The requirements
- Programme status
- Open, accepting applications
- Minimum monthly income
- $2,000 a month
- Required savings
- None
- Annual total
- $24,000
- Initial duration
- 1 year, renewable annually
- Family allowed
- Yes
- Apply online
- No, in person or by post
US$2,000/month foreign-sourced; +500 per child beyond two.
How this figure is set: A fixed amount set in law or on the official page. The wording on the source is: USD 2,000/month remittance; +USD 500/month per dependant beyond two
. Formula: minimum monthly income remittance.
Income confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Department of Immigration & Emigration 'Digital Nomad Visa Category' guideline (immigration.gov.lk).
Does this lead to permanent residence?
No pathway. DNV is annual-renewal only; no PR link; PR routes are investor RGS or Sri Lankan descent.
The Department of Immigration & Emigration's official 'Digital Nomad Visa Category' PDF (immigration.gov.lk) sets duration at 1 year renewable annually and is silent on any permanent-residence or citizenship pathway. The Department's residence-category pages separately list a Permanent Residence Visa (restricted to persons of Sri Lankan descent) and the Resident Guest Scheme (RGS, requiring a $250,000 investment or $2,000/month remittance, with citizenship consideration after 3 years) - neither is available to, or mentioned in connection with, DNV holders. Stated directly: DNV duration and its silence on PR, and the RGS/PR eligibility criteria. Inferred: that a DNV holder is excluded from these routes, since no DNV-to-RGS/PR conversion is documented anywhere official.
Pathway confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07
Where it is
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte sits at 6.89° N, 79.92° E.
Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. This is the only link here that leaves the site.
Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Time zone
- UTC+5:30 Colombo (Asia/Colombo)
The country
- Region
- Asia · South Asia
- Capital
- Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte
- Currency
- LKR
Nearest
Sri Lanka has no land border. These are the nearest countries covered here, by the distance between capitals.
- ThailandOpenno income test2,375 km
- MalaysiaOpen$2,000 / mo2,447 km
- SingaporeNo visa$23,256 / mo2,720 km
- SeychellesOpenno fixed amount3,002 km
What it costs to live there
$281 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Sri Lanka spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.
- Colombo
- $408 / month incl. rent
of which rent $166
City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.
Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.
Languages
- Sinhala official
- Tamil official
- English common in cities
Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".
Who can apply
- Kinds of work covered
- employee, freelancer, business owner
- Age
- 18 or over
Dependants may accompany the main applicant.
Eligibility confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
Department of Immigration and Emigration 'Digital Nomad Visa Category' PDF: 'Main Applicant must be 18 years or older' and 'must be engaged in remote employment, freelancing or own a business (not registered in Sri Lanka) that serves clients outside Sri Lanka'.
How to apply
- Check you clear the requirements above — $2,000 a month is the figure this row records.
- Gather what the official page asks for:
- Dully filled Visa Application Form
- Request Letter from the applicant
- Photocopy of Passport (valid for at least 6 months)
- Two recent passport-sized photographs
- Marriage Certificate (for spouse)
- Birth Certificate (for dependants)
- Dully filled Security Clearance Form
- Medical Clearance Report
- Recent Police Clearance Certificate from the applicant's home country or country of residence (not older than 3 months)
- International Health Insurance that covers medical care in Sri Lanka
- Recommendation from Ministry of Digital Economy
- Proof of the minimum monthly remittance for the main applicant and the dependents
Department of Immigration and Emigration, 'Digital Nomad Visa Category' PDF (immigration.gov.lk), section 3 'All applicants are required to submit the following documents'. Wording is the document's own, spelling included. Renewals additionally need proof of tax registration via the Inland Revenue Department. - Apply in person or by post — this programme has no online route.
- Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
- Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.
Launched 4 Feb 2026; US$500 fee.
A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by Junaid Qadir.