A new Sri-Lankan visa-free policy is set to make life easier for tourists travelling to the South Asian island nation. The new policy, which is being introduced a month earlier than anticipated, means that citizens of 38 countries can now make their way to Sri Lanka without having to apply for a visa, a waiver or an electronic travel approval in advance.
Expedited implementation and more countries
Initially aimed at a proposed 35 countries, to be implemented on 1 October, the recently updated visa scheme has added three extra beneficiaries taking the total to 38. The change was announced on 3 September by Sri Lanka’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ali Sabry, who hailed it as a more efficient system that would reduce delays.
“Today, the Cabinet authorized the President to implement visa-free access for 38 nationalities with immediate effect, adopting Singapore’s streamlined ‘one-shop’ approach. This decision will help ease congestion at visa counters,” the minister wrote on X.
At the time of writing Sri Lanka has not specified which three countries have been added to the list, but the original list of pre-approved countries whose citizens can now visit Sri Lanka more easily was as follows:
| Australia | Czechia | Israel | New Zealand | Spain |
| Austria | Denmark | Italy | Oman | Sweden |
| Bahrain | France | Japan | Poland | Switzerland |
| Belarus | Germany | Kazakhstan | Qatar | Thailand |
| Belgium | India | Malaysia | Russia | UAE |
| Canada | Indonesia | Nepal | Saudi Arabia | UK |
| China | Iran | Netherlands | South Korea | USA |
Boosting tourism
Industry sources indicate that the visa scheme’s early overhaul aims to boost tourism and comes as a result of the lack of clarity shrouding an unwieldy previous system involving e-visas, complex 30 and 60-day double-entry and two-day transit rules, and managed by an outsourced foreign consortium.
Further confusion was created this spring, when visa fees were increased in April from $50 to $75 for non-SAARC nationals (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, comprising of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka), only for the price hike to be reversed a month later.
Excluded
While citizens of all the above countries and more will now have greater freedom to travel to Sri Lanka without administrative burdens, nine others have been excluded from visa-on-arrival arrangements. Those excluded are citizens from:
- Afghanistan
- Cameroon
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Ghana
- Myanmar
- Nigeria
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Syria
