So today I’m gonna walk you through my actual experience applying for that Sri Lanka e-visa thing. Yeah I did this last month when my buddy suddenly said “let’s hit the beaches next week”. Totally last-minute trip, and man I was sweating about the visa paperwork.
The Initial Research
First off, I started frantically typing search terms like “sri lanka visa for tourists”. Saw buncha third-party sites popping up charging insane fees – one wanted like 90 bucks for “processing”. Nope. Then I remembered somebody mentioned there’s an official government portal. Dug around travel forums until I confirmed it.
Starting The Application
Found the legit website (you’ll know it when you see “.gov” in the name). Created an account – just email and password stuff. They sent a confirmation link I almost missed in my spam folder. Pro tip: check junk mail!
Filling Out The Boring Forms
Felt like applying for college again with all these fields:
- Typed my passport details letter by letter
- Sweated over birthplace spelling matching passport exactly
- Put my hotel address even though we might hostel-hop
Made me triple-check everything. Almost messed up my passport expiry month – typed 10 instead of Oct!
Photo Drama
This part sucked. Tried cropping a selfie to passport size but got errors about “white background required”. My wall’s cream-colored – d’oh! Ended up standing against my fridge for proper white. Uploaded PDF of passport bio page – easy peasy.
Payment Panic
Entered credit card details shaking a bit. Hit submit and… nothing happened for like 40 seconds. Thought I got scammed. Then the page refreshed showing “processing” with a reference number. Got confirmation email instantly – massive relief!
The Waiting Game
Checked email every hour like an addict. Within 24 hours though – ping! Approval letter attached. Printed two copies just in case. Immigration officer in Colombo barely glanced at it – just stamped and waved me through.
Whole thing cost under $50 and took me about 40 minutes start to finish. Way simpler than I expected once I fought through the initial paranoia!
