Sri Lankan e-visa issuance suspended; final decision tomorrow

The Ministry of Public Security says that a final decision regarding the process of issuing visas for tourists arriving in Sri Lanka will be made tomorrow (05).

The Ministry pointed out that the decision will be reached following discussions with officials of the Department of Immigration and Emigration.

On Friday (02), the Supreme Court issued an interim order preventing the implementation of the Cabinet decision to grant approval for Online Visa Electronic Travel Authorization to be handled by two private entities. 

Furthermore, the court had issued another interim injunction preventing the implementation of the agreements reached with the relevant foreign companies while granting leave to proceed with the hearing of several petitions filed pertaining to the matter.

Accordingly, the Department of Immigration and Emigration had announced that issuing of e-visa will be temporarily halted from August 02. 

The website related to applying for Sri Lankan e-visas has reportedly been suspended, and the department has taken measures to refund the payments made by people to obtain visas.

Therefore, the tourists arriving in Sri Lanka can only obtain the On Arrival visa issued at the airport upon their arrival in the country.