Staycation / Quarantine / 14 day stay in Sri Lanka to USA
This is a guide for those who are affected by the US travel ban. The ban applies *not* against Indians per se, but to certain categories of people irrespective of nationality who have in the past 14 days stayed in India.
Please note that there is eligibility to travel to Sri Lanka only after 14 days of the 2nd dose of covid - 19 vaccine. It does not matter if you have taken Covaxin or Covishield or Sputnik or Pfizer or Moderna. Proof of both doses of vaccine and 14 days after the 2nd and final dose is mandatory!
Currently, as of Sep 17th 2021, many affected Indians are considering countries such as Mexico, Maldives, Qatar, Serbia, Egypt for locations to stay 14 days before their onward journey to USA / Canada. Currently, Sri Lanka is in lockdown till Sep 21st and perhaps this maybe extended or relaxed. There is food shortage - but essentials like south indian vegetarian, like idli, dosai etc are available, albeit a bit costlier than usual. Situation could ease out in the following days.
Sri Lanka is quite cheaper compared to other countries and there are not much restrictions in terms of interior movement. Parents, especially senior citizens would love the temples, Ramayana tours and the climate of Sri Lanka.
You are advised to make a comparison of countries for their pros and cons before booking. As per my assessment, it turns out that Sri Lanka and UAE are coming out far cheaper, with Sri Lanka being a bit cheaper than UAE.
Sri Lanka is far far more cheaper than Mexico and Maldives currently.
On August 19th 2021, Sri Lanka opened for fully vaccinated tourists from India. My parents in law, aged 68 and 63 respectively travelled to Sri Lanka from Chennai on Sep 1st 2021.
This is a blog of their experience and hope this will help all others as well.
I have broken it down into steps suggested below:
1.) Plan your journey at least 15 days in advance as it will take time to confirm the hotel, ETA and other procedures.
2.) First you have to book a Level 01 hotel, pay for the covid-19 sri lankan government mandated insurance, doctor charges, airport transfer etc. The level 01 hotel arranges your first airport transfer. The send a driver with the passenger name on a paging board. This driver takes you to the level 01 hotel. You have to arrange a taxi for your return trip after 14 days. This is very easy to do. Just ask the hotel front desk for assistance.
3.) One approach is to first file for the ETA - you will get a reference number - this reference number is to be provided to the hotel
4.) Return ticket and hotel for the rest of the stay, assuming you are staying 15 days and going from there to USA / Canada, you have to stay first 2 days in the Level 01 hotel and rest of the stay in a 3 star hotel. For this, you have to have a confirmed booking at the second 3 star hotel as well.
5.) You can book the second 3 star hotel using an OTA like booking.com, expedia, priceline, google one etc etc. It would be wise to book a fully refundable booking, just in case something were to go wrong, like if your parents or travelers to be test positive for covid, then all bookings could be cancelled without penalty.
6.) You can book two separate tickets, one for India - Sri Lanka and other for Sri Lanka - India on two separate PNRs. This helps because you can always cancel the return portion of the ticket if you are to travel to USA / Canada from Sri Lanka
You have to provide confirmation of the onward and return ticket to the Level 01 hotel for confirmation of the ETA.
7.) Please note luggage allowance for Sri Lanka - USA is 2 x 23 kgs per person where as the same is 1 x 30 kgs per person for India - Sri Lanka. You have to purchase additional baggage. It would be wise to purchase the additional baggage once the RT-PCR test for India - Sri Lanka turns out negative, within 72 hours of intended travel.
While booking for the luggage - ensure you get the EMD reference number since if this fails to generate, the transaction would be deemed a failure and you would have to pay extra for the same luggage at the airport.
When my parents were travelling, since the ATM was not functional at the airport, they had to scramble to pay this. So ensure you pay extra attention to the extra luggage booking or have your parents take their Indian credit cards and debit cards with them to the airport in India. The luggage counter at Chennai airport for Sri Lankan airlines accepts credit cards or cash only. Debit cards are not accepted. ATMs did not function at Chennai Airport due to excess demand - DO NOT FORGET to take your INDIAN CREDIT CARDS. ACTIVATE INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS on the CCs.
8.) You can use the US credit card to book tickets and hotels for your parents - but ensure you give them a letter and ensure that the charge has been processed. Do this well in advance. In addition, ask your parents to activate international transactions on their Indian credit cards, RuPay Debit cards and if necessary, purchase a travel card. A reasonable amount of USD and LKR (Lankan Rupee) can be taken.
9.) It would be wise to purchase travel insurance (separate from the sri lanka mandated covid-19 insurance) from Indian providers like Royal Sundaram, IFFCO Tokio, Care International etc to cover the non-covid related health incidents, loss of baggage, loss of passports and even if you get overbooked / bumped out of your online hotel booking because of the OTA's negligence!
10.) You can book Sri Lanka - USA after their 15th day of arrival in Sri Lanka. This is a buffer so that you dont compromise on the 14 day stricture imposed by the US. You can even book a multi city approach, meaning Sri Lanka - USA and USA - India after their stay in the US.
11.) While travelling from Sri Lanka - USA, you are NOT supposed to transit via Europe or London. You can transit via West Asia (Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman) etc. While travelling from USA - India, you can transit back via London and Europe, thereby taking advantage of cheaper fares.
12.) RT-PCR test for your onward flight from Sri Lanka - USA is done in SL itself. Sometimes the hotel you identify has ties up and can be done 72 hours max prior to departure.
13.) There are multiple checks at CMB (Colombo International Airport) due to security issues. So make sure you check in atleast 4 hours prior to depature.
14.) Also - make sure your immigration stamp is done after 12:00 AM - my in laws waited for a couple of hours just to make sure there is a good 15 day evidence of stay as deduced by entry and exit stamps.
15.) Immigration authorities at SL did not ask much - you dont need to download Ehteraaz or visa on arrival or transit visa if you plan to transit via Qatar or UAE to the US from Sri Lanka
16.) Flight to US was smooth - sometimes when there is a tight connection between your Port of Entry and final destination in the US - your airline might book you on the next flight.
17.) Make sure your parents are made aware that they will be placed in a separate room for review of their travel by US CBP. This is just a routine questioning due to covid and nothing to worry about. Make sure you inform them where they plan to stay and for how long and that their purpose of visit is general tourism / seeing relatives etc etc.
18.) DO NOT forget to book their US travel health insurance on their day of departure from Sri Lanka. INF plans are good with good reviews currently.
Overall my parents trip was issueless - they have landed on Sep 16th as scheduled and are at home enjoying their vacation and grandson!!
You can search for multi-city options using kayak / momondo.com / google flights etc OR you can book one way to US and then US to India whenever you find it convenient.
Once your trip to US is confirmed and your RT-PCR test results in Sri Lanka come out negative 72 hours prior to Sri Lanka - USA travel, you can cancel your Sri Lanka - India ticket. Some tickets levy a no show fee or a cancellation fee depending on your booking. In any case, it is useless since you are now on your onward journey to US. You can also perhaps retain it as a open ticket for future travel to Sri Lanka within it's validity period.
Unlike Nepal, Sri Lanka laws currently do not preclude or prevent your journey form Sri Lanka to any other third country like USA / Canada / UAE etc. But since there is a travel bubble agreement between India - Sri Lanka, you are obligated to have a return ticket.
As a prudent answer to a question if raise by immigration authorities either in India or Sri Lanka - you can answer that subject to laws, you would wish to travel from Sri Lanka to USA if allowed, or if not allowed, you have made provisions (like a return ticket) to come back to India.
19.) Please note that you DO NOT have to have a return ticket to India to show to the US customs and border police. This practice has no legal basis and you can book your return ticket to India any time.
20.) Vegetarian food is a bit cumbersome in Sri Lanka if you are used to south indian vegetarian food, but some adjustments can be done. UberEats is available in Sri Lanka. But you have to take extra steps to go out of your hotel lobby and collect the food.
21.) You do not need any travel agent. Things are pretty simple. Even the local tours can be booked on tour radar, viator or other OTAs.
Booking it by yourself and using a do it yourself approach, you will realize is far cheaper than any package offered by travel agents.
Bottomline : We saved thousands of dollars because of this DIY approach. I am sure you can too!
Due to personal & time constraints, I am unable to answer to personal questions and comments. Please consider this our earnest experience and a simple guide. You can get the same information online.
Reference websites:
1.) https://www.srilanka.travel/helloagain/ - please see the section related to Indians - you *cannot* book any hotel / lodge you want - it *has* to be a level 01 hotel for the first 2 days and for the rest of the stay you can book any other certified 3 star and above category hotel
2.) https://eta.gov.lk/slvisa/ - please see the Alerts related to Indians - it is clearly mentioned ETA *cannot* be granted under *any* circumstance on arrival - it *has* to be approved before you travel
