How long can you stay and practice in Sri Lanka ?

[morning mist]

If you are from another country how long can you stay once ordained? If you don't ordain how long can you stay in Sri Lanka ?

[BlackBird]

You can stay for 3 months in Sri Lanka without ordaining. Once you ordain you can remain there for life on a religious visa which you renew annually.

[morning mist]

Dear Black Bird,

Thanks for the information. Is it complicated to renew and what is the cost? Also is it possible to renew each year if you choose to practice as a lay person instead ?

With metta,

[BlackBird]

To extend your visa from 1 month to 3 months will cost you somewhere between $20 - 100USD depending on your country of origin. If you want to stay longer you will probably have to ordain. To extend your visa from 1 to 3 months requires a lot of waiting around in a crowded, hot and humid room with a variety of pushy Indian people and disgruntled western tourists for a good 4 to 6 hours in total, there's a lot of backing and forwarding and the whole process is rather convoluted. Sri Lanka, like most asian countries can be pretty corrupt, so it really depends on who you know. If you know the right people you could get a longer visa without ordaining, but I wouldn't bet on it.

If you finish your 3 month period and you want to stay without ordaining you could also look at taking the ferry over to India and then take it back again. That might even work out cheaper than the associated costs with trying to extend your visa beyond 3 months.

[morning mist]

BlackBird,

If you finish your 3 month period and you want to stay without ordaining you could also look at taking the ferry over to India and then take it back again. That might even work out cheaper than the associated costs with trying to extend your visa beyond 3 months.

Maybe a month is enough. It sounds a little complicated.

With metta,

[morning mist]

you could also look at taking the ferry over to India and then take it back again.

Actually, this sounds like a good idea.