Sri Lanka introduces online facility for travel authorization

By eGov Innovation Editors | Jan 8, 2012

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Visitors to Sri Lanka, including transit passengers, can now apply for travel authorization online, the Immigration and Emigration Department said.

The Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), launched at the start of the year, has replaced the 'on arrival visa' system in place at the country's ports of entry. Thus, except for visitors from Singapore and Maldives, the two countries that reciprocate the facility with Sri Lanka, all foreign nationals visiting the country for tourism affairs, medical treatments, sports, cultural shows, business conferences and discussions, training programs and seminars can apply for the Electronic Travel Authorization via www.eta.gov.lk.

The Sri Lankan government, however, clarified that the authorization obtained online is not a visa. The visa will be stamped in the passport on arrival.

"It is not a visa in itself, but an approval for travel," an immigration official has explained in the website.

The government website reported that within the first 10 hours after the launch of the new system, the Immigration and Emigration Department has earned a sum of Rs1.5 million in processing fees.

Immigration and Emigration Controller General Chulananda Perera also said that of the 1,252 visitors who arrived in Sri Lanka from midnight December 31 up to 10:30 a.m. of January 1, some 839 foreigners have obtained the services of the new online facility.

In a related development, the Sri Lankan  government is also aggressively pushing the development of the IT sector and making it as  as a priority policy, specifically in aid of jobs creation.