Sri Lanka is a wonderful place to visit with amazing beaches, food, and history. Now, it’s even more attractive to visit as they are making it easier to visit for nationals of 40 countries. The Electronic travel authorization is here to stay, but it now costs $0 to apply.
As of May 25, 2026, the country has dropped visa fees for travelers from 40 countries, including most of Europe, The U.S. and Canada. On the surface, that sounds like Sri Lanka just went visa‑free. Not quite, but there’s no longer a fee.
If you’ve ever looked at Sri Lanka for a trip, you probably remember the process: go online, fill out the ETA form, pay a fee (usually around $50), and hope it clears before your flight. Not difficult, but not frictionless either.
Now, that fee is gone. You still need the Electronic Travel Authorization, the online pre-approval isn’t going anywhere, but at least it’s free.
Sri Lanka Free Tourist Visa
What you’re getting is straightforward. The ETA will typically give you a 30-day stay, and you can even leave and come back once during that window.
If you want to stay longer, you can but you’ll pay for the extension.
Traveling to Sri Lanka, you still need to tell them in advance and apply online. Yet now you’re not paying to enter the country. On my last two visits to Sri Lanka I had to apply for an ETA. Both were instantly approved, so this was more of a tax than anything. Regardless, this is great news for travelers, cruise ship passengers, and those considering visiting Sri Lanka. It’s one less fee.
Travelers from most of Europe, Canada, China, Russia, the United States and many other places can not visit for 30 days for no fee.
Flights might be long, but once you land, everything works. Entry is simple. Logistics are predictable.
Bottom Line
Sri Lanka is giving up real money by scrapping these fees. Honestly the country will loose tens of millions of dollars, by some estimates. Yet by removing visa fees, they may gain even more by opening up their country to those who would skip it otherwise.
Sri Lanka is betting they’ll make it back (and then some) through increased tourism, more hotel stays, more tours, more spending on the ground.
From a traveler’s perspective, this is the kind of change that doesn’t make headlines for long, but quietly changes behavior. It makes Sri Lanka easier to justify as a last-minute trip, or your next trip. It makes it easier to tack onto something else (like the Maldives) and overall It makes it a little cheaper. And sometimes that’s all it takes.
Sri Lanka didn’t go fully visa-free, but it did the next best thing by getting rid of the fees we all notice and complain about