Visa and Passport 

The passport must have a minimum of 6 months validity from
the date of arrival in the country

The 30-day entry visa is available through the web:  http://www.eta.gov.lk/ 

Remember that the ETA tourist visa will only be issued after filling
the Form 1 and Form 2 of the Safe & Secure (now the procedures), we will fill them in and send them to the Visa Office of the Ministry.
Once received, the Ministry of Tourism will issue, via email, your tourist visa to be printed and presented upon arrival in Sri Lanka.

How to proceed

As soon as you enter the site you will immediately see a popup that informs you that it is the only site authorised to issue the ETA 

click OK to enter the site.

On the home page you will see the list of languages to choose.

After choosing the language you will see the pages with all the information on the ETA and if you need more info go to the FAQ menu.

Now we proceed to the ETA request.

Click on the Apply window, here you will see the terms 

and the conditions to proceed with the ETA Application.

Read and click on I Agree.

At this point we are asked what kind of entry we have to make in the country.

In the side menu on the left there is a list of options, in our case it is tourism and therefore we click on Apply for an individual, because obviously this is our personal visa.

Let’s move on to the first step

Here we must enter our personal data. First and last name, etc.

Don’t forget all the mandatory data with an asterisk *

You will also find a part dedicated to children that you can have on your passport, 

(Child information in parent’s …), if you have no children, leave this area and go forward.

In the Travel information section, you must enter the date of your arrival in Sri Lanka and above all the purpose of your visit, in this case mark Sightseeing or holidaying. 

You can also enter flight info and more, but this is not mandatory.

Also if request, as address in Sri Lanka, use the first Hotel address.

Once you have filled in all the fields click on next

Second step

Here you will have summarised all the info of the previously compiled page. Give a check and if you notice any error go back to make the necessary corrections, otherwise go ahead with the Confirm button to go to the next step.

Clicking on confirm you will see another popup that tells you that all the data released must be truthful and verifiable and that if it were not so there could be legal consequences, click ok and go ahead.

Third step

In this area you can choose the payment method.

The recognised types are the three classic circuits: Visa, MasterCard, American Express. I advise you to pay attention to using Prepaid cards, there could be problems because sometimes they are not recognised. It never happened to me personally.

At this point, select the payment method through your circuit logo.

A classic screen will appear for online payment, fill in the fields and click on the Pay button.

After making the payment, the system that manages the ETA will automatically send us a Confirmation Code, which you will need to check the status of your application.

To check go to the Check Status page of the home page.

Usually the confirmation code arrives after a few minutes. While the actual confirmation of your electronic authorisation to enter the country will arrive approximately 24/48 hours later the completion of the application.

Everything will come through your email.

Conclusions

An important thing that I would like to point out to you is that your visa is valid for 30 days from the moment you arrive in the country, while the electronic authorisation is valid for 3 months from the moment of the request, this means that your 30 days of stay must be within the 3 months.

So don’t hurry up asking too early, I suggest you apply for it about 1 month before.

It is also advisable to keep a copy of the approval of the ETA and to exhibit it at the entry point in Sri Lanka.