Sri Lanka announces visa waiver pilot scheme

Visa passport

The Sri Lankan government has announced that it will grant visa-free entry to citizens of 35 countries under a new six-month pilot programme

The visa waiver will allow travellers to visit the island nation for up to 30 days without a visa.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Sabry, published a list of countries that will benefit from the scheme on X (formerly Twitter).

These are: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, China, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the UAE, the UK, and the US.

The initiative will run for an initial period of six months, and is intended to offer a boost to Sri Lanka’s tourist sector and overall economy.

Thailand recently announced the expansion of its own visa waiver scheme earlier this year.