Sri Lanka Dual Citizenship Fee Calculator

Sri Lanka grants dual citizenship under the Citizenship Act, No. 18 of 1948 (as amended), with the Department of Immigration & Emigration publishing the fee schedule in US dollars. The calculator adds up the gazetted USD line items for your bundle and converts the total to rupees at the USD-LKR rate you enter — matching the way the Department's payment counter (and your bank draft, if you are paying from abroad) actually computes the figure on the day.

1. Pick the application category. Three statutory paths exist: Category 1 (by descent — a parent or grandparent was a citizen at birth, under Section 19), Category 2 (you were a Sri Lankan citizen and renounced on naturalising elsewhere, under Section 19A or 20), and Category 3 (a minor adopted abroad by a Sri Lankan citizen, under Section 21). Category 1 and 2 carry a USD 1000 principal fee; Category 3 is half that at USD 500.
2. Add the spouse (if applicable). A spouse of the principal applicant joining the same bundle pays USD 500. The spouse fee is only valid alongside a principal — a spouse cannot apply on their own without their partner on the file.
3. Add dependent children.Each unmarried child under 22 added to the principal's bundle is USD 250. The calculator caps the count at 8 children, which is the practical ceiling for one application bundle — larger families file additional bundles directly with the Department.
4. Optional add-ons. A replacement of a lost or damaged dual citizenship certificate is USD 50 and can be added on its own (no principal fee required). A voluntary cancellation of an existing dual citizenship is USD 100 and is also a standalone procedure.
5. Convert to LKR. Multiply the USD subtotal by your USD-LKR rate. The Department accepts rupees at the prevailing bank rate when paid in-country, so the figure that appears at the counter tracks the Central Bank of Sri Lanka indicative selling rate on the day you pay.

The calculator runs the per-line build of the bundle and a separate calculateTotalByImmigrationFormula aggregate, then verifies the two match. If they ever drift, the page flags a “recompute mismatch” badge so a bug is visible rather than silent. Each line carries the relevant section of the Citizenship Act and the source URL inline.

Why the fee is in USD

Statutory fees under the Citizenship Act are gazetted in US dollars to insulate the Department's budget from rupee volatility — when the rupee depreciates, the LKR-equivalent bill rises, but the USD revenue line stays stable. The practical consequence for applicants is that your final rupee total is set by the FX rate on the day you pay, not on the day you start the application. If you pay early in the month at Rs 300/USD and the rate moves to Rs 320/USD when you add a missing document and re-pay a fee, the new line is taxed at the new rate. The calculator surfaces the FX assumption explicitly so you can rerun a quote on different days.

What the calculator does not include

The total covers only the gazetted statutory fees. It does not estimate document translation (Sinhala-Tamil-English certified translations run Rs 1,500–4,000 per page through a sworn translator), notarisation of supporting affidavits, certified true copies of your NIC and foreign passport, courier charges from your country of residence to the Department in Battaramulla, or any agent / attorney / facilitator markup. The replacement and re-issue of your Sri Lankan NIC under the Department for Registration of Persons — which most successful applicants complete next — is a separate process with its own fee. Add a Rs 25,000–50,000 envelope on top of the statutory total to budget realistically.

Edge cases and rounding

Three edge cases are worth flagging. (1) Replacement-only or cancellation-only paths are real — set the category to “None — replacement / cancellation only” and the calculator skips the principal/spouse/children block and shows only the add-on fee. This matches the in-person path at the Department when an existing citizen needs a new certificate. (2) Spouse and children fees require a principal applicant on the bundle by statute; if you toggle them on with Category set to “None”, the calculator surfaces an amber note explaining the ignored toggle rather than silently producing a wrong total. (3) The exchange-rate input is clamped to Rs 200–500/USD; an out-of-range value falls back to a Rs 305 default with a note explaining the fallback, so a stray keypress cannot send the LKR figure into the millions.

Three scenarios that map to the most common diaspora applications, worked end-to-end. Plug each input into the calculator above — the itemised breakdown should match the figures below to the rupee.

• Department of Immigration & Emigration — Dual Citizenship section (categories, fees, procedure)
• Department of Immigration & Emigration — main site
• Parliament of Sri Lanka — Citizenship Act, No. 18 of 1948 (as amended)
• Central Bank of Sri Lanka — Daily Indicative Exchange Rates
• Department for Registration of Persons — for the NIC re-issue that follows dual citizenship grant

This calculator's fees were last cross-checked against the Immigration Department's dual citizenship section on 2026-05-16. The page is reviewed every six months and whenever the Department publishes a revised gazette under the Citizenship Act.