Visa requirements for Sri Lankan citizens

Sri Lankan citizens need a Schengen visa, which covers all member states for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Sri Lanka and 38 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

155 countries ask holders of the Sri Lankan passport for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter Sri Lanka without one: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola and 150 others.

The reverse holds for 1 country: holders of the Sri Lankan passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but its citizens need one for Sri Lanka (Ivory Coast).

104 countries ask holders of the Sri Lankan passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 20 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Sri Lanka.

84 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Sri Lanka, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Sri Lanka, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in India (6).

The United States refused 33% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Sri Lanka in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 103 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 93 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Schengen consulates in Sri Lanka refused 29% of short-stay visa applications in 2025 (all Schengen consulates worldwide: 15%). Among the 74 countries where they received at least 10,000 applications, that is the 27th highest rate. The figure counts every nationality applying there, not only citizens.

Visa-free travel with the Sri Lankan passport

By continent, the Sri Lankan passport is visa-free in 7 countries in the Americas, 5 countries in Africa, 3 countries in Asia and 3 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Sri Lankan citizens are allowed in Barbados (180 days), Dominica (180 days), Vanuatu (120 days), the Bahamas (90 days), Grenada (90 days) and the Gambia (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Sri Lankan citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, the Comoros, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Iran and 12 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Sri Lankan citizens enter Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Benin, Bhutan and 48 others. Ivory Coast, Kenya and Saint Kitts and Nevis ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

How the passport compares

Of the 198 passports in the data, 193 get a visa on arrival, 1 need an e-Visa, 3 need a visa from an embassy or consulate and 1 is not admitted for Sri Lanka.