sri Lanka has been voided.

Sri Lanka had announced that from 15th October onward, those who are going to enter the country would need to visit the "eta.gov.lk/slvisa" government website and submit an ETA 24 hours before their flight.

However, Sri Lankan Immigration has announced that they are voiding this requirement. They stated that this decision has been postponed indefinitely and every passenger has to adhere to the protocol prior to 15th October.

No countries were exempt from submitting the ETA. Those who entered Sri Lanka for tourism or business purposes were to submit ETA's as well.

While this decision was voided, their work to provide 33 countries with free ETA's has been delayed. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism of Sri Lanka Vijitha Herath stated last week that the delay is due to legal reasons.

As Herath stated to Sri Lankan newspaper EconomyNext, the visa not being made free is due to pending legal advice from the Attorney General.

Free ETA's are currently only available to China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Russia and Ordinary Diplomatic, Official and Service Passport holders from Thailand.

Last year in April, the government had conducted outsourcing efforts to India's GBS Technology Services (GBS), IVS Global FZCO (IVS) and VFS Global Technology (VFS) as partners.

Under the visa processing outsourcing agreement, if any foreigner were to travel to Sri Lanka, an application processing fee would cost USD 25. Countries that would receive On-Arrival Visas were no exception to this rule.

While a plan was drawn up to hand over Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration & Emigration work to a private company in April 2024, a court had halted that effort on 2nd August.