Sri Lanka will stop charging dual citizenship fees for the spouses and descendants of applicants under a new Global Sri Lankan Heritage Citizenship programme, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake announced in the 2027 Budget.
Under the proposal, the fee will be collected only from the main applicant. Spouses, second-generation children and third-generation children of Sri Lankan origin living overseas will pay nothing.
“We will only collect the fee from the main applicant; we will not charge any fee at all for the rest — starting from the spouse, to the second generation and the third generation,” the President said, as reported by EconomyNext.
What changes
Fees were previously charged for those family members individually. The new programme removes the charge for everyone except the applicant who initiates the process.
The reach is the notable part: by extending to third-generation children of Sri Lankan origin, the scheme covers grandchildren of emigrants who may never have held Sri Lankan citizenship themselves.
The stated purpose
The government frames the measure as a way to draw the diaspora into domestic development rather than as a revenue decision.
“We must adopt a new approach in order to integrate the knowledge and capabilities, as well as the bond with the motherland, of Sri Lankans living abroad and their children,” Dissanayake said.
NewsFirst reported the programme as targeting second- and third-generation members of the diaspora, and said the President told Parliament Sri Lanka must harness their knowledge, skills, experience and enduring connection to the country.
Not reported
Neither filing states what the main applicant’s fee will be, whether the current fee schedule changes for that applicant, when the programme opens, or what documentary proof of Sri Lankan origin a third-generation applicant must produce. Neither gives an estimate of the revenue forgone or the number of people expected to qualify.
